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Sat 11 & Sun 12 Aug 2001

Nailsea August Handicap Singles Weekend Tournament

Nailsea Croquet Club held their annual August Handicap Singles Weekend Tournament last weekend. The tournament attracted twenty entrants from all over the West Country including one visitor from South Wales. The handicap range of the players was minus one to sixteen. The event was run as a Hands Ladder (Egyptian), a format that allows competitors to play as many games as they can fit in over the two days. Each player starts with an index of 50 points and gains points for a win and loses points for a loss, the number of points won or lost depending on the difference in indices of the two players.

Most competitors played three games on Saturday and DEREK STOALING from Bath was the overnight leader with three wins. JANE HULL from Kington Langley won two games and would have shared the leader board with DEREK if she had won her final game of the day, but she lost by a single point. NICK CARTER (Nailsea), MARIAN HILTON (Bath) and BARRY MARSH (Dyffryn) shared second place having played two games each and winning them both. Unfortunately, the three competitors from Kington Langley were involved in a serious accident just outside of Nailsea on their way home on Saturday night, and while it is thought that none of them was seriously injured, they were all very badly shaken and unable to take part in the tournament on Sunday.

On Sunday NICK beat BARRY and MARIAN beat DEREK and then NICK had a convincing win over MARIAN making him the clear leader. In the meantime GRETA STRINGER (Nailsea) and IAN WILSON (Cornwall) were moving up the ladder. IAN won his fifth game while GRETA was battling it out with NICK. The Manager arranged a sixth game for IAN, from which he would gain only two points for a win. GRETA beat NICK, giving her an index of 63 points and NICK 61 points and IAN won his final game to take his index to 64 points to clinch the title by a single point. IAN was a former Secretary of the Nailsea Club and now lives in Truro.

KRISS CHAMBERS (Nailsea) successfully completed a triple peel on Sunday morning and ROGER JENKINS (Bristol) attempted a quadruple peel but broke down having completed two of the four peels. IAN, NICK, GRETA and DEREK all received handicap reductions and DEREK gained his Silver Award for completing a twelve-hoop break without using bisques.

Results:

1. IAN WILSON (Cornwall, Plymouth & Nailsea), 5 wins out of 6, final index 64.
2. GRETA STRINGER (Nailsea), 4/5, 63.
3. NICK CARTER (Nailsea), 4/5, 61.

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