Back to Journal Index

2002 Calendar

Sat & Sun 22 & 23 June 2002

Advanced Play Singles Tournament

Lawnmower problems and heavy rain on Friday night meant that the lawns were extremely slow at the start of the tournament. There were nine entries for the event including one from Manchester and one from York. Others came from Plymouth, Cardiff, Frome, Bristol and Nailsea.

The event was arranged as a Hands Ladder, a format that allows players to play as many games as they can fit in over the weekend.

All players found the going tough and the hoops, which had been newly set, very tight in the first round, but the home players coped with the conditions better than the visitors.

The first to finish was 17-year-old MARCUS EVANS (Nailsea, handicap 1½), who took one and a half hours to beat his opponent by 25 points.

Two of the games took the full 3-hour time limit and the other game almost went to time. All three were very close, but the big surprise of the first round was the defeat of the defending champion, PAUL HARBORD (York, 0) by GRETA STRINGER (Nailsea, 7) by one point on time.

GRETA very nearly caused another upset in the second round losing to ROGER JENKINS (Bristol, minus ½) by only one point.

As the lawns dried out they became faster and the visitors coped better with the conditions.

At the end of the first days play, MARCUS was in the lead with five wins out of five games and a rating of 64 and ROGER, the lowest handicapped player in the tournament was lying in second place with three wins out of three and a rating of 61.

On Sunday ROGER had two more wins in the morning, while MARCUS, who was allowed a late start had one win. In the afternoon these two players played each other for the championship. It was a very tense game, with neither player showing his best form, but it was very close. Both competitors had their chances and either of them could have won, but eventually it was MARCUS who took the title, winning by eight points.

GRETA STRINGER finished in sixth place with two wins out of five games (rating 47).

PETER DYKE (Nailsea, 6) finished in eighth place with two wins out of seven games (rating 39).

PAUL HARBORD completed the only triple peel of the tournament.

Back to Journal Index

2002 Calendar