GC B level Tournament 18 May

Report by Richard Keighley

This Singles tournament, which was the 3rd of 19 qualifying events for the National Final at Budleigh Salterton in October, was fully subscribed with 16 players with handicaps of 3 to 8.

Wrest Park members taking part were Peter Aspinall, Jean Ball, Ross Bagni, Rob Chatwin, Richard Skidmore and Roger Stroud plus Richard Keighley, who was also Tournament Manager. It was a wet Wednesday morning, but the lawns looked immaculate thanks to the efforts of the ground staff. George Collin had kindly turned out to set the hoops and Keith Palmer welcomed players with hot drinks on arrival.

Players were divided into 4 blocks of 4, each to play the other 3 in the morning session. In spite of heavy rain, the schedule was completed in time for a welcome and attractively presented lunch prepared by Gill Brewer.

Block winners and runners up were allocated places in the knockout stage of the tournament, and the remainder allocated to the plate competition.

In the quarter-finals, Kath Wright (Nottingham) and Chris Heath (Guildford & Godalming) won comfortably against Peter Aspinall and Louise Taylor(Merton) respectively, but Roger Stroud and Richard Keighley were taken to  the 13th hoop by  opponents Ross Bagni  and Andrea Huxley (Guildford & Godalming).

In the semi-finals, Kath beat Roger 7-5, and Richard succumbed  2-7 to Chris. In much improved weather, Kath and Chris battled out an exciting final. Kath led 6-4 but Chris retaliated to force a deciding hoop. He looked to be a certain winner when he jawsed his ball, but Kath came agonisingly close to pipping  him with a fierce jump shot from the boundary which was on target but just fell back.

Richard beat Roger 7-4 for 3rd place overall, and the Plate competition was won decisively  by Rob Chatwin. Players from afar were complimentary about the state of the lawns and Gill was roundly applauded for her catering efforts throughout the day when the presentations were made.


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