2020 September Handicap Tournament

Handicap Tournament 19-20 September

Never mind the quality, feel the width. Winner Eric Audsley takes centre stage at the presentation. L-R George Collin, Jonathan Lambton, Barry Pilgrim,
Tony Elliot, Richard Keighley, PeterAspinall, Eric, Geoff Strutt,
André Machell, Alan Clark

The tournament was won by Wrest Park’s Eric Audsley, one of the six home players in the entry of 14. Eric finished with four wins out of five, his only loss being in his first game against Tony Elliot (a game which both participants and observers would agree Eric ought to have won). The runner-up was Barry Pilgrim, who had three wins out of three before losing to Eric in the last round.

Manager Geoff Strutt organised the players into three blocks of four, four and six. On Saturday the blocks of four played all play all and in the block of six each player played three of the others, and on Sunday there were new blocks for each of the remaining two rounds. No time limits unless strictly necessary, but three games from the third round had to be pegged down due to bad light; John Bevington and Tony Elliot finally abandoning their roaming in the gloaming at around 7.30pm. To keep to the schedule the pegged down games were held over but in the event remained unfinished.

The weather was sunny and warm throughout - any cloud lifted early on and the windy conditions of the previous day had abated. The lawns were in good condition, but the lack of recent rain meant some hoops had to be approached with care, hoop 4 on lawn 1 being the most obvious example. For the statistically minded, of the 32 games played 19 resulted in single figure scores and only one by a margin of more than 20, indicating plenty of competitive play.

Many thanks to all those responsible for management, mowing, and hoop setting, and above all to PeterAspinall for providing individually labelled chairs and any amount of cleaning and sanitising.

Eric Audsley (2) 4/5

Barry Pilgrim (10) 3/4

Alan Clark (1) 3/5

Cliff Jones (1) 3/5

George Woolhouse (3½) 3/5

Jonathan Lambton (6) 3/5

John Bevington (½) 2/4

Tony Elliot (5) 2/4

Peter Aspinall (9) 2/4

Susan Fulford (10) 2/4

David Haslam (16) 2/4

George Collin (1½) 2/5