On Saturday, given that I was not on the cruise that I had planned to be on due to a bout of COVID (now fully recovered, I hasten to add), I decided to go along to watch the Blewbury AC advanced weekend tournament for entertainment and education, and I got both. It was very enjoyable watching top class players go round the lawn smoothly, putting their balls exactly where they intend to. Except that sometimes they don’t. There was the occasional poorly approached hoop, making it impossible to run the hoop, leaving me thinking “I do that!” Then the education part kicks in, seeing how the player deals with the adversity. Mostly though the level of play was very high with seven triple peels (TP) completed on Saturday plus one triple peel on opponent (TPO).
I found it very useful chatting with the players over lunch to find out how they handle particular situations. The answer is often simple; the trick is to know what that simple thing is!
Just before I left, there was an unconventional opening to a game. The first player played a supershot opening (the ball is played to south west of the peg). That is not so unusual amongst top level players. The second player shot gently at the first ball (mustn’t go through to B-baulk) and missed. The first player shot at the two balls and missed. The second player shot at the three balls (hard this time) and also missed. This left the first player with their two balls in the middle of the lawn along with one of their opponents balls. I have every confidence that they went round to 4-back and made a tidy leave from that position.