Blewbury hosted its annual weekend AC tournament over the weekend of 26-27 July. The field was notably high-class, with participants’ handicaps ranging from 1 to -2. Sophie McGlen managed the tournament most effectively, running it as a flexible Swiss with nine player, so that, although there was always someone not playing, they were not sat down for very long. As soon as one game finished, the loser played against the player who was waiting.
The weather was good on both days, with just a surprise light shower on Saturday morning and the lawns were in tip-top condition after spraying and verticutting the day before.
We had excellent lunches provided by Minty on both days.
Games proceeded at a pace on Saturday, with players completing two, three, or four games.
Sophie’s task on Saturday evening was to organise the games for Sunday so that hopefully we would have a thrilling finish on Sunday afternoon.
Two of the games in the final round had exciting three-ball endings.
In my game against Andrew Dutton, we had both made a break to 4-back, when I hit in with my forward ball. I decided to take that ball to peg, set a good leave, with the plan being to take my second ball all the way round. The plan was going well until I over approached 2-back giving me no chance of running the hoop. Andrew had an easy hit in and proceeded to make several hoops, but then broke down himself. I made three more hoops, leaving me on penult and peg. Andrew then took his second ball to peg and pegged me out. After some jockeying for position, we ended up with me for rover and Andrew for penult, with Andrew’s two balls on the east boundary. I could see that Andrew did not have a good rush to penult, so I kept putting my ball in a runnable position for rover, forcing Andrew to move it rather than make penult himself. We did this little dance for four or five times until Andrew did give himself a good rush to penult. Time to take the bull by horns or it would all be over. I shot from the west boundary at Andrew’s two balls just off the east boundary, aiming at the left one and hoping to hit the right one due to the slope of the lawn, and I did! It was now straightforward to get a rush to rover, make the hoop and peg out my ball for a narrow win. Those watching had enjoyed the spectacle, and discussing the tactical choices, which of course they would have done differently.
The decisive final game was between Joel Taylor and Nigel Polhill. The play was of a very high standard, with balls being positioned consistently accurately. Both players made big breaks, with Nigel being the first to take his first ball to 4-back and then his second to peg. Joel, now took his second ball to peg and pegged out Nigel’s ball. This developed into more of a classic 3-ball ending. Joel knew that Nigel was quite capable of hitting his balls from anywhere on the lawn, so he continually put his balls in wired positions, wiring both balls if Nigel was responsible for the position of his own ball, or leaving just one ball visible if Joel was responsible for the position of Nigel’s ball. At one point, Nigel called me to judge if his ball was wired and so could have a lift. It was close. Nigel was clearly wired on yellow, but not quite on red. Nigel shot at red – and hit yellow. Sloping lawns again! Nigel made 4-back, but could not make further progress. Near the end of the game, the position was as shown in the photograph. Joel’s red is on peg and his yellow on rover. Nigel is on the north boundary with blue at his feet. It was possible for Nigel to hit yellow by sending the ball through the narrow gap between the peg and rover, but after much deliberation, he decided to play to the east boundary and hope to get a better shot next time. But there was no next time. Joel cut-rushed red to rover, made the hoop and pegged out his balls to win. Well played Joel, a worthy winner. Both three-ball endings had a score of 26-22, and that is probably the only thing that is comparable between them.
