Nine players arrived at Blewbury on a hot Saturday morning to contest the AC Advanced Weekend tournament. It was a strong field as only Andy Evason and myself had a positive handicap. The lawns were in excellent condition, which was much appreciated by all of the players. I ran the tournament as a flexible Swiss, so that with 9 players, whoever is not playing can start a game with any game that finishes. This keeps the play flowing nicely. Also, with so many top level players, games tend to be quick. In fact, of the 30 games that were played over the weekend, only one went to time.
Nearly half of the games, 14 out of 30, were won with a triple peel, so if you want to see how it’s done, you didn’t need to go to watch the MacRobertson Shield (the World Cup of AC) – just come to Blewbury.
At the end of the first day, Nick Parish (Surbiton) was on five out of five wins (all TPs) – and that was with a mallet borrowed from the club as he had left his at home – so he was the clear favourite, but things changed on Sunday. Nick lost his first two games, presumably because he now had his own mallet and not the Blewbury Blaster! Sunday proved to be kind to Omied Hallam (Nottingham), who won all of his games to finish on 7 out of 8. Omied plays at a pace that has to be seen to be believed. He won his first game on Sunday in about 40 minutes – with a triple peel, of course.
All of the visitors enjoyed the tournament. Andy enjoyed it since, although he only got one win, he got a huge number of points for beating Clive Goode. I was the only player not having a good time as I was ill on the Sunday (no doubt due to too much sun on the previous two days), so I had to sit and watch everyone else having fun.
The lunches were excellent, and everyone gave huge thanks to Philippa, aided and abetted by Deidre and Sandy. The visitors went away with promises to return next year.
Omied Hallam receiving the trophy
The Blewbury Blaster mallet