[<<] [>>] by Stephen Mulliner at Hurlingham
9th September 2000 (AC - Championships)

Ed Cunningham of Ireland became the first victorious debutante for many years. He finished with 11/14, just ahead of Reg Bamford on 10 and David Maugham on 9. Other scores were Mulliner 7, Comish and Cordingley 6, Avery 4 and Clarke 3.

Cunningham, Bamford and Maugham were on 10, 9 and 8 at the start of today's play and Round 13 pitched Cunningham against Maugham. Ed's chances were given an early boost when Bamford fell to a Mulliner TP, thus guaranteeing him a play-off at the least.

Ed had the first break against Dave but the lift was hit and followed by a
TPO and two balls off. Ed failed hoop 1 giving a wiring lift and Dave
reached 5 on a 2-baller before getting hampered and having to retreat. M
failed 1-back with C 10 yards away and allowed a C roquet followed by a
2-baller, which also stopped at 5. M now hit and reached 4-b on a 2-ball
break, then penult and then missed an 8 yarder into A-baulk giving a lift.
C was now for 6, could rush only to a few yards N of 4 and under-approached
6, bouncing off. M hit, made rover and went to 10y N C1. M missed from 10y
S C3 and that was that. Now C 10, B and M 9.

Maugham had the first break against Cordingley (whose play in the second
series bore no relation to that in the first) but the lift was hit and C won
in 2 turns with a neat TP. Bamford had not allowed the pressure to dampen
his spirit of adventure and pulled off a sextuple against Avery. Comish had
the first break against Cunningham but the lift was hit and, despite an
uncharacteristic hoop failure by Cu with one peel done, Co could not hit and
Cu completed a double peel to clinch the title.

Conditions were easy despite the best efforts of the Hurlingham ground staff
who had to contend with plenty of rain before and during the event and this
was reflected in the triple stats. 7 rounds (1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 13)
featured TPs, TPOs or OTPs in all 4 games, 3 rounds (4, 7, 12) featured 3
TPs etc, 3 rounds (2, 11 and 14) featured 2 TPs etc (including Bamford's
sextuple in R 14) and only one round (3) had only one. Altogether, there
were 35 TPs, 6 TPOs, 1 OTP and 1 SXP.

The standard of play was generally high as far as the top 3 were concerned,
with Reg probably just shading Ed and Dave for solidity and absence of
mistakes. Ed and Dave shot better and Reg was perhaps a shade unlucky to
attract slightly better hitting from his opponents than they appeared to
visit on his rivals. Cordingley v Bamford in Series 2 was particularly
choice with Phil hitting the 5th consecutive tea-lady against Reg ("I am not
paranoid - at the moment") Bamford and, later in the game, hitting a suicide
27 yarder when Reg was laid to exit with a standard TP if Phil missed.
Mulliner and Comish gave more variable displays and Cordingley made a good
recovery from 1/8 to 6/14. Avery looked good when he got going but usually
inspired the opposition to play well. The unfortunate Clarke, having won 2
out of 3, had a miserable time with his roquets and ended up losing 10 of
the next 11.

Results

1st: Ed Cunningham (Ireland) 11 wins
2nd: Reg Bamford (South Africa) 10 wins
3rd: David Maugham 9 wins
4th: Stephen Mulliner 7 wins
5th: Steve Comish, Phil Cordingley 6 wins
7th: Mark Avery 4 wins
8th: Chris Clarke 3 wins