[<<] [>>] by Phil Cordingley at Surbiton
3rd August 2005 (Other News)

Roger Jenkins, Peter Landrebe, Alex Leggate, Ailsa Lines, and Paul Smith took the five places available at the World Championship Open Qualifier.

In Round 5, Ailsa ("Elsie", as I am reliably informed the Aussies have dubbed her) maintained her position at the top of the table with another gritty, tp, come-from-behind win, this time against Alex Leggate.

And so to the nerve tingling final round. With qualification clinched, Ailsa possibly took her foot off the pedal slightly, finally suffering her first loss of the event to Peter Landrebe. This ensured Peter got through to become Australia's eleventh representative in the Championship itself.

Roger Jenkins clinched the third qualification place with an equally satisfying tp victory over Andrew Hobbs, eliminating Andrew in the process.

At this stage of the proceedings, Sarah Burrow's loss to Richard Dickson meant her elimination, and ensured that the Smith/Prater and Gaunt/Leggate clashes became straight fights for the final two places to be decided.

Paul won the former relatively comfortably with Chris unable to capitalise on his temporary inability to close it out. Accurate management meant that the final throes of the final match for the final place played out to the tea-time crowd around lawn two. (Well, I say tea-time crowd, but those of you familiar with the congeniality of the Surbiton Club will understand that most of us were still occupied with the gargantuan barbecue feast that was lunch). In time honoured tradition, Alex pegged out Don with both backward balls for 4-back. Memory a little hazy (still dealing with lunch, remember?) but Don took position at 4-back from the lift and Alex Joined up. Don ran the 4-back and took Bamford position in front of penult. (middle of the North boundary). At some stage Alex got the chance of a two ball break which saw him run penult but fail to get a rush to Rover. Rather than trying a speculative approach, he laid up roughly in the middle of the east boundary with a rush to rover. Don hit the lift down the east boundary, but centre balled it down to level with hoop 4. Putting this ball to rover meant he got a severe cut on the other ball, which he missed completely. This proved to be Don's last real chance, as shortly thereafter Alex made rover and pegged out to clinch the final place.

Final positions and full games lists below.

Results

Round 1

Samir Patel beat Chris Prater +9
Ailsa Lines beat Sarah Burrow +7
Paul Smith beat Don Gaunt +14
Richard Dickson beat Jose Alvarez Sala +22
Peter Landrebe beat Dick Knapp +24
Roger Jenkins beat Jonathan Bowen +25
Tony Hall beat Andrew Hobbs +15
Alex Leggate beat Dave Trimmer +15

Round 2

Lines beat Patel +17
Dickson beat Smith +3
Jenkins beat Landrebe +9
Leggate beat Hall +5
Prater beat Luis Alvarez Sala +16
Gaunt beat Burrow +26
Knapp beat Alvarez Sala, J +14
Hobbs beat Bowen +25

Round 3

Lines beat Dickson +3tp
Jenkins beat Leggate +23
Smith beat Patel +26
Landrebe beat Hall +3
Gaunt beat Alvarez Sala, L +9
Prater beat Knapp +10
Hobbs beat Trimmer +11
Burrow beat Alvarez Sala, J +22

Round 4

Lines beat Jenkins +3
Leggate beat Dickson +20
Landrebe beat Smith +24
Gaunt beat Prater +13
Hobbs beat Patel +26
Hall beat Alvarez Sala, L +25tp
Trimmer beat Knapp +2
Burrow beat Bowen +22

Round 5

Lines beat Leggate +4tp
Jenkins beat Gaunt +9
Landrebe beat Hobbs +9
Prater beat Dickson +3
Smith beat Hall +18
Burrow beat Trimmer +6
Patel beat Alvarez Sala, L +26
Bowen beat Alvarez Sala, J +1

Round 6

Landrebe beat Lines +17
Jenkins beat Hobbs +6tp
Leggate beat Gaunt +3
Smith beat Prater +18
Dickson beat Burrow +17
Trimmer beat Hall +9tp
Knapp beat Bowen +6
Alvarez Sala, J beat Alvarez Sala, L +13