Jack Wicks won the Letchworth August tournament

[<<] [>>] by Andrew Gregory at Letchworth
13th August 2016 (AC)

Jack Wicks won the Letchworth August tournament. The rest of us played a Flexible Swiss, but Jack treated it as an American block, beating each opponent. Only the most recalcitrant Manager would have denied Wicks the trophy. (I did try.)

I guess Duncan Hector can claim the runner-up spot, pipping Simon Hathrell on the basis of buying me some beer. (Sorry, that should read who-beat-whom.)

The Best Game prize goes to David Marsh v Bryan Harral. David was halfway through a TP when he missed a return roquet after 1-back. Bryan thoughtfully completed the peels and pegged David out. The leave wasn't perfect, but David still did well to finish from the contact.

A lot of games weren't that good, I don't know why. Maybe it was the hoops, which yielded to a firm shot, but sometimes if you went for control, you got too much control. Or maybe we're not as good as we'd like to think.

The newcomer was Joe Prinold. Playing off 4, he beat one scratch player and almost beat your correspondent. I think that 4 is about the right handicap for ambitious improvers to enter A-class tournaments.

In his winner's speech Jack graciously remembered Ian Parkinson.

Jack Wicks 8/8
Duncan Hector 3/5
Simon Hathrell 3/5
David Marsh 4/7
Nick Steiner 2/5
Andrew Gregory 2/6
Bryan Harral 2/6
Eugene Chang 1/5
Joe Prinold 1/5