Jon Diamond won the Advanced Tournament at Tunbridge Wells

[<<] [>>] by Kevin Carter at Tunbridge Wells
31st August 2017 (AC - Handicap)

The Tunbridge Wells club held its premier open tournament for the Honeygrove Cup over the August Bank Holiday, held between the 26th and 27th of August. Run as a flexible swiss, it was won by local ace, Jon Diamond, who tied with Woking's Andrew Dutton but was ahead on a who-beat-whom basis.

It was especially good to see Paul Castell returning after a long lay-off during which time he had an extensive new undercarriage installed and he did well to finish third. One of the overnight leaders was Chris Coull, a third season fast-improver playing off a handicap of two but looking for all the world like a minus player in the making.

Given the relatively easy conditions it was a little surprising to see just two TPs, from Luc Berthouze and Jonathan Lamb, but both players were consistently inconsistent and never challenged for the lead. One might have though Brian Havill would be going for his gold badge, too. Not so; he didn't have his silver until this weekend!

TW is a delightful place to visit, in a park just a short walk away from the centre of town. This year we were also treated to a free folk music festival, attended by hundreds, which featured some very fine singers, who competed effectively with Classic FM being pumped out of manager Alex Jardine's clubhouse ghetto blaster