Roehampton End of Season Tournament

[<<] [>>] by John Pearson at Roehampton
9 Sep 2018 (AC - Handicap)

Roehampton's End of Season AC Handicap Tournament was played over the weekend of 8-9 Sept in autumnal weather, though with no rain and the sun coming through on Sunday afternoon. The field of 14 covered handicaps ranging from 16 down to -1, but, despite the fast lawns, very few of the (all 3 hour) games finished before time, leading to most of the third matches on the first day finishing in near darkness, relieved somewhat by the floodlighting on one lawn.

The first day saw old-timer (and winner in 2007) Bob Prichard and newcomer Barry Holland, both of Surbiton, in the lead with 3 wins each. Bob beat Barry on the 2nd morning, whilst easily the lowest handicapped entrant, Tim Russell of the home club, powered to his 3rd win, after a narrow 1st round defeat to another former winner (in 2006), Jeffrey Rushby (Sussex County), who played an inspired last break to win, his front ball having been pegged out by Tim. Barry recovered to record a fine win in the afternoon (including a CA Bronze Award break), whilst Tim played strongly to hand Bob his 1st defeat. This left the 3 of them on 4 wins each. As Tim and Barry had not played each other, the result depended on "quality of wins", with the maths showing that Bob had triumphed by 3 points, with Tim and Barry tied as runners-up.