Andrea Huxley won the Ryde GC B-Level Tournament

[<<] [>>] by Roy Tillcock at Ryde
9 May 2019 (GC)

Third Time Lucky for Andrea

The mower had at least beaten the predicted overnight rain the previous day but conditions nevertheless left the lawns on the slow side.
The first three rounds in all-play-all blocks were punctuated by several brief half-hearted rain showers accompanied by a gusting westerly. From an oversubscribed allocation of 16 only one player completed this session unbeaten (Jim O'Keeffe, Ryde) with a further seven in close pursuit on 2 wins.

Blocks after lunch were repopulated based on the morning's play and a further 3 rounds provided some close games between the leading contenders. With one round to play Jim had fallen behind and two of the three Guildford Girls (Andrea Huxley and Julie Tremble) along with the omnipresent Brian McCausland led the field with 4 wins each. The ladies, with better points than Brian, met in round 6, effectively to decide the overall winner. As befits the keen rivalry between the two the game went all the way to hoop 13 before Andrea scored the final point to win the Ryde title at her third attempt and thus qualify for the final on her home patch in September. Brian also gained his 5th victory to finish second whilst Julie was pushed into fourth place by Ron Carter on 4 wins, moving up to third after a slow start. An honourable mention should also go to unranked Gordon Macrae finishing 5th, also with 4 wins.

Final result:
First: Andrea Huxley (Guildford & Godalming)
Second: Brian McCausland (Nailsea) - 6 points
Third: Ron Carter (Ealing) - 4 points
Fourth: Julie Tremble (Guildford & Godalming) - 2 points