Les Heard wins Wrest Park GC A-Level (0+)

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Les Heard & Kim Taylor (Photo: Gill Brewer)

Local hero, Les Heard (Wrest Park) remained undefeated and did not drop a single game to win this opening tournament in the GC A-level National Series. Predicted wet weather did not materialise on either day and a full field of 16 players enjoyed bright and calm conditions on four well-presented courts.

The seeding of Block A placed John Taylor (Watford) at the top and he duly obliged with 6 wins out of 7 games, losing only to his namesake Kim Taylor (Enfield). Glynis Davies (Northampton) also qualified with 5 wins, but a careful count and re-count of net hoops was necessary to separate 3 players with 4 wins for the remaining 2 places in the knockout. Kim (+5) was joined by Rick Lilley (+4) from Phyllis Court at the expense of an unlucky David Frost (Enfield) on (+3).

In Block B, Les Heard duly dispatched all 7 of his opponents after some good tussles. Mike Bilton (Gainsborough), Phil Davies (Reigate Priory) and Stephen Harbron (Ealing) all qualified with 4 wins apiece resulting in 3 players with 3 wins being consigned to the Plate.

Three of the Quarter-Finals were settled by 2 straight wins. John beat Phil, Glynis beat Stephen and Les continued his serene progress in beating Rick. It was not so straightforward for Kim who lost his first game against Mike before prevailing in the following two games in a closely fought encounter.

Kim beat John in two very well-contested games to win his Semi-Final and Les beat Glynis by the same margin. The Final produced an intriguing first game with Les promptly winning the first four hoops and then finding himself 4-5 down after a stunning fightback by Kim. Les levelled at 5-5, Kim levelled at 6-6 before Les clinched the golden hoop. The second game was nip and tuck before Les ran a superb angled hoop to win the tournament.

Manager, Richard Keighley presented prizes to both Finalists and also to David Frost who had won all his 6 games in the Plate. Thanks were expressed to Richard but also to George Collin and his team for producing good quality lawns and to the catering team of Tim and Gill Brewer (Her Syrian beetroot dish was really appreciated) and Viv Heard.

1^st Les Heard 2^nd Kim Taylor 3^rd Glynis Davies 4^th John Taylor