East Dorset beat Bristol 6-1

Yesterday we played Bristol, at home, in the Longman Cup. Thats the national competition that East Dorset finished runners-up in last year. Its a club handicap competition: 4 players, no-one better than 3.5, and total at least 24. 1 doubles and 6 singles.

The CA are advocating alternate doubles, but Bristol have yet to adopt that style, so David and Chris played traditional doubles against Anthony and Mike in the morning, and won 16-10.

The morning session ended in nail-biting fashion for the two singles matches. Christine was well in the lead, but her oppo, Margo, put in a fine break and was level when she went through hoop 5 instead of 3-back, leaving Christine with an easy hit-in and rush to her next hoop, which she duly ran. Steve's match was also level, as he uncharacteristically failed to run 3-back not once, but 3 times. Fortunately, his oppo, Eric, failed to hit in on each occasion, and Steve triumphed. 3-0 to East Dorset at lunch.

By comparison, the afternoon was almost an anticlimax. Chris was first to finish, beating Margo +21, including an 11 hoop break with his second ball. David recorded a fine +19 win over Eric. Christine had a tough game with Anthony, but eventually retained the upper hand to win 17-14. And Steve, giving a single bisque away, lost to Mike -8. So East Dorset won 6-1.

Well done to to East Dorset:
David Williams
Steve Leonard
Chris Weedon (captain)
Christine Rice

and thankyou to Bristol for an enjoyable and friendly day of competition:
Eric Soakell
Mike Salisbury (captain)
Margo Soakell
Anthony Rackham

Next stop is either Kington Langley or Guildford&Godalming.