Tim King won the Watford Open Series

[<<] [>>] by Simon Hathrell at Watford
6th September 2023 (GC)

After a couple of months of rather dismal weather it changed for the better just in time for this tournament, and greeted the players with two days of warm, dry and mostly sunny conditions. The numbers had unfortunately shrunk to 9 with a late cancellation the evening before, so the tournament format was modified to start with an all-play-all block in which every player received a bye. The top 4 in the block would then proceed to a best-of-three games knock-out to decide the winner, and the other 5 would play each other again in a 'plate' block.

There was quite a wide spread of players' Dgrades ranging between 1600 and 2300, plus a newcomer, Ian Davidson, who had never played in a ranking tournament before and had only been assessed at 8 a week before for his first handicap.

It became apparent quite soon that Tim King was starting to return to the form which had seen his Dgrade 300 points higher several years earlier, and by the end of the first day he was unbeaten in 7 games, including a convincing 7-2 win over Nick Archer. Meanwhile newcomer Ian Davidson was trying but not quite succeeding to upset the form book, his best attempt being a fairly close 5-7 defeat by the -1 handicapper Don Beck.

The second day started with the final round of the initial all-play-all block, and it saw an unexpected 7-5 win by Stephen Webb over Tim King, which relegated Tim to second place in the block behind Nick Archer. The number of players for the day also reduced even further to 8 when Don Beck had to withdraw with an aggravated ankle injury, which meant that Ignacio Gross Ariza was promoted into the fourth place in the main knock-out, and the format of the 'plate' for the remaining 4 players was changed to a best-of-three games knock-out as well.

In the semi-finals Nick had a fairly comfortable 2-0 win over Ignacio, and Tim won 2-1 in a closely-fought contest against Ian Shore. Then in the final between Nick and Tim, Nick took the first game 7-5, lost the second 6-7 and took a 3-1 lead in the decider. But then Tim switched into top gear by winning the next four hoops, including running hoop 6 from 20 yards away and then hoop 7 from the north boundary right down to hoop 8. Nick was unable to recover from his subsequent 3-5 deficit and Tim emerged the winner on 7-5.

Meanwhile in the 'plate' knock-out the favourite Ross Bagni emerged the winner beating Andrew Carpenter 2-1 in the final.

Tim was presented with a new trophy that had kindly been sponsored by Veolia (who maintain the courts), on a plinth turned by a local craftsman from wood from an Alder tree recently harvested in Cassiobury park.

Players & handicaps:

Andrew Carpenter (2)
Don Beck (-1)
Ian Davidson (8)
Ian Shore (-1)
Ignacio Gross Ariza (2)
Nick Archer (-2)
Ross Bagni (0)
Stephen Webb (5)
Tim King (0)

Results:

Block:
Ian Shore beat Ian Davidson 7-3
Don Beck beat Stephen Webb 7-5
Tim King beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-6
Andrew Carpenter beat Ross Bagni 7-2
Nick Archer beat Ian Davidson 7-1
Ian Shore beat Andrew Carpenter 7-4
Don Beck beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-6
Tim King beat Ross Bagni 7-3
Nick Archer beat Stephen Webb 7-2
Tim King beat Ian Shore 7-5
Ross Bagni beat Don Beck 7-6
Andrew Carpenter beat Ian Davidson 7-1
Nick Archer beat Andrew Carpenter 7-1
Ian Shore beat Don Beck 7-2
Tim King beat Ian Davidson 7-2
Ignacio Gross Ariza beat Stephen Webb 7-2
Nick Archer beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-5
Don Beck beat Ian Davidson 7-5
Ross Bagni beat Stephen Webb 7-4
Tim King beat Andrew Carpenter 7-2
Ian Shore beat Stephen Webb 7-1
Don Beck beat Andrew Carpenter 7-5
Tim King beat Nick Archer 7-2
Ignacio Gross Ariza beat Ross Bagni 7-6
Nick Archer beat Ross Bagni 7-4
Ian Shore beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-4
Tim King beat Don Beck 7-6
Stephen Webb beat Ian Davidson 7-2
Nick Archer beat Don Beck 7-3
Ian Shore beat Ross Bagni 7-3
Ignacio Gross Ariza beat Ian Davidson 7-3
Stephen Webb beat Andrew Carpenter 7-6
Nick Archer beat Ian Shore 7-6
Ross Bagni beat Ian Davidson 7-4
Andrew Carpenter beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-4
Stephen Webb beat Tim King 7-5

Knock-out:
Tim King beat Ian Shore 7-3
Tim King lost to Ian Shore 6-7
Tim King beat Ian Shore 7-5
Nick Archer beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-3
Nick Archer beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-4
Ian Shore beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-4
Ian Shore beat Ignacio Gross Ariza 7-5
Tim King lost to Nick Archer 5-7
Tim King beat Nick Archer 7-6
Tim King beat Nick Archer 7-5

Plate:
Andrew Carpenter beat Ian Davidson 7-0
Andrew Carpenter beat Ian Davidson 7-4
Ross Bagni beat Stephen Webb 7-2
Ross Bagni lost to Stephen Webb 5-7
Ross Bagni beat Stephen Webb 7-2
Stephen Webb beat Ian Davidson 7-4
Stephen Webb beat Ian Davidson 7-6
Ross Bagni beat Andrew Carpenter 7-6
Ross Bagni lost to Andrew Carpenter 4-7
Ross Bagni beat Andrew Carpenter 7-5

Tournament winner: Tim King
Plate winner: Ross Bagni