Cheltenham's C-Level Qualifier The 'Barter' Trophy

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The 'Barter' Trophy

This tournament always attracts a large entry and so it was again this year. Unfortunately, the ideal number of 24 dropped to an awkward 22 which meant 2 blocks of 6 and 2 blocks of 5 playing each other to give everyone 5 games, sorted or so I thought? A player dropped out at 8am on the day and another did not even turn up!!! So, a frustrated manager faced with having to rethink the whole competition ran around the carpark looking for a stray to fill in. Forunately, two spectators duely stepped up to avoid byes and my gratitude goes to Paul New and Callum Pattison. My thanks also goes to Andy Jones who acted as referee for the day as well as stepping in to play when necessary. The format was 4 blocks with the final positions in those blocks dictating which level of knock out event the player went into for their semi-final and final.

Block A was tight and won by top seed Roger Booth on net points over Philip Hendy, while block B had a 3 way tie separated by net points in order, Liza Furnival, Peter Martell and Iris Brooksbank. Block C was won by Judy Crowe with Roy Hemming (H'cap 11) finshing as runner up. Block D was again tight being seperated by net points in order, Callum Pattison and Claire Herring. All results are on CS.

The final itself was very compelling as it looked as if Liza F (H'cap 9) was going to take a 5-2 lead over Roger Booth (H'cap 6), but Roger managed a tight jump to keep himself in the match, and so it was it came down to the enevitable 13^th hoop after Roger had run a tricky 12. Liza being first up managed to get herself into the jaws leaving Roger a jump to win. However, he uncharacteristically missed it but did manage to bounce Liza out to a non running position. A few turns later and the roles were reversed with Roger in the jaws with Red and Liza attempting a longer jump with Blue which again failed but landed on Black which 'somehow' kicked sidways to dislodge Red while falling infront of the hoop!!! Roger tried to squeeze past but got stuck on Black allowing Liza just enough room to play through to win the 'Barter Trophy'

Finally, thanks as always to the volunteers who set up and especially Claire H who finshed her games nearly an hour early and kindly set up the tea and cake for everyone that Naomi Whitehead had hastily organised at short notice.