|
The Open Day & Marathon was a great success with 41 players competing, including guests from St Austell & Exmouth, and 28 people completing the full 24 hours. A massive £400 plus clear profit will be available to add to club funds.
The Open event was won convincingly by Chris Smith. After an early scare going 2-0 down to sister Sally & scraping home 11-9 in the fifth, he gained a fine four game victory over guest Liz May, hitting top form to remain unbeaten. Richard Marshall could still have pipped him in the final match but Chris eased home in four games.
Richard lost early on to Liz May, took the final game 12-10 against Sally Smith, just edged out an inspired James Broad and came from 2-1 down to beat Harry Cutler. Sally was unlucky to only take third place as, apart from her two narrow defeats to Chris & Richard she remained unbeaten.
Chris Warn had a fine early win over Liz May which helped him to deny her fourth place. David Wetherill's endurance was put to the test as a marathon thirteen matches included successive five game thrillers against Sally, Liz, Harry & Chris Warn. Although the only victory came against Harry, wins over the other three qualifiers, James, Tim Bowler & Mark Ross, saw him take an excellent sixth place.
The plate event provided a few shocks. Ian McLeod exceeded all expectations by remaining undefeated in a group including Freddie Cutler and Matt Mathison--the latter two later battling out the final! Matt beat Freddie but lost to Laura McLeod, but Mike Ross not only beat Laura 11-9 in the final game but deprived her of the vital fourth place.
In the other group Dan Snell denied Clive Marlow a 100% record and gained himself an excellent third place, as Dean Bowler shared top place with Clive. In the battle of three 11 year old's Tom Burt's surprise win over Ryan Bowler denied Ryan the final qualifying place, letting in Zak Zacharkiw who, despite losing to Ryan, had beaten the in-form Dan.
In the quarter-finals, Ian scraped home after a titanic battle with Zak, while it also took Clive the full distance to outwit Mike Ross. Matt was not only too good for Dan Snell, but also went on to surprise Clive in the semis. Meanwhile Freddie, the top ranked player in the field, proved his quality by convincingly defeating Dean Bowler and then Ian, before gaining his revenge on Matt to take the title.
The consolation event was decided by an early morning group match in which the events youngest competitor Vicky Smith survived losing a 2-0 lead to defeat county rival Hannah Bradford from Exmouth in the final game. The two proved comfortably too strong for the rest of the field, neither ever again being taken the full distance. Despite an early loss to Alice Phillips, another young guest from Exmouth, Katie Wilson, took third place, while Alice took fourth despite surprise defeats by Carla Grigg & Jack Marsh. James Marsh avoided being upstaged by his younger brother by gaining his own shock win over Carla, but had to give second best to fast-improving eight year old Joshua Beaven.
RESULTS
MAIN EVENT 1st Chris Smith 9 wins 2nd Richard Marshall 7 3rd Sally Smith 7
4th Chris Warn 5 5th Liz May 5 6th David Wetherill 4 7th James Broad 3 8th Harry Cutler 2
9th Mark Ross 1 10th Tim Bowler 0
PLATE EVENT Winner Freddie Cutler R/U Matt Mathison Losing semi-finalists Ian McLeod & Clive Marlow Losing quarter-finalists Zak Zacharkiw, Dan Snell, Dean Bowler, Mike Ross
CONSOLATION EVENT 1st Vicky Smith 9 wins 2nd Hannah Bradford 8 3rd Katie Wilson 6
4th Alice Phillips 5 5th Betty Quaye 5 6th Carla Grigg 4 7th Jack Marsh 4 8th Joshua Beaven 2
9th James Marsh 2 10th Sam Wilson 0
The playing quality in the evening's fun event was raised considerably by the inclusion of Marketa Myskova, Kevin Buddell & coach Cedric Foster (although perhaps lowered again by the inclusion of organisers John & Yetty Smith!).
The event extended well into the night due to
The inordinate complexity of the scoring system (devised not surprisingly by yours truly)
Marketa being offended enough by the jibes from the other end of the table to challenge Chris Warn to a game of singles which she won easily (surprise, surprise!)
An impromptu exhibition match between Marketa & Kevin at about ten pm which had the whole congregated masses spellbound
Partly through skill, but more due to staying power, the finalists eventually turned out to be Chris Warn, Dean Bowler & Hannah Bradford against Freddie Cutler, Matt Mathison & Jack Marsh. The match went to the wire with Chris & Dean taking the final game from Freddie & Matt 21-19.
|
|
