Our third visit to Gunton
Hall took place over the weekend of 5th to 8th December 2014,
which marked T & D's 30th event.
Fours
The Fours were played out on Friday and Saturday nights, with
the teams getting two games per night to decide the winners.
Three teams won both of their
Friday games. They were the teams of Long/Masters, Staines/Hume
and Newling/Clemmet/Cornell. While, also undefeated were the
team of Cask/Clemmet/Bloomfield /Johnson, who had taken a win
and a draw.
But in the end only one of
the teams came through to win all of their games and take a clear
win. The battle for second place was something else, as four
teams ended up on 6 points, seperated by just 5 shots. The best
of those and therefore the runners-up were Keith & Val Gunnell
and Jim & Jan Squares. But the clear winners were Angela
Newling, Margaret Clemmet and Richard & Linda Cornell.
Pairs
All 42 teams would
play 6 games over Saturday and up to Sunday lunchtime. After
that the top 16 teams would be paired off, playing down to the
final on Sunday afternoon.
Session 1 (Saturday)
Without any drawn games we had half of the field (21 teams) off
to a winning start. And of those there were some very fast starters.
Best of all were Dougie Wright
& Beryl Rogers who took a very impressive 19 shots in their
win. Only just behind were Bill & Carol Reeve on 18, followed
by Alan & Josie Long on 16. Tony & Patricia Staines were
on 14 shots, while rounding out the top 5 were Betty Johnson
& Mike Daniels who took 12 on the way to their victory.
Session 2 (Saturday)
Still not a single game drawn and 10 of the teams had repeat
wins.
Out in front, having taken
a massive 28-1 win in their second game, were Peter & Kay
Masters. So far they had 39 shots for and 2 against.
Some way back on shots, but
still with highly respectable shot totals of 26, 25 and 24 were
Bill & Carol Reeve, Dougie Wright & Beryl Rogers and
Alan & Josie Long.
Session 3 (Saturday)
Amazingly, in the 63 games played so far there had stil not been
a single draw, and we were now onto 7 teams who had three wins
out of three.
Unsurprisingly Peter &
Kay Masters still led the way, still ahead of Bill & Carol
Reeve. Paul & Sue Cousins were now up to third, with Alan
& Josie Long fourth.
The final three teams on 6
points were. David Cask & David Clemmet, Keith & Prim
Hume and Sam & Trish Agnew.
Session 4 (Saturday)
The final session of the day saw a number of interesting results,
including 5 teams finally getting off the mark.
And we were down to just 4
teams who finished the day having won all their games. Peter
& Kay Masters still headed the field, they were followed
by Paul & Sue Cousins, Bill & Carol Reeve and David Cask
& David Clemmet. Given that the top 16 teams would be in
the knockout stages and that at this stage only the top 14 would
be able to finish with more than 8 points, there was every chance
that these four teams would be going through.
The next best team were Keith
& Prim Hume, still undefeated, but having dropped a point
in the only drawn game of the day.
Session 5 (Sunday)
In the absence of any surprises this round was the one where
the first teams would cement their qualification.
And that did indeed happen
as all the undefeated teams duly ensured that they would be playing
in the afternoon.
Peter & Kay Masters, Paul & Sue Cousins and
David Cask & David Clemmet made it 5 wins out of 5,
while Keith & Prim Hume had four wins and a draw.
After that came 8 teams on
8 points, all of whom had probably done enough to go through,
but the 6 teams on 6 points, who were fighting for the final
places, could yet deprive someone ahead of them.
Final Session (Sunday)
The first few games of the session produced a rush of qualifiers,
with the results going in such a way that it quickly emerged
that 7 points was going to be sufficient.
Those teams who were through
were Sheila Mann & Paul Daniels, Alan & Josie
Long, Harold & Patricia Ball, Dougie Wright
& Beryl Rogers, Ken Drane & Val Game, Laurence
& Sarah Pullar, Bill & Carol Reeve, Margaret
Southgate & Chris Tilbrook, Rosemary Coe & Barbara
Head, Michael & Heather Shipp, Pat Horton &
Joan Cook and Tony & Betty Cook. The last two
of whom were the best of a cluster of 11 teams who finished on
6 points and were covered by just 10 shots.
For the record the top finishers
were Paul & Sue Cousins, who ended up as the only team to
win all their games, while the only other undefeated team were
David Cask & David Clemmet who won 5 and drew 1 game.
Knockout Rounds
Round 1
The biggest win of the round was an emphatic 12-1 victory for
Ken Drane & Val Game over Dougie Wright & Beryl Rogers.
Sheila Mann & Paul Daniels took an 8-5 win over Rosemary
Coe & Barbara Head. Laurence & Sarah Pullar edged a 5-3
win over Harold & Patricia Ball. Alan & Josie Long hung
on for a 6-5 win over Bill & Carole Reeve.
Michael & Heather Shipp
raced out to a 9-0 lead over Peter & Kay Masters and just
hung on, taking the jack off to save an extra end, winning 9-7.
In the battle between the top and bottom qualifiers Paul &
Sue Cousins didn't have it all their own way as expected, Tony
& Betty Cook put up a good fight most of the way through,
but the Cousins won 9-5.
Margaret Southgate & Chris
Tilbrook were off to a slow start, but came through to beat Keith
& Prim Hume on the last end. David Cask & David Clemmet
and Pat Horton & Joan Cook were all square at 5-5 after seven
ends, but the Davids took 5 on the extra end to take the game.
Quarter Finals
The game between Alan & Josie Long and Sheila Mann &
Paul Daniels was close, until the last end, when the Longs took
4 to seal the win.
Paul & Sue Cousins continued
their good run, they were always ahead of Margaret Southgate
& Chris Tilbrook and took the game 6-3.
Laurence & Sarah Pullar
needed an extra end to beat Michael & Heather Shipp, which
they did 6-5.
And another team to hang on
at the end were Ken Drane & Val Game, keeping Davids Cask
and Clemmet down to a single shot on the last end to win 7-6.
Semi-Finals
Paul & Sue Cousins were behind Alan & Josie Long after
the second end, but they got ahead on the third and after that
they never looked back, winning 10-4.
Ken Drane & Val Game only
won 2 of the regular ends, but on those ends they took a 5 and
a 3. Laurence & Sarah Pullar won the rest and at the end
of regular time it was 8-8. The extra end was tight and could
have gone either way, but in the end Ken & Val hung on to
a single shot that was in the middle of a group of opposition
woods, to make the final.
Final
Ken Drane was forced to take the jack off on the first end, but
he did save at least a couple of shots in doing so and the second
end saw him take one back. The third end was tit-for-tat as the
advantage went first one way then the other, but the Cousins
took a couple to lead 4-1. The fourth end saw Sue Cousins nail
the jack with 2 woods, Ken moved it out, but Paul took it away
again, took one and was now 5-1 up.
The fifth end saw both leads
fighting it out with some great woods, but with so close a head
the pressure was always going to be on Ken & Val and forced
to move the jack Ken only help his opposition who took 3 to now
lead 8-1 with just 2 ends to go.
After that there was no way
back and the Cousins needed to do nothing more than pepper the
jack with their woods, which they did as they had all weekend.
They took 3 went 11-1 up and the game was over with an end still
to go.
The Cousins' had won every
game over the weekend and took a thoroughly well deserved win.
You can find all the weekend's
results here.
Not only would we like to thank
everyone for another highly enjoyable weekend, but also for helping
us to add another £212 to the total we have been able to
raise for the East Anglia Air Ambulance.
tanddcarpetbowls@gmail.com
8th
December 2014 |