Gunton IV - December 2015

FOURS
The Fours games were played on Friday and Saturday evenings. Each team would play twice per night and the winners would be the team with the best record over their four games.

Friday's games gave us five teams who won both of their games and they were seperated by just three shots.

They were the teams of Drane/Game/Vaughan/Daniels (20 shots), Jones/Pullar (19 shots) and Ball/Walker/Evans, Squares/Long and Masters/Tanner, all of who had 17 shots.

And Saturday held the interesting prospect of three games involving teams from the top five playing one another.

Inevitably the order changed quite dramatically after Saturday's games.

The leaders started by losing a close game against Jones/Pullar and followed that with a second loss, which left them sixth.

Having taken one win, Jones/Pullar then lost their second game to Squares/Long, who would have been in the running had they not already lost their first game.

That left two other teams, Masters/Tanner and Ball/Walker/Evans. They both finished with wins, but what ended up settling things was the game between the two, which had already taken place in Saturday's first round of games. And it had gone the way of Masters/Tanner.

That meant that Masters/Tanner finished with 4 wins out of 4, the only team to do so. And Ball/Walker/Evans finished the best of the 3 teams who took 3 wins out of 4, to be runners-up.

PAIRS
Each team would play six games in the Round Robin stage of the event, twice each on Saturday morning, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. This would set the seedings for the Knockout Stages which would take place on Sunday afternoon, with the highest qualifiers playing the lowest qualifiers, ie 1st plays 16th, 2nd plays 15th etc.

Round 1 (Saturday)
With no drawn games there were 22 winners from the first round of games.

Of those there were 9 teams who had double figure shot scores, the best of whom were Sylvia Vaughan & Paul Daniels (15 shots), Bill & Carole Reeves (13), Tony & Pat Staines and Sue Jones & Lawrence Pullar (12) and David & Cynthia Sanderson (11).

Round 2 (Saturday)
Twelve teams repeated their first round wins, with virtually nothing to seperate the teams at the very top.

Leading with way were Ken Drane & Val Game (22 shots), Tony & Pat Staines, Roger & Diane Marshall and Bill & Carole Reeves all had 21 shots and Peter Jones & Sarah Pullar had 19 shots.

Round 3 (Saturday)
By this time there were just 9 teams left who had won all their games.

Bill & Carole Reeve led the way on 38 shots, followed by Tony & Pat Staines (31 shots). Ken Drane & Val Game (29 shots), were third, followed by Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels (27) and Rob & Jean Cook and Peter Jones & Sarah Pullar (both 25 shots).

The previous year, with two less teams in competition, the final qualifiers had finished on 6 points, so it was safe to assume that these leading teams were certainly one win and probably just one point away from a top 16 finish.

Round 4 (Saturday)
A few surprise results in the final session of the day saw losses for several of the leading teams.

Only four teams finished the day with four wins out of four. Tony & Pat Staines (50 shots), led the way, followed by Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels (38), Sam & Trish Agnew (28) and Syd & Dot Tanner (23).

Two other teams finished the day unbeaten, having won 3 and drawn 1. They were Sylvia Vaughan & Paul Daniels and Peter Jones & Sarah Pullar.

With the top 16 all on at least 5 points it looked as if 7 points was going to be the minimum requirement for qualification.

Round 5 (Sunday)
The first qualifiers emerged at the start of Sunday, with the teams who had not yet lost a game guaranteeing their place in the last sixteen.

That meant that the four teams who had won all their games to date, Tony & Pat Staines, Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels, Sam & Trish Agnew and Syd & Dot Tanner, were through, along with Peter Jones & Sarah Pullar, who had dropped just one point so far.

Round 6 (Sunday)
The Round Robin games finished with 3 teams having won all of their games, Tony & Pat Staines, Sam & Trish Agnew and Syd & Dot Tanner.

Another 2 teams had five wins and a draw, they were Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels and Peter Jones & Sarah Pullar.

The five teams that had already qualified were joined by Peter & Kay Masters and Paul & Sue Cousins (10 points), Michael & Heather Shipp, Jean Read & Chris Tilbrook, Sylvia Vaughan & Paul Daniels and Brian Archer & Pat Phillips (9 points) and on 8 points Harold & Patricia Ball, Richard & Linda Cornell, Keith & Prim Hume, Robin & Heather Brown and Bryan & Andrea Edwards.

Knockout Rounds
Round 1
Brian Archer & Pat Phillips led the whole way against Peter & Kay Masters, winning 8-2.

Jean Read & Chris Tilbrook also took the lead from the start and came home 7-5 winners over Michael & Heather Shipp.

Five shots over 2 ends in the middle of the game saw Tony & Pat Staines home, 8-4 over Bryan & Andrea Edwards.

A four on the 3rd end gave Paul & Sue Cousins the lead which they extended to beat Sylvia Vaughan & Paul Daniels 8-4.

All level after 3 ends, Sam & Trish Agnew took the last 4 to beast Robin & Heather Brown 8-3.

Syd & Dot Tanner got in front and held off Keith & Prim Hume to win 6-4.

It took one on the final end to seperate Peter Jones & Sarah Pullar and Harold & Patricia Ball, and that shot went to Harold & Patricia as they won 6-5.

Having taken a 4-0 lead over Richard & Linda Cornell, Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels found themselves 10-5 down with an end to go. But remarkably they were allowed 5 on the last end to level the game andtook the extra end to win 11-10.

Quarter Finals
Jean Read & Chris Tilbrook were no match for Tony & Pat Staines who ran out comfortable 11-1 winners, with no need to play the final scheduled end.

A good start for Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels saw them 5-0 up over Harold & Patricia Ball after 2 ends. And although Harold & Patricia got to within a shot at one point, Betty & Rita finished 7-4 winners.

A very tight game between Sam & Trish Agnew and Paul & Sue Cousins, saw only 8 shots scored over 7 ends. But it was Paul & Sue who took the lead from end one, took 4 of the ends and ended up winners 5-3.

A to and fro game saw Syd & Dot Tanner edge their way into a two shot lead over Brian Archer & Pat Phillips with an end to go. But Brian & Pat leveled the game on the last end and then pressured their opposition into taking the jack off the carpet to win 8-6.

Semi-Finals
Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels got a grip on a fast carpet early on, that gave them confidence added to which everything seemed to go their way as they raced into a 10-0 lead after 4 ends. The fifth end went to Tony & Pat Staines, but only by one shot. The game was all over with an end to go as Betty & Rita won 13-1.

Brian Archer & Pat Phillips started strongly with 3 shots on the first end against Paul & Sue Cousins. Unfortunately for them the rest of the game very much went the way of Paul & Sue, who took a crushing 18-3 win to make the final again, having won last year's event.

Final
Paul & Sue Cousins v Betty Johnson & Rita Daniels
End 1 - Moving from a fast carpet to something slower does not phase Sue who finds the jack with her first wood. That and her second hold until the end. The Cousins' lead 2-0.
End 2 - Again Sue is closest while the opposition fall short, but Rita pushes a short wood in with her last to sneak the end. 2-1.
End 3 - Sue makes good use of her third wood, taking shot. A second wood is pushed into the head and it's 4-1 to Paul & Sue.
End 4 - Once again the early woods are invaluable. Sue is there, Rita can't get in and it's 6-1.
End 5 - Early advantage to the Cousins, but even when the jack is moved it goes to them. 7-1.
End 6 - Sue is on the jack immediately but Betty wrestles it away, allowing Rita to get 2 and take the game to a final end. 7-3.
End 7 - A good start from Betty, but Sue knows what needs to be done, taking shot and covering the opposition woods to make it all but impossible for them to win. Paul crowds his woods into the head and doesn't need to bowl his last as they take a well deserved win 8-3, taking victory for the second year in a row.

We would like to thank everyone for making this weekend so enjoyable and for all the very welcome contributions to the draw, all of which helped us to raise another £246 for East Anglia Air Ambulance.

Click here for the Full Results

tanddcarpetbowls@gmail.com
7th December 2015