|
Although this year's trip
was moved back to October the weather could not possibly have
been better, given the time of year, plenty of sunshine and not
a drop of rain, all making for another excellent week away.
FOURS
Whilst the mornings were devoted to the Pairs and the afternoons
were free for everyone to relax or get out and about on the Island,
the evenings taken up with a Fours competition.
Monday and Tuesday nights would
see everyone have 2 games, after which the top 4 teams would
play-off to decide the winners.
After Monday night's games
there were already 4 teams who were out in front of the rest,
having won both their games. Any one else wanting to make it
further in the competition would need to win both of their remaining
games and rely upon someone from the leading group to lose.
Tuesday night saw only 2 of
those teams win their next 2 games to finish with a maximum 8
points but despite the other two dropping points they nonetheless
managed to hold on to their top 4 slots.
Peter & Diane Orrin
and Marilyn & Martin Bennet finished
as the top team and would take on the team coming in fourth.
The other perfect record was held by Ken Drane, Valerie Game
and Bill & Carole Reeve, as runners-up they would take
on the third placed team, Margaret Horwood, Janet Burrows
and Peter & Kay Masters who had won 3 games and drawn
one. The final qualifying spot went to Chris & Joan Clark
and Andrea & Bryan Edwards who won 3 and lost 1, getting
through with a narrow 4 shot advantage over their nearest challengers.
Semi-Finals
The Clark/Edwards team made a good start against the Orrin/Bennet
team and after 4 ends were leading 5-1. But the 5th end saw
a massive turn around, as with the last wood of the end the the
Orrin/Bennet team went from just 1 shot up to take all
8 shots. After that they took each of the remaining ends to win
12-5.
With 4 ends down in the other
game the Drane/Game/Reeve team and the Horwood/Burrows/Masters
team were tied 2-2. The next two ends were shared so that going
into the last end the score was 4-4 in an extremely tight game.
However the last end went to the Drane/Game/Reeve team.
Final
This one was another closely fought game with the 2 teams alternating
winning ends. The Drane/Game/Reeve team held a small advantage
courtesy of gaining 2 shots on the second end and were 4-3 up
going into the last end. But the Orrin/Bennet team picked
up a couple of shots to come from behind to sneak the win 5-4.
PAIRS
The competition was run over the course of 3 days, with each
team getting 2 games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings,
after which the top 12 teams would go through to the knockout
stages. Whilst a good proportion of the teams were going to be
qualifying, the teams would benefit from a higher finishing position.
The top 4 would go straight through to the Quarter Finals, while
the teams finishing in positions 5-12 would fight it out to see
who would also be making it through to the last 8.
Round 1
With no drawn games we had 13 teams on one win and 2 points.
Top of the pile were Mike
Daniels & Vic Playle who scored 12 shots in their winning
game. They were followed by Ian & Anne Andrew and
Chris & Joan Clark who both had 10 shots. While on
9 shots were Peter & Kay Masters, Marjorie Frost
& Paul Daniels and Tom & Marlene Hale.
Round 2
Only half a dozen teams managed to make it 2 wins out of 2.
First amongst those were Marjorie
Frost & Paul Daniels who had 23 shots from their 2 games,
they were followed closely by Mike Walker & Ken Drane
who were just 2 shots back.
The other teams with perfect
records were Tom & Marlene Hale, Mick & Beryl
Barker, Syd & Dot Tanner and Martin & Marilyn
Bennet.
Round 3
A mere 3 teams made it to the halfway point with their perfect
records intact.
Marjorie Frost & Paul
Daniels continued to
lead the way with 6 points and 29 shots, followed by Syd &
Dot Tanner who were a half dozen shots behind and Martin
& Marilyn Bennet who were just a shot further back.
The only other team who were
as yet unbeaten were Ian & Anne Andrew who were on
5 points.
Meanwhile there were fully
10 teams who had won 2 games and lost 1, and who were just 2
points off the lead.
Round 4
Wednesday's play ended with only one team on maximum points and
only one more who had not lost a game.
The outright leaders were Marjorie
Frost & Paul Daniels, they were a point clear of Ian
& Anne Andrew who in turn were a point clear of the rest
of the field.
With the top 4 teams guaranteed
a spot in the Quarter Finals and the next 8 having to play-off
to join them, the fight was on to fill those top spots. Outside
of the top 2 was a pack of 8 teams on 6 points. The best of those
were Mike Walker & Ken Drane, Aubrey & Sheila
Mann and Chris & Joan Clark.
Round 5
Thursday morning was where the last remaining undefeated teams
finally fell by the wayside and were gobbled up by the chasing
pack.
There were now 5 teams on 8
points, at the top of the table. Mike Walker & Ken Drane
led the way with 50 shots, with Marjorie Frost & Paul
Daniels 6 shots back in second place. Third were Chris
& Joan Clark on 39 shots, Tom & Marlene Hale
had 36 and Syd & Dot Tanner had just 2 fewer.
Whilst all of these teams were
in with the best shout of making it through to the next phase,
remarkably no one had yet done enough to qualify, something quite
unique for this stage of one of our competitions.
Round 6
The final set of games, where everything would finally be sorted
out.
In the end there were 4 teams
who finished with 5 wins out of 6, on 10 points. All of these
teams would automatically go through to the Quarter Finals.
They were Mike Walker &
Ken Drane, Chris & Joan Clark, Marjorie Frost
& Paul Daniels and Tom & Marlene Hale.
The next 8 finishers would
go into the First Round to decide who would join the top 4 in
the Quarter Finals. That group were headed by Martin &
Marilyn Bennet and Syd & Dot Tanner, who finished
on 9 points. On 8 points were Peter & Diane Orrin
and Betty Johnson & Sheila Hodgson. There were 3 teams
who finished on 7 points, Harold & Patricia Ball,
Ian & Anne Andrew and Rosemary Coe & Marion
Cook. And finally, sneaking into the 12th and final place,
with 6 points and 45 shots, just a single shot ahead of the next
best team, were Mike Daniels & Vic Playle.
First Round
Betty Johnson & Sheila Hodgson played Harold & Patricia Ball in
an all Bedfordshire tie and were off to a good start with 3 on
the first end. Although the Balls had the lead pegged back to
just one shot with a couple of ends to go Betty & Sheila
took those ends to win 6-3.
Martin & Marilyn Bennet led from the beginning against Mike
Daniels & Vic Playle but at only 4-2 after 4 ends it
was looking close, however the Bennets ran well ahead in the
next couple of ends, running out 13-2 winners.
Ian & Anne Andrew started well, with a couple of shots
on the first end, but Peter & Diane Orrin were in
the lead on only the next end and never gave up the lead, winning
10-4.
Syd & Dot Tanner were quickly into the lead against
Rosemary Coe & Marion Cook, taking the first 3 ends
before their opponents got on the board. In the end they finished
12-2 winners.
Quarter Finals
The top 4 qualifiers had been able to sit out until this stage,
but apparently the extra rest didn't do any of them any good,
as they all fell to teams who had made their way through the
first round.
Tom & Marlene Hale fell to Martin & Marilyn Bennet
who led from the first end, although a 5-1 lead was cut back
dramatically to 5-4 going into the last, it was not enough as
the Bennets took the last end to win 6-4.
Mike Walker & Ken Drane won the first end against Betty
Johnson & Sheila Hodgson, but from then on they were
behind, finally losing 12-4.
Marjorie Frost & Paul
Daniels also led, this
time all the way up until the last end when Dot & Syd
Tanner came charging past to win 7-4.
And Joan & Chris Clark
were only ahead for 1 end as Peter & Diane Orrin took
the lead on the second end and never gave it up after that, winning
8-4.
Semi-Finals
Betty Johnson & Sheila Hodgson's excellent run of results finally came to an
end as they came up against Martin & Marilyn Bennet.
The 4 on the first end to the Bennet's was the shape of things
to come and with Betty and Sheila having failed to trouble the
scorer after 6 ends, the game was all over. Nevertheless they
played through to a final and quite emphatic 15-0 win to the
Bennets.
In contrast the game between
Dot & Syd Tanner and Peter & Diane Orrin
was nip and tuck from the very first, yielding only 6 shots from
the first 6 ends, at which time the advantage was held by the
Tanners at 4-2. Not much of a lead, and so it proved as the Orrin's
took a dramatic 2 shots on the last end, with the final wood,
to take the game into an extra end. And that end, yet again a
very tight one, went to the Orrins, to see them through to the
final.
Final
The Bennets took the advantage from the first and were 3-0 ahead
of the Orrins after 2 ends. However the Orrins were on the board
with one shot on the third end, which in turn was negated by
2 shots to the Bennets on the 4th end, taking them out to a 5-1
lead, which looked to be decisive, given how close the game was.
And so it proved to be. The lead moved out to 7-1 with 2 ends
to go, but then back to 7-3 going into the final end, which at
least provided the faintest glimmer of hopes. But the margin
proved to be too great as the Orrins were forced to chase shots
while the Bennets were able to take a more defensive stance and
do no more than draw the jack repeatedly and eventually settle
for a 8-3 win.
You can find all the results
here.
And
finally we would like to thank everyone once again for their
sterling effort in helping us to raise another £115
for the East Anglia Air Ambulance.
tanddcarpetbowls@gmail.com
1st
November 2011 |
