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We are very pleased to report
the success of our 2008 visit to Hayling Island.
This year's event was even
more popular than last year's, with a total of 72 Pairs competing
in the main event.
This year's format was changed
slightly to allow our guests more time to get out and about during
the week. This also meant that the our Fours competition was
moved to Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.
Although this is only offered to everyone as an optional extra,
we nonetheless had 28 teams, which was 112 people playing out
of about 140 guests. It is a bit of a change from the main event
of the Pairs and something which seems to be very popular.
With only a limited amount
of time available to play the competition, the round robin stage
was restricted to just 2 games for each team. However, the results
were spread around so well that the 7 teams who won both of their
games qualified for the knockout stages, along with one who had
a win and a draw.
Quarter Finals
The team of Lyn & Bill Damant and Donald & Linda Buttery
went into an early lead against Grace & Brain Crump and
Marion & Peter Hayde by taking 5 on the first end and
although the Crumps & Haydes fought back to 4-5, the Damants
& Butterys ran out 11-5 winners.
Don & Maxine Poulter
and Chris & Joan Clark
were never in any danger of losing to Annette Iskett, Maureen
Darvill and Ernie & Iris Burrows as they took a comfortable
11-1 victory.
Harold & Patricia Ball,
Mike Walker and June Smith resisted
a late comeback by Peter & Liz Symonds, Jean Norwood and
Margaret Forrest to win 9-7.
The final match of the round
went right down to the wire. Last year's winners Eva Rolfe,
Margaret Moore and Jean & Colin Love were 4-1 after 4
ends of their game against Roy & Christine Petts and Michael
& Judy Easy, but the Petts & Easys came back strongly
to lead 7-4 with just one end to play, remarkably though the
Rolfe/Moore/Love team took 4 shots on that last end to go through
8-7.
Semi Finals
For their next game Eva Rolfe, Margaret Moore and Jean &
Colin Love had a much easier time of it, leading from the
start to take a convincing 13-4 win over Harold & Patricia
Ball, Mike Walker and June Smith.
In the other Semi the team
of Lyn & Bill Damant and Donald & Linda Buttery
led from the start and were 4-2 up with 5 ends played, but Don
& Maxine Poulter and Chris & Joan Clark came back
to win 8-4 as they took 3 shots on each of the last 2 ends
Final
This was a mtch which looked as if it was all over before it
had barely begun, although that certainly was not the case.
The first end was one of high
drama as the skips went to bowl with Don & Maxine Poulter
and Chris & Joan Clark holding 5 shots in a very difficult
position for their opponents, but remarkably it was all turned
around with just 4 woods as the jack was first moved out into
the open by their own skip and then driven back by Colin Love
to where his team had left their woods, to take 5 shots for Eva
Rolfe, Margaret Moore and Jean & Colin Love.
From then on it looked as if
it was a done deal as the lead was extended to 8-0 after 3 ends.
But then the Poulter/Clark team began to fight back, taking each
of the last 4 ends, but their opposition were canny enough to
restrict them to just 6 shots as Eva, Margaret Jean & Colin
held their nerve (just), to finish 8-6 ahead and win for the
second year on the trot.
The main event of the week is of course the Pairs.
The round robin games were
played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings and while
Thursday afternoon would be taken up with the Knockout Stages
of the Pairs tournament, while Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons
were left free for people to either relax or take a trip out
to see the local sights.
Each pair would play 2 games
on each of the mornings, making a total of 6 round robin games
for each team, after which the top 16 teams would go through
to the Knockout Stages.
DAY 1 - Tuesday
After the first round of games 32 of the 72 pairs had 2 points
on the board. The early leaders being Chris Clark & Maxine
Poulter with 15 shots, followed by Roy & Christine
Petts and John & Shirley O'Sullivan tied for 2nd
with 13 shots, and Donald & Shirley Buttery and Jean
& Bill Simpson rounding out the top 5, both on 12 shots.
Tuesday's second and final
round of games saw those teams with perfect records cut down
to a mere 14, which meant that even a this early stage, anyone
who could manage to win all of their 6 games without dropping
a point, would be certain to qualify.
Chris Clark & Maxine
Poulter were still
leading the way at the end of Tuesday's play, having accumulated
24 shots. Leaping up from 24th to 2nd place were Marjorie
Bilton & Connie Kirby on 21 shots while John &
Shirley O'Sullivan were now third on 20 shots. Meanwhile
John & Marion Allison and Peter & Margaret
Jarvis were now 4th & 5th respectively, each with 18
shots.
DAY 2 - Wednesday
Such was the even spread of results that by the time the third
round of games had been played a further 6 teams had lost their
100% records, leaving only 8 who had not dropped a point.
It was still Chris Clark
& Maxine Poulter that held the overall lead, now with
35 shots, whilst Peter & Margaret Jarvis had moved
further up to 2nd place on 29 shots. Up into the top 5 for the
first time were Ken Drane & Valerie Game with 28 shots,
followed by John & Shirley O'Sullivan. Then, tied
for 5th, with 27 shots, were Joe & Irene Woodward
and Harold & Patricia Ball.
By the end of Wednesday, with
everyone having played 4 times, the teams with a perfect record
of 8 shots were down to a mere 5.
Joe & Irene Woodward were the new leaders with 45 shots,
followed by Peter & Margaret Jarvis on 39 shots, Harold
& Patricia Ball on 36 shots, Ken Drane & Valerie
Game on 35 shots and finally John & Marion Allison
laying in 5th place on 30 shots.
Behind these leading teams
were a further 4 pairs who had dropped just 1 point in their
4 games, all of whom would be guaranteed a spot in the last 16
so long as they won their remaining 2 games. After the top 9
were a gaggle of 14 teams, all of whom were on 6 points and best
placed to be fighting for qualification on Thursday.
DAY 3 - Thursday
One more perfect record fell by the wayside on Thursday morning,
leaving 4 teams on the maximum 10 points, which would be enough
for those teams to guarantee qualification even though everyone
still had 1 game to play.
Leading the way were Joe
& Irene Woodward, followed by Peter & Margaret
Jarvis while Harold & Patricia Ball were in third
and fourth place was held by John & Marion Allison.
A further 4 teams were on 9
points, lead by Shirley & Andrew Eaton, all of whom
were going to need just a draw from their final games to guarantee
their places in the next round, while a further 6 teams, all
on 8 points would secure their qualification with a win.
The final round of games before
the knockout stages saw one more perfect record go, leaving just
Joe & Irene Woodward, Harold & Patricia Ball
and John & Marion Allison with a maximum 12 points
from their 6 games.
Behind them there were 4 teams
who had dropped just 1 point, Shirley & Andrew Eaton,
Peter & Margaret Jarvis, Mike Walker & June
Howard and Margaret Horwood & Paul Daniels.
A further 4 teams made it into
the top 16 on 9 points, with the remaining 5 qualifiers made
it through on just 8 points.
The way that the points were
so evenly spread about in the end, meant that out of the final
qualifiers 5 of them had been outside the top 16 at the end of
Wednesday's play. The best examples of the old addage 'it ain't
over 'til it's over' were Jean & Bill Simpson who
started Thursday in 30th spot and finished 14th and Bob and
Rosie Jones who were 32nd with 2 games to go, but managed
to finish 12th. However the award for the biggest comeback had
to go to Annette & Stan Iskett who could only manage
1 point from Tuesday's games, leaving them in a lowly 54th place,
but they then proceeded to win their remaining 4 games, moving
up to 28th on Wednesday and 9th at the end of the round robin
stage.
KNOCKOUT STAGES
First Round
The format for the knockout stages is such that the top teams
carry forward an advantage gained from their performance in the
Round Robin Stages.
The team which finished top
plays the team which finished 16th, the team that finished 2nd
plays the one that finished 15th, etc.
However although that should
give an advantage, it is not always the case.
Although Joe & Irene
Woodward finished first and Geoff & Margaret Holland
only got through by virtue of their shots, the Hollands were
8-0 up before the Woodwards even got on the board. It was too
much of a deficit to recover from and the Hollands eventually
went through 9-4.
Annette & Stan Iskett were tied 7-7 with Ken Drane &
Valerie Game, going into the last end of their game which
had swung back and forth between the two teams, but in the end
Ken & Val took the game 8-7.
Bob and Rosie Jones took a 5-3 win over Peter &
Margaret Jarvis on the final end of a tight game. And it
was another final end decider which saw the crowd favourites
Shirley & Andrew Eaton take a 7-5 victory over Chris
Clark & Maxine Poulter.
Harold & Patricia Ball held off a late comeback from Reg
& Barbara Neate to go though 9-7. And Peter &
Kay Masters needed an extra end to beat Margaret Horwood
& Paul Daniels 6-5.
Peter & Joyce Holbrow, the winners of this year's Hemsby
Pairs, held on for a 6-4 win over Mike Walker & June Howard.
And in the most clearcut result of the round John & Marion
Allison stormed to a convincing 18-5 win against Jean
& Bill Simpson.
Quarter Finals
The closely fought games continued on into the next round with
none of the matches truly settled until the final ends.
Bob and Rosie Jones fell just one shot short as Shirley
& Andrew Eaton held on to win 7-6. Geoff & Margaret
Holland went into the last end of their tie against Ken
Drane & Valerie Game 6-5 up but lost 3 on the final end
to go down 8-6.
John & Marion Allison secured an 8-5 win against
Peter & Joyce Holbrow. And another tight game saw
Peter & Kay Masters beat Harold & Patricia
Ball 5-3.
Semi Finals
The match between Ken Drane & Valerie Game and Shirley
& Andrew Eaton stood at 4-4 with 2 ends to go but Ken
& Val edged ahead with 2 shots on the penultimate end and
took another 2 on the last to win 8-4.
And in much the same way the
game between Peter & Kay Masters and John &
Marion Allison was close at the midway point, again it was
4-4 but with 3 ends to go, however the next 2 ends were decisive
as the Masters moved to 9-4 ahead with 1 end to ago, finallt
winning 9-5.
Final
The final game of the week was a suitably close affair, although
it didn't look that way to start off with.
Peter & Kay Masters took 3 on the first end and another
one on the second to hold a 4-0 lead with 2 ends down against
Ken Drane & Valerie Game. The next 2 ends were shared,
leaving Peter & Kay 5-1 up with 3 ends to play. But Ken &
Val took one on the next end and then 3 on the 6th to draw level
at 5-5 with just the final end to play. And the game went all
the way down to the wire with the decisive shot being the very
final one as Peter and Kay took the match 6-5. A superb final
and a great way to end the week.
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The full results of the week's
bowling can be found here. |
We would just like to thank all those who joined us for making
it all such an enjoyable week for everyone involved, for helping
us to raise over £300 in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support and
once again for all your very kind words.
tanddcarpetbowls@gmail.com
1st
August 2008 |
