2012 September One-Day Tournament

The club's 2012 AC tournament season ended in fine style with a closely-contested one-day tournament under sunny autumn skies. The unusual mixture of Level Advanced, Handicap Advanced and simple Handicap 18-point games in one block with a large range of player handicaps worked without any problems, accounting for 25%, 25% and 50% of the games played respectively. As might be expected, for the most part the Advanced rules were preferred by the lower handicap players, but notably the highest handicapper, Janet Carleton, also opted spiritedly for Advanced rules in all but one of her four games.

After the first three rounds Arthur Reed was in a clear lead as the only player to have won all three of his games so far, but with several others on 2 wins there was still everything to play for in the final round. Then Arthur lost quickly to Chris Frost, putting them equal on 3 wins each, and the contest ended up in dramatic style depending on the very last game to finish, between Brian Havill and Janet Carleton, who each had 2 wins from the earlier rounds. The winner of that game would therefore join Arthur and Chris on 3 wins apiece. Working through the rather tricky tie-breaking permutations, it was calculated that if Janet won that last game she would win the tournament (having beaten Chris in their individual encounter), and if Brian won then Chris would win the tournament (having beaten Arthur in their individual encounter). In the event it went to a very close finish, with all four balls for peg and Janet having run out of bisques. In the end Janet missed a longish roquet by a whisker, enabling Brian to peg out for a +2 win and thereby convey the tournament victory and the prize of a bottle of "Croquet" aperitif to Chris. But although Brian missed out on the title, he won the consolation prize for the largest net index point gain. 

Results:

 

Click on images for an enlargement