Annabel McDiarmid beat Beatrice McGlen in the first all-female (and Irish-prefixed) final of the B-Level Tournament. Thirty players with a spread of handicaps from 0 to 8 contested the two-day AC knock-out, with one semi-final seeing Beatrice (1) outplay fellow club member Omied Hallam (0.5) while Woking-based Annabel (0) prevailed against fellow visitor Mark Lloyd (0.5) in the other semi. These, four of the top-ranked players, all played well on the Saturday and fortuitously emerged from their separate quarters of the draw.
The Consolation event was resolved by play-offs between Welsh International Alwen Bowker (Cheltenham), Andy Brandwood (Bury), and locals Bob Thompson and David Brydon, with Alwen beating Andy in the final to complete a clean sweep of prizes for members of Ian Burridge's CA Women's Coaching Squad.
Thanks are due to Richard White and family for their customary expert management and splendid catering – with delicious starters both lunchtimes. The three contestants completing triple peels were rewarded with a jar of Beatrice's triple peel marmalade with pink flamingos on the labels.
And as shown below the winner of the Sage Bowl gets to wear the customary sage wreath.
Nottingham beat Southport 4-3
[<<] [>>] by Bob Thompson at Nottingham [^]
A very strong & experienced Southport team, combined handicaps 24, played a much less experienced Nottingham one, combined handicaps 48.5, on the Highfields lawns, Nottingham, in dry but chilly conditions with strong winds.
At lunch, Nottingham were leading 2-1, the newly formed Nottingham pairing of Michael & Viv overcame the strong husband & wife duo Brian & Carol, with Michael making full use of his partners bisques. In the last ten minutes
Michael pegged his own ball out leaving Carol to make the best use of a 3 ball break from her position at 2back, everything was going along smoothly until an underhit shot for position at penult let Viv onto the lawn to peg her own ball out with 10 seconds remaining.
The afternoon session saw two wins for both teams, Michael continuing his good form by completing his singles game in double quick time +25 & Ian completed his second win of the day +19. Brian & Alan won their singles against Nottinghams match debutants Viv & Shirley.
It had been noted that the afternoon games saw all four Nottingham players on the lawns for quite some time, indeed a Southport player mentioned that there might just have been something in the lunch ……..
Michael Finnigan (4.5) & Viv Staley (18) beat Brian Lewis (7) & Carol Lewis
(3.5) +7
Ian Dovey (8) beat Alan Farrell (9) +9
Shirley Ashtari (18) lost to Tony Thomas (4.5) -19
Michael Finnigan (4.5) beat Carol Lewis (3.5) +25
Ian Dovey (8) beat Tony Thomas (4.5) +19
Viv Staley (18) lost to Brian Lewis (7) -9
Shirley Ashtari (18) lost to Alan Farrell (9) -17
