[<<] [>>] by George Noble at Surbiton
6-10 Sep 2006 (AC - Championships)

Day 1

The harvest moon was high over the lawns at Surbiton at 20.15 when Nick Harris and Martin Murray decided that their game should be pegged down and put the dwindling crowd out of its serious misery. All the players must have been enjoying themselves, given the amount of time they spent on the lawns, but it was not immediately obvious why that should have been so. The lawns were a conducive 11.70 Plummers and the hoops firm but fair: yet only Nelson got anywhere near a successful TP and that bit the dust at rover. Only Nelson is unbeaten......... and they made me miss the first half of the footie.

Day 2

There was a partial eclipse of the harvest moon this evening. In view of the consequent reduction in light intensity, it was necessary to peg down Nick Harris's evening game at 20.10 rather than 20.15 as yesterday. Nelson Morrow lost a game today so he now ties for first place with Nick Butler: five wins each.

Day 3

Paul Smith and I had half a plan to go to the world premier on Thursday evening of an opera about the leader of Libya, but the measured pace of the games meant that we were unable to do so. Judging by the reviews, we may have had a lucky escape. Further gratitude to the players today who responded to the imposition of time limits by completing all the scheduled games by moonrise. The pegged down Smith/Harris game will be resumed at 09.00 tomorrow and pegged down again at 10.15.

Day 4

Games all finished at 19.20 today to much relief. Nick Harris now obviously content. Nelson Morrow and Nick Butler tie on 10 wins each and they play each other in the final round. A play-off cannot be contemplated because of the clash with the televised Hammers v Villa game.

The pegged down Smith / Harris game resumed at 09.00 and was over in 10 minutes.

Day 5

None of that tripling nonsense here. Nick Butler won what was effectively a final in round 14. He and Nelson had started the final day on 10 wins each but Nelson lost to Ben Ashwell, who had drafted in a supporter, and Nick just beat Nick (+1T) so that Nelson had to beat Nick B in the final round to force a play-off (which would have been infeasible). Some good, golf croquet style, play for Nick B was, sadly, too much for Nelson. The best example was when Nelson set a reverse spread and Nick B ran 1 from A baulk and then hit the balls on the west boundary.

When later asked about time limits, Martin Murray adds: "A time limit of 3.25 hours was applied to all games in the second round, after a game was pegged down on each of the first two days. The longest finished game had been 4.75 hours. The standard of play improved (marginally) in the second round, and the speed of play increased dramatically, so that only three (or thereabouts) games went to time, even though, as I said, a remarkably high proportion were close."

George Noble: "The time limits of 3.25 hours were imposed after the first round of seven games. Yes - I know that it would not have enabled us to complete three rounds in a day, if too many went to time, but it did curtail the 4/5 hour games which held up everyone else. And it meant that we finished at tea time on Sunday."