Jenny Williams won the Swiss Open Championship

[<<] [>>] by Stephen Mulliner
31st July 2007 (International)

Jenny Williams beat Stephen Mulliner +26tp, -26tp, +17tp, -23, +10 to win the 5th Swiss Open and 1 kilo of silver to go with it. Ian Sexton beat Kevin Garrad to win the plate.

The first two games were bloodless 6th and 7th turn TPs with the slowness of the courts after heavy overnight rain (8- Plummers) making even SNM think twice about sextuples. Big rolls and welted take-offs were the order of the day when picking up breaks and were not unknown during breaks as a degree of bobbliness in front of some hoops made delicate hoop running a little chancy.

Games 3 and 4 had slightly more interest and were also shared. Game 4 should have ended +23tp but S over-hit his rush on peelee to rover and had to settle for rover and peg. Fortunately for him, J missed.

Game 5 had the small but devoted crowd on the edge of their seats. It started with J reaching peg and 4-b with R and Y (the delayed TP never got going) before S hit. The crowd had fun debating whether he would go to 1-b, 4-b or the peg. It turned out to be 1-b and, J's shot being missed, the sxp commenced with the back-up plan of pegging out R.

All went well until the peel through 3-b left a poor rush to 1-b. This was followed by unhelpful hill for the take-off and a failed jump. J hit a 6-yarder with Y near 1-b and took off to B and R just N of 3-b. Hitting R she gave herself a slightly lengthy rush on B to 4-b and only nicked it, sending the in-hand Y through 4-b for good measure. The big roll left an angled 5-yard hoop so, understandably, Y was sent back to R near 3-b leaving a 18-yarder for B.

S now hit R with B and stopped R to between rover and penult while getting a reasonable rush on Y to 4-b. The hoop was made but without a rush south so Y was rolled to rover while B sought a rush on R. Late hill caused B to graze R and the take-off to penult left a 2 yard straight hoop which was failed at some pace, bouncing out to the E. J took her lift with Y, made an extended double of B and R and hit. 4-b and penult were made without fuss but she gave herself a slight issue with an angled rover. However, this was run with care and Jenny pegged out for a well-deserved victory. Her play in the final was very solid and her shooting in pretty good shape.

Many thanks are due to the CERN CC for splendid hospitality under the direction of president Norman Eatough and, more specifically, catering supremo Paul Sampson. Lunches and two out of three evening meals were in the entry fee including drinks (both alcoholic and not). John Davis of Yorkshire and Luxembourg managed the event with his customary elan and some of us will definitely be back to settle some unfinished business!