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Reg Bamford won the Men's Championship in style with two sextuples, each picked up from a hit lift, and a laid octuple. The crowd watched in awe as Reg peeled 5 and 6 before running hoop 1 and went on to run 2 off partner so the standard sextuple was on. The penult peel came before 4-back, making the whole turn look effortless. Finalist David Goacher played well, hitting most shots but he didn't have the ammunition to out-gun Reg. His final leave (NSL) was hit by Reg capitalising on his perfectly straight swing by trickling the ball at 3-back directly at the east boundary ball by striking it through the hoop.

In the third game of the semi-final, Reg first hit-in when David Openshaw was for 4-back and 1. Reg laid the 1-back leave and in the subsequent turn TP'd David's ball, did 2 peels on his own and pegged two balls out leaving 1 vs. 3-back. The second game in this semi-final was the only one Reg lost in the tournament, and without taking coquet. In the first, Reg was all set for a "boring old sextuple" picked up from a hit lift, when the 1-back peel (from several yards NW of 1-back) when through, only to be caught up by striker's ball, which remained in contact with it. Reg vainly attempted the "croquet" stroke to roquet the reception ball.

In the first round, John Gibbons put up a valiant challenge to Reg using a club mallet - his own was discovered snapped in two when he removed it from his car! John hit the 1-back leave both times; the second time the ball barely reached and almost stopped a few inches short. In the first game John was unfortunate to break down on a finishing turn.

Number 2 seed, David Maugham, is working on perfecting the sextuple but lost in the rain to Chris Farthing who shot and finished excellently in the match. In the first round, David played Bernard Neal who, on getting a difficult rush on partner to move the 4-back peelee to penult, decided to rush it across the court only to watch amazed as it went through penult to rover (from behind 4-back). He failed to finish by missing a 3-inch roquet on the ball in the jaws of rover!

Jenny Williams won the Women's Championship in a close fought match with Beatrice McGlen. Jenny had a relatively easy ride to the final, with a day off on Thursday and her Friday opponent Kathleen Priestley pulled out the night before, Jenny only had to beat Pauline Healy to get into the final. Sam Symonds lost her semi-final to Beatrice but went on to qualify for the DuPre knockout and gave Jeremy Dyer a scare. Jeremy hit on the second turn and began a quality two-ball break, which sadly became hampered after 2-back. Sam went to peg on the third turn and Jeremy pegged two balls off in the fourth, leaving himself 3-back vs. 1 in the fifth turn of the game. A little later, Sam was in front of 4-back and Jeremy's clip was on Rover with his ball on the West boundary. Unfortunately (for her) Sam didn't make Penult.

David Openshaw and Kathleen Priestley beat David Maugham and Jenny Williams in the Mixed Doubles Championship. Perhaps the most notable game was in the first round when Jenny had to start without her partner, who was travelling back from Sonoma. He had landed at Heathrow at 7AM, flew to Manchester, taken a taxi home, got in his car, driven to Cheltenham and arrived to help Jenny get to 1-back, then he did a sextuple!

Lionel Tibble won the DuPre.

In the picture: Lionel Tibble, Dave Maugham, Jenny Williams, Reg Bamford, Beatrice McGlen, Dave Goacher, David Openshaw.

Men's Results

Round 1

Alan Pidcock beat Paul Smith +5 +22
Keith Aiton beat Jeremy Dyer +13 -5 +17
David Openshaw beat David Mundy +26 +17tp
John Davis beat Rutger Beijdarwellen -26tp +26 +19
David Goacher beat Ed Dymock +23tp +23
Tim Wilkins beat Gordon Hopewell +7 +24tp
Dave Foulser beat Dave Kibble -6 +4 +24
Chris Farthing beat Lionel Tibble +1 +3
Chris Patmore beat Jonathan Kirby +17 +2tp
Dave Maugham beat Bernard Neal +25sxp +4sxp

Round 2

Reg Bamford beat John Gibbons +5sxp +19
Aiton beat Pidcock +20 -19 +6qp
Openshaw beat Davis +26tp +26tp
David Harrison-Wood beat Don Gaunt +15 -12 +2
Goacher beat Wilkins +16tp +25tp
Ian Burridge beat Pete Trimmer +12 +18
Farthing beat Foulser +12 +16tp
Maugham beat Patmore +26tp +24sxp

Quarter-Finals

Bamford beat Aiton +10qp +11sxp
Openshaw beat Harrison-Wood -16 +17 +18tp
Goacher beat Burridge +25tp +26tp
Farthing beat Maugham -15 +13 +4

Semi-Finals

Bamford beat Openshaw +26qp -26tp +13tpo
Goacher beat Farthing +16tp +16tp

Final

Bamford beat Goacher +17sxp +15sxp +17octp

Women's Results

Round 1

Louise Bradforth beat Alison Thursfield +24 +15
Sam Symonds beat Francis Ransom -11 +2 +6

Round 2

Jenny William beat Kathleen Priestley w/o
Pauline Healy beat Eileen Magee -12 +4 +10
Symonds beat Bradforth +19 +24
Beatrice McGlen beat Sue Edwards +23 +16

Semi-Finals

Williams beat Healy +14 +25
McGlen beat Symonds +7 +19

Final

Williams beat McGlen +4 +7