[<<] [>>] by Elizabeth Williams
24th June 2002 (AC - Championships)

The 2002 student championships turned out to be very successful, with several players competing in their first tournament. Oxford University took on City to defend the Reeves University Challenge Cup. City had fielded a brave team under the captaincy of Gabrielle Higgins, with two of her players having only played on a full size lawn for the first time the week before! The Dudley Hamilton Miller Cup (Student singles) was a much more closely fought event. Credit must go to David Follows for wanting to play despite having never played level-advanced before, and knowing that he was unlikely to get very far. Saturday saw the two favourites struggling, but still coming out on top. It was decided for Sunday that a best of 3 final would be more appropriate to see which of them would take home the cup, while the rest of the competitors carried on playing single games. Michael Blackwell came out the eventual winner after a very closely fought final game.

The Competitors

Name (Handicap) UNIVERSITY

Michael Blackwell (0) LSE
James Mackay (0.5) CARDIFF
Gabrielle Higgins (4.5) CITY
Guy Towlson (4.5) OXFORD
Stuart Romeril (5) OXFORD
Mark Gooding (6) OXFORD
Matt Winn-Smith (10) CITY
Mark Snow (12) OXFORD
David Follows (20) OXFORD
Caroline Middleton (24) CITY
Benjamin John (24) CITY

Team Event

The Reeves University Challenge Cup

City University vs. Oxford University

ROMERIL & GOODING beat WINN-SMITH & MIDDLETON +18
TOWLSON & SNOW beat HIGGINS & JOHN +20

Winner: Oxford University.

Singles Event

The Dudley Hamilton Miller Cup

Round 1

BLACKWELL beat GOODING +5
MACKAY beat FOLLOWS +12
HIGGINS beat ROMERIL +15

Round 2

BLACKWELL beat HIGGINS +9
MACKAY beat ROMERIL +16
TOWLSON beat GOODING +10

Round 3

MACKAY beat HIGGINS +7
BLACKWELL beat TOWLSON +3
GOODING beat ROMERIL +16

Rounds 4-6

Best-of-three Final
BLACKWELL beat MACKAY +4(TPO) -18TP +3

Single Games

HIGGINS beat GOODING +5
TOWLSON beat WINN-SMITH +17
ROMERIL beat FOLLOWS +24
TOWLSON beat HIGGINS +16
ROMERIL beat WINN-SMITH +8
GOODING beat FOLLOWS +19
ROMERIL beat TOWLSON +17
WINN-SMITH beat FOLLOWS +15
GOODING beat SNOW +26

Overall Standings after 6 rounds:

BLACKWELL: 5/6 First Place and winner of The Dudley Hamilton Miller Cup
MACKAY: 4/6 Runner-Up
TOWLSON: 3/5
GOODING: 3/6
ROMERIL: 3/6
HIGGINS: 2/5
WINN-SMITH: 1/3
SNOW: 0/1
FOLLOWS: 0/4