The Peel Memorials

[<<] [>>] by Mark Lansdale at Nottingham
14th May (AC - Handicap)

This year's Peels, in weather terms at least, could not have been more different that 2024; when rain took a whole day out of a four-day competition. Apart from a coldish start, this year was dawn to dusk warm sunshine. From a purely aesthetic point of view, there is no better sight than Nottingham's West Lawns in morning sun mown, and set out, by groundsman Charlie before most of us got there. Indeed before most of us got out of bed.

The east lawns being redeveloped, all matches had to be prescribed on a block system and they progressed smoothly on those lines; even if the manager sometimes felt like a sheepdog trying to get the afternoon and evening sessions starting on time. Perhaps the quality of the catering - always good at Nottingham and certainly no different this year - caused the players to linger a little longer than they should. Certainly nothing was ever left over at the end of the day.

The problem of these multi-event competitions is how to cope when the same individuals qualify for the finals of both singles and doubles events. And so it unfolded. In the men's singles event in particular, with five rounds completed, 7 of the 14 men had a potential interest on the final day. By pure luck, six of them had been scheduled to play each other that morning, reducing the field to four. Nevertheless, the clash with the doubles remained with no time for a meaningful playoff between semi-finalists, and the fairest resolution of the perennial conundrum was to play the two men in the final with the highest percentage wins thus far.

In the finals, Tim Ash (HC 11) beat Omied Hallam (HC-1.5) 26-8, having kept Omied off the lawn for much of the game, using his bisque advantage effectively and making clever leaves . By the time Omied got on the lawn he might have fancied his chances of taking both balls round, but it was not to be. In the Ladies Final, Sarah Butler (HC14) beat Phillipine Hallam (HC 12) 18-6 on time. Sarah capitalised on her opponent's breakdown on hoop two, using a bisque to put pressure on her opponent by going to 1-back. For the rest of the match, good hitting in and tidy breaks kept a tight control on the game. The closest final was in the Mixed Doubles, where Lorna Dewar (HC-0.5) & Tom Dewar (HC 8) beat Sarah Butler (HC 14) and Mark Lansdale (HC 9) 16 - 15 on time. Mark Lansdale opened with a break to 1-back; albeit using more bisques than he would have expected. This was followed by a break by Lorna dewar to rover, after which a defensive period in which neither couple made large breaks, but with Tom Dewar progressing to 5. Late in the game, Mark Lansdale made an error- free break to peg, with the thought (he ducked the significant risk involved) of pegging-out Lorna's red ball. With time running out, Sarah made a few hoops to get within 1, but their opponents superior defensive skills saw them through by one hoop.

Overall, the tournament proceeded smoothly and a very friendly atmosphere prevailed throughout. A number of players new to tournaments said they were off to sign up for more, which is a nice afterthought.