Anthony Miller won the Middlesbrough Advanced tournament

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The finalists, The winner and the players

ANTHONY MILLER IS THE FIRST NAME ON THE TROPHY

For the first time the Middlesbrough Advanced Tournament would be played for a brand new, bespoke Trophy - but who would get the honor of being the first name on it ?

Well, as I've already said, the name on the trophy is Anthony Miller but there is a lot more to say about this Tournament other than who won it.

8 players with handicaps ranging from minus 1.5 to 8 were split into 2 Seeded Blocks of 4. All play all with the top two in each block progressing to what would effectively be the Semi Finals and then the Final.

The 2 hour 40 minute Time Limit worked well with only 4 of 20 games going to time.

The weather was glorious, in fact too hot. The Host Club provided an unlimited supply of water and cold drinks in addition to the usual tea, coffee, cake and biscuits. And, please note Hosting Clubs, all at no charge !! ( North East hospitality )

Block B was straight forward with top seed Andrew Winn largely untroubled in winning all 3 of his games. Second seed, Dennis Scarr was runner up in Block B.

Block A was not straight forward with 3 players finishing on 2 wins from 3.

Overnight the Manager devised an entertaining Playoff to challenge the participants and distract the remaining players waiting around to find out who they were playing next.

The Playoff participants were first and second seeds Andrew Killick and Anthony Miller and Mark Simmerson and it was Miller and Simmerson who came through the trial by '2 Ball Break starting in Corner 4'. I will not risk possible embarrassment to players by revealing how many hoops were made by each player, suffice to say the top score was 3.

The Semi Finals saw both the top remaining seeds beaten - Mark Simmerson beat Andrew Winn and Anthony Miller beat Dennis Scarr.

On to the final. Everything was going along quite nicely, Mark reaching Peg and 1 Back and Anthony on 4 Back and 4.

Anthony hit in and as the crowd was swelled by players from other games finishing and Mark pondering the wisdom of taking his ball to Peg, with each of Anthony's hoops an ominous hush fell over those on the sideline.

The inevitable happened - Anthony pegged Marks forward ball out, then not so expected, pegged his forward ball out also leaving Mark on 1 Back and Anthony on 4 Back.

Initially we had three turns around 4 Back with Mark limited to long shots. Anthony ran 4 Back to the Boundary with Marks ball on the east boundary level with 4 Back. Anthony obviously did not want to lay up in front of Penult as any hit in by Mark could effectively be a rush to his1 Back hoop. So, Anthony did not lay up in front of Penult, instead, from quite an angle he ran Penult. Well, that's that we thought. However Anthony had an hampered stroke out of Penult so could only position his ball half way between the Peg and Rover.

Mark hit in from the East Boundary level with 4 Back. He then embarked on a series of overtaking rolls, half rolls and full rolls plus after hoop hit ins getting position ( if you can call it that ) the right side of his next hoop but all in the 'less than 10% chance of success' category. The crowd marveled as starting at 1 Back he made his way through a minefield of possible failures to finally run Penult. But hampered ! The best he can do is rush the oppo ball short of Peg high. Time has expired. A take off to Rover perhaps ! No Mark goes for broke and rolls both balls towards Rover. Again not close and on this occasion the hoop known as Rover says 'No' and rejects the hoop attempt leaving Anthony with his turn at time to make a Roquet, run Rover, rush to the Peg and that's how Anthony Miller got his name on the Trophy.

All Results & Scores

Anthony Miller beat Andrew Killick 20 - 15 (T)

Mark Simmerson beat Steven Pratt 26 - 3

Andrew Killick beat Mark Simmerson 26 - 15

Anthony Miller beat Steven Pratt 26 - 14

Andrew Killick beat Steven Pratt 26 - 1

Mark Summerson beat Anthony Miller 26 - 4

Andrerw Winn beat Dennis Scarr 26 - 10

Julian Gibson beat Stephen Skelton 20 - 14 (T)

Andrew Winn beat Stephen Skelton 26 - 5

Dennis Scarr beat Julian Gibson 26 - 18

Dennis Scarr beat Stephen Skelton 24 - 19 (T)

Andrrw Winn beat Julian Gibson 26 - 4

Anthony Miller beat Dennis Scarr 26 - 10

Mark Simmerson beat Andew Winn 26 - 2

Andreew Killick beat Stephen Skelton 26 - 4

Julian Gibson beat Steven Pratt 26 - 18

Anthony Miller beat Mark Simmerson 26 - 24

Andrrw Winn beat Dennis Scarr 26 - 11

Andrew Killick beat Julian Gibson 26 - 3

Stephen Skelton beat Steve Pratt 21 - 7 (T)