Alastair Broom won the Cheltenham GC B-Level

[<<] [>>] by Ivor Brand at Cheltenham
30th June (GC - Tournaments)

Once again this weekend's event was quickly oversubscribed even with the increased allocation. (However my thanks again to Callum Pattison who did step in at short notice). The day started with the 32 players seeded into 8 blocks of 4. This would then allow for the 8 block winners to go into 2 blocks of 4. The same format was used for the runners-up, 3^rd place and 4^th place blocks. Fortunately, the weather was good and players enjoyed the extra rest over lunch while I wrote out the 8 new blocks and order of play! (Next year I really must get an assistant to help or change the format to the CA recommended way) There were 5 block winners who were undefeated, Neil Pinker, Chris Jackson, Colin Helps, John Duplock and Jill Richardson. The remaining 3 places went to Naomi Whitehead, Chris Webbley and Alistair Broom who all got through on net points. Neil Pinker continued to march through his block undefeated to the final, while Alistair Broom came through on net points in a 3 way tie over Chris Jackson and Chris Webbley.

The final saw Neil race to a 2-0 lead but then seemed to run out of steam allowing Alistair to catch up and indeed take a 5-2 lead himself. At this point Neil was forced into attempting a jump at hoop 8 only to promote Alistair through into a commanding position which he did not surrender winning 7-4.

(All scores are on CS.) It is normal to thank everyone at the club that help to set up and run a tournament for others to enjoy and so I will leave you with my lasting memory of watching Jill Bateman walking round the lawns with her bucket collecting the pegs while Naomi Whitehead is putting away the cushions at the end of the day!!!

Finally, a massive thankyou to all the players who did follow the guidelines and stuck to the generous 60min time limit which allowed this tournament to flow without an unnecessary interruption.