World Championship - Day 3

[<<] [>>] by Jonathan Kirby
9th August 2005 (World Championship)

I was at Bristol yesterday for a hot, cloudless day. There are three lawns there, and four people from each of three groups were for all-play-all mini-blocks. The lawns were a bit faster than Cheltenham, and all the boundaries sloped away, making for testing pickups, but they weren't too difficult once you had a break under control. The order of the day seemed to be pegged out endings, and the best was Beijderwellen v Dumergue. Dumergue pegged out Rutger's black ball with blue on 2b, yellow on peg and red on 1b, leaving red about 5 yards north of corner four (with hoop 4 in the way of rolling to 2b) and yellow in corner 2. Rutger took off from red to yellow, ending up one inch off the north boundary on a fast corner, hit yellow and then rolled to 2b. Yellow ended up in the jaws of the hoop, and blue about 5 yards back. Undeterred, Rutger simply shot hard at the middle of yellow, rushing it to the south boundary and following on straight through the hoop! From there he picked up a break but failed to make penult. Ian laid up in corner 2 with blue near corner 1, and Rutger hit, just came through penult and rolled a little to the side. He must have been wired from his exit ball near rover, as he shot at rover, and ran it after snicking the peg on the way! One player was heard to make a remark about luck, but not Ian who seemed very easy going about it. He'd already qualified by winning his previous game, so it might have been out of place!