SCA beat Jersey

[<<] [>>] by Bruce Rannie
25th June 2007 (International)

SCA beat Jersey 9-6 this weekend to register their first victory in the series at the sixth time of asking, although two previous matches ended up as draws.

Scottish names first:

Bruce Rannie and David Appleton beat Sarah Burrow and Gavin Carter +26TP (Rannie)
Joe Lennon beat Elizabeth Medway +24
Bruce Rannie beat Sarah Burrow +17
David Appleton and Joe Lennon beat Gavin Carter and Elizabeth Medway +24
Bruce Rannie beat Gavin Carter +13
David Appleton lost to Sarah Burrow -9
Joe Lennon beat Elizabeth Medway +20
Bruce Rannie and Joe Lennon lost to Sarah Burrow and Elizabeth Medway -3
David Appleton lost to Gavin Carter -25
Bruce Rannie lost to Sarah Burrow -17TP
David Appleton beat Elizabeth Medway +21
Allan Hawke lost to Gavin Carter -3
Bruce Rannie beat Sarah Burrow +2
David Appleton lost to Gavin Carter -4
Allan Hawke beat Elizabeth Medway +3T (22-19)

Handicap change Joe Lennon 11 to 10

On a very wet weekend in Edinburgh, four out of six rounds were played on Saturday, and two on Sunday, between two three-person teams, although for SCA Joe Lennon played Saturday and Allan Hawke Sunday. Three doubles and twelve singles comprised the match, with the singles avoiding the Player 1 v Player 3 mismatch potential. Dawson balls, Omega hoops and wet weather made the lawns easy, with balls sliding through hoops, so the three-hour time limit was tested only once and breached only once. Round 1 doubles saw David Appleton round early and Bruce Rannie finish a TP in driving rain, while the singles saw Joe Lennon completing a convincingly quick win too. Round 2 was almost as quick, Bruce Rannie adapting to the rain better than Sarah Burrow, while the doubles was fairly clinical. By this time the puddles on the vacant court of the three at Meadows were beginning to recede. Round 3 after lunch in some sunshine was all singles, with Bruce Rannie beating a very promising Gavin Carter after Gavin was round first and clanged five with Bruce yet to start, Sarah seeing off David Appleton (David's first singles defeat in his new shoes, only his second in 20 advanced and handicap), and Joe beating Elizabeth again. That was the planned end of Day 1 but it was only 4 o'clock, fine, and Sunday's forecast was worse than Saturday's. So Round 4 was played, Gavin beating David +25, and Bruce and Joe managing to lose to Sarah and Elizabeth after a see-saw game, and Joe failing to approach rover on a four-hoop two-ball finish. Where to put the striker's ball, with rover and peg playing 2B (Elizabeth) and 4B (Sarah) and about 15 minutes left? Bruce decided to throw down the gauntlet, at which point Elizabeth picked it up, and ran from 2B to peg in about 12 minutes. The leave HAD to be Sarah's ball in corner IV, as in a singles game earlier the short shot from the end of A-baulk had hilled off ... Naturally, Bruce's short shot, taken with the plan of getting behind the peg ball, getting them both in the box, and leaving 4B v rover with under two minutes to go, duly hilled off, and Sarah completed the win in the turn where time was called. And it was raining again by now! And we were late for dinner! Sunday was all singles, with SCA needing two of the six. First Bruce Rannie was round in turn 3, Sarah responded in turn 4, Bruce missed in turn 5 and shortly afterwards Sarah had the TP completed. Then David beat Elizabeth to bring SCA within one. But the Allan Hawke / Gavin Carter game delayed lunch for some time, as Allan was well ahead reaching peg and 4B with Gavin on 1 and 2 before Gavin hit the lift, got the break together, and went all the way round to peg the opponent off. Allan ran 4B from the contact, but under-approached penult, and after some fits and starts and long attempted roquets, Gavin completed the three-ball ending to keep the match alive. No Round 6 match was very quick, although Sarah was well ahead against Bruce, but having trouble with the peelee, so much so that a classic four-balls-round-rover end-of-turn followed the attempted straight triple, with Bruce yet to start. After a hiccup or two, and Sarah getting one ball to the peg, Bruce did get round, and, in similar fashion, found getting the peelee to behave impossible. However, two peels of the STP were achieved, but the third was never on, so he decided to have both peg balls off, leaving the two rover balls on opposite sides of the court. Fairly quickly an impasse wired across rover was agreed, and the new CA Regulations (officially applicable from 1 July) were invoked from a remote computer, with a load of deeming, a coin-toss, and a start from baulk, roquets not to count for five pairs of turns or until a hoop was scored. This all ended with a clanged hoop on the sixth pair of turns (roquet allowed), and a hit of the protruding half-ball to give Bruce the +2 win, and SCA the eighth point. Then Gavin had another three-ball ending, this time 4B v 4B, for another win over David, and Allan had a long tussle against Elizabeth, getting three ahead in the turn when time was called, leaving a chance with the lift shot, which this time Elizabeth could not take, to give the final match score SCA 9 Jersey 6. We all look forward to the rematch at Les Quennevais in 2009.