Jamie Burch Won the South of England Championship

Hilary Smith presents the trophy to Jamie

by Roger Wood at Compton
21st September 2014 (AC - Championships)

Jamie Burch	Jamie Burch +17tp -7 +16tp	Jamie Burch +17tp +19	Jamie Burch +26tp -12 +10tpo	Jamie Burch +21tp -26tp +25tp	Jamie Burch -9otp -15 +26qp +17 +7otp
Christian Carter
Matt Holmes	Matt Holmes +17 +3
Sam Murray
	Duncan Reeve	Gabrielle Higgins +6 +17

	Gabrielle Higgins

	Jack Wicks	Jack Wicks +19tp +7tp	Alain Giraud +26tp +11

	Mark Ormerod

	Andrew Gregory	Alain Giraud +10 +4

	Alain Giraud

	Ed Duckworth	Ed Duckworth +26tp -26tp +25	Gavin Carter +25tp +23	Gavin Carter +10tpo +5

	Dominic Nunns

	Dave Kibble	Gavin Carter +20tp +10tp

	Gavin Carter

	Richard H Smith	Richard H Smith +5tp -17tp +19	David Maugham +12 +26tp

	Keith Aiton

Nigel Polhill	Nigel Polhill +14 +10	David Maugham +15tp +26tp
Luc Berthouze
Nick Parish	David Maugham +8 +9
David Maugham

A strong field of 20 featured three winners of this year's invitation Eights and the runner-up in the fourth - a first for this event. It was good to see a quartet of newcomers: Christian Carter, Alain Giraud, Matt Holmes and Dominic Nunns; plus Duncan Reeve returning after a gap of 24 years. The weather was kind by day - only the occasional chilly breeze - but overnight rain on Friday was preceded by several hours of the most spectacular, continuous lightning display out to sea.

Gavin Carter (winner in 2012) was the in form player of the weekend remaining unbeaten until Sunday lunchtime and the third game of the best-of-5 final. Defending champion Jamie Burch impressed with his consistent shooting but conceded a game to each of Christian Carter, Gabrielle Higgins and Alain Giraud on his way to the final where, having lost the first two closely contested games, he came back strongly with a fifth turn quadruple peel in the third. Having won the fourth to level the match Jamie was first to 4-back in the decider only to be TPOed by Gavin who then uncharacteristically failed 2-back with his other ball allowing Jamie to finish and retain his title.

Jack Wicks dominated the Swiss, as he did last year, winning all seven games and throwing in two quadruple peels for good measure. Only Jamie had more peeling finishes, but Ed Duckworth sneaked the peeling prize with two triples and a fine sextuple against Alain Giraud. Matt Holmes's sextuple attempt faded after 4 peels, but he did achieve a (losing) QPO and later a QP.

Consolation Swiss (for the Sussex Union Cup)

Winner: Jack Wicks 9 wins from 11 games (82%)
7/11 (64%) Ed Duckworth, Alain Giraud
5/9 (56%) Nick Parish, Duncan Reeve
5/10 (50%) Luc Berthouze
4/9 (44%) Dominic Nunns, Mark Ormerod
3/7 (43%) Gabrielle Higgins
4/10 (40%) Matt Holmes
3/8 (38%) Christian Carter
4/11 (36%) Nigel Polhill
3/9 (33%) Dave Kibble, Sam Murray
2/7 (29%) Andrew Gregory
3/11 (27%) Richard H Smith

Peeling Prize: Ed Duckworth (3 x 26tp, 1 x 26sxp)