Roger Stroud won the Leighton-Linslade GC B-Level Tournament

[<<] [>>] by John Cundell at Leighton-Linslade CC
18 Jun 2016 (GC)

The twelve competitors were drawn into two blocks of six, keeping clubs separated and husband/wives similarly as far as was possible - and to maintain an equable level of handicaps. All competitors had arrived by 9.00am - some having stayed locally overnight. After a warm welcome on what was a rather chilly day weatherwise, Tournament Manager John Cundell briefed the players on the day's programme. After 15 minutes practise to introduce the players to the vagaries of our lawns, play commenced. These were singles games with no time limit, doubled up on all three lawns. The visitors were extremely impressed with our scoring system that was staffed all day by a number of our club members - including Sally Clay, John Thorp, Una Pengelly, Judith Cundell, Judi Priestley and Eve Buckingham.

The 30 games proceeded throughout the day, with competitors taking a short lunch break after three rounds.

At the end of the block play, our Roger Stroud was a clear winner in his block - repeating his performance from last year, with Marion Manning from Colchester in second place. In the other block there was another clear winner, Chris Heath from Guildford & Godalming, with first timer to this competition, Malcolm Kirby in second place.

As well as the two games required to find the first four places of the day, all competitors agreed they would like to play off for the minor places. The final between Roger and Chris, and the third/fourth play off between Malcolm and Marian took place simultaneously on lawn 3, with the other four games covering fifth to 12th on lawns 1 and 2.

Both games were very close, with Roger beating Chris 7-5 and Marian beating Malcolm 7 - 6. On the day as a whole, 18 of the 36 games played went to hoops 12 or 13!

The final positions were:

1st Roger Stroud

2nd Chris Heath

3rd Marian Manning

4th Malcolm Kirby

5th Tony Wells

6th David Boxell

7th Michael Bilton

8th Michael Manning

9th Patrick Knight

10th Richard Bilton

11th Marilyn Robinson

12th June Pendergrast

John Cundell announced the full results and Roger Stroud came forward to receive an engraved glass with the LLCC logo and the words 'WINNER - B-LEVEL 2016 from our Chairman, Malcolm Kirby.

Patrick Knight thanked us for an excellent competition, our well-received scoring system and our overall management of the day.

Tournament Manager John Cundell would like to thank the scorers mentioned above, Len Buckingham who was the Tournament Referee, John Thorp who was on site at 7.15am as we swished off the worm casts and set the hoops, plus Tony Wells, Roger Stroud and Malcolm Kirby to help erect gazebos, scoring tents, etc., and Una Pengelly and Judith Cundell on other early event duties.