Angharrad Walters won the Bowdon Advanced Weekend
[<<] [>>] by Andrew Winn
at Bowdon
6th June 2023
(AC)
The low Spring rainfall and clear blue skies leading up to - and during - the event made for challenging conditions for players at Bowdon's June advanced tournament this year. Variably paced lawns required significant concentration from players for their breaks to be successfully navigated. Games were highly interactive and only two triple peels were completed during the weekend, despite 12 of the field of 16 having handicaps of scratch and below. Alain Giraud attempted two sextuples, so perhaps the triple count would have been higher had he not been so ambitious.
The visitors were Alain Giraud (-2, Ealing/Bowdon), Ian and Debbie Lines (both -1.5, Peterborough), Rick Harding (-1.5, Southport), Annabel McDiarmid (-1, no current club), Stephen Wright (-1, Ben Rhydding), defending champion Paul Rigge (-1.5, Pendle), David Magee (0, Cheltenham) and Gediminas Smolskas (3.5, Bury).
The local entrants were Angharrad Walters (-1.5), Andrew Winn (-1.5), Colin Irwin (0), Nigel Matthews (0), Brian (Deadly) Medley (1.5), Charles Harding (2) and Mike Sandler (1.5).
With no time limits set by manager Ian Lines, and best-of-three semi-finals between Alain & Debbie and Ian & Angharrad not being completed until well into the Sunday afternoon, Ian suggested that the final of Alain vs Angharrad be played as a single game under Super Advanced rules. This provided even more interactivity to enthrall the local club members who'd come along to spectate (and sample the excellent array of cakes on offer).
Angharrad prevailed, winning the event for the first time and Ian beat Andrew to claim the bottle of wine for the Egyptian consolation event. Mike Sandler finally got his hands on a trophy - if only to hand it to Angharrad during the presentation. Thanks were given to Alan Mayne for his tireless efforts on the lawn care, the caterers and to Ian for managing the event which ran smoothly, had a great atmosphere and was enjoyed by all.