Simon Tuke won the ARK

[<<] [>>] by Martin Burger at Surbiton
3rd October 2023 (AC)

The ARK moved to a later date this year , as Surbiton no longer hosted the Inter-Club competition .
The weather was benign and fortunately the total A3 closure had been deferred for a fortnight .
Handicaps ranged from -1 to 11.

A 20 player entry meant 5 unbeaten players after 2 rounds . By the end of the first day , Simon Tuke had beaten Ignacio Gross, and Diana Wilson v Michael Bithell and Martin Burger v Tony Elliott (1/2) were pegged down, with Diana and Tony prevailing the next morning. At that stage 14 players had started their 4th game at start of play and the 6 pegged down players were arranged for a 4th round game some time after 10:30. Simon beat Andy Dibben , and although Diana accidentally pegged out a ball with about half an hour to go, her shooting skills no doubt carried over from her successful GC season, and a few hoops lead at the time, enabled her to hold on and beat Martin Burger on time.

So this meant Simon and Diana could play off after lunch (when the products of the newly equipped kitchen were widely appreciated, thanks to George, Vicky and Susie). This was quite exciting as Diana got a long way with her bisques (which I suspect will not be as plentiful in the near future) and Simon clawed his way back. When time was called Simon played a ball round and pegged it out with his other ball on Rover leaving Diana's penult ball near hoop 3, her partner (for peg) near corner 4 , and Simon near tice position . Diana hit Simon and took off and ran penult but missed the long (over 15 yards) shot back at Simon, so plus one on time to Simon.

Also worth a mention are Barry Holland's triple peel v Chrissie Merrington (though Barry had already got his gold in last year's B-level), and Jordan Waters' triple v Simon Ling which was his first so a gold award for him to cap what seems to have been a highly successful season.

Result
Winner : Simon Tuke (hcp 3) (5/5) runner up : Diana Wilson (Hcp 10) (4/5). 3rd Ignacio Gross (hcp 8)