The club hosted its second day of national competition on Thursday when competitors from England and Wales visited Stoney Ley for the Broadwas heat of the National GC C-level (7+) series tournament.
And again, Broadwas players did themselves proud against a nationwide field of sixteen experienced lower handicap players.
Four Broadwas players competed in the tournament including Jean Faulkner (11) and Malcolm Armstrong (12). It was Malcolm’s first ever taste of competition in a national tournament.
Late on Wednesday, competition reserve Howard Freeman (7) gained a place in the competition when he was drafted in to fill in for a player who had to withdraw at late notice. Whatshisface (16) (the name will come to me eventually) was the fourth member of the Broadwas representation.
Mercifully, the rain stayed away and the sun shone throughout the day. Fortunately, the temperatures weren’t quite as fierce as those facing competitors in the B-level tournament held at the club on Wednesday.
Jean Faulkner led the way for Broadwas by reaching the quarter-final of the main knockout competition and finishing sixth overall in the tournament, against a tough field of players.
On the way to the tournament’s shield final, Jean beat Liza Furnival (8) 7-4 in block C and Malcolm Armstrong, 7-5.
Jean then went on to beat Trevor Charlton (8) 7-5 in the Shield Semi-Final, only to narrowly lose out in the final 5-7 in the Shield Final, to Brenda Duplock (8).
In Block B, Howard Freeman beat Trevor Charlton 7-4 and Veronica Courtney (18) 7-6.
Howard reached the Plate Quarter-Final and beat Kate Packham 7-6 (8), but unfortunately lost 7-4 to Liza Furnival in the semi’s, 4-7.
In his first ever national level-play competition, Malcolm Armstrong reached the Plate Final after beating Whatshisface 7-4 in the Quarter-Final and pulled off a great win by beating Martin Jones (7) 7-5 in the Semi-Final. Unfortunately, Malcolm lost out to 8-handicap Liza Furnival in the final, 3-7.
Bringing up the rear, Whatshisface narrowly lost out 6-7 each to Chris Ogden (7) and Angus Young (9). The high spot of his day was beating Pamela Please (6) 7-6. The last time they met, at Budleigh Salterton in May, Pam thrashed Whatshisface 7-1 in the first game of the day.
Amazingly, Whatshisface found himself winning the Saucer Final by beating Kate Packham 7-6 after reaching the final by beating fellow High Handicap captain (Moreton-in-Marsh A) Veronica Courtney 7-4, in the Semi-Final. Whatshisface was really excited until he realised he had only come 13th in the tournament.
Overall winner of the tournament was Roger Booth of Eynsham who beat fellow Eynsham player Chris Ogden, 7-6.
Both the B-level and C-level competitions were ably managed by Jon Carrington and Jeff Faulkner was run off his feet as the C-level referee. Many thanks to Jon and Jeff and to the club members who were on hand all day to provide much-needed refreshments to the thirsty players. On the morning shift were Alison Disley and Brian Humphreys, followed by Josie Watson and Janet Bedford in the afternoon.
Paul Felton
(More pictures below)
