As usual, we commenced the season at Moreton Hall, courtesy of Peter Alexander and his team. A very large entry, 130+, descended on Friday afternoon and concluded just under 2 days later.

WO55/60 – Surprises in Lynne Davies losing to Tammy Bennett, 1-3 and Sarah Howlett going down to Sue Pynegar. Karen Hume was on top form and for the second time in 30 years beat her previous nemesis, Jill Campion, 9/7  1/9  2/9  8/10  to record the title.  Sets up a fascinating World Masters in Joburg....

WO50 – Pippa Green sneaked Hilary Kenyon, 7/9  9/6  9/0  9/7, for the right to play a returning Fran Wallis who was too good for everyone, winning the Final, 10/9  9/4  9/0.

WO45 – A Round Robin with Sam Mueller coming out on top, beating Sarah Parr 3-1, Izzy Tyrell 3-0 and Alison Goy 3-0. Tyrell took second place.

WO35/O40 – A Round Robin of 5 players saw Keeley Johnson beat Natalie Lawrence, 11/8  10/12  11/6  11/5 to record 1st place.

MO70 – No 1 seed Tony Clifford was ousted by John Odell, 6/9  2/9  9/10 who then went out 2-3 to Mike Clemson. Martin Pearse, playing Chris Ansell for the first time since the latter accidentally broke the former’s leg, won 3-0 to set up a nail biter vs Clemson, Pearse winning 9/2  10/8  9/10  9/10  9/7, missing 2 match balls, easy ones at that, in the third and fourth, before winning the title 9/7 in the fifth in 62 minutes.

MO65 – John Rae had an easy run until he came up against Howard Cherlin who came back from the dead to go down 6/9 in the fifth. Ian Graham, no 2 seed,  beat Neil Nightingale, John Hithersay, but Rae was just a bit too precise in an evenly contested Final, winning 9/6  9/5  9/5. These two also travel to Joburg, but Graham is going a week earlier to acclimatise.

MO60 – Mark Cowley and Ruston Bativala were in a class of their own, an explosive Final, lots of action and an Oscar winning performance from 'the Bailiff' winning 7/9  10/8  9/7  7/9  9/7. Earlier on Stuart Hardy had beaten Ian Holmes whose 15 pints a night are now catching up on him, and Paul Harris took out Simon Evenden 3-0

MO55 – Ian Bradburn continued to hold sway over Mark Taylor, but only by a whisker! 9/2  7/9  9/6  1/9  10/9. But John Parkes was a bridge too far. A rare visit from Tom Pollard, but he went out to Neil Harrison and in the final, Parkes, losing the first game 9/10, beat Harrison, 9/4  9/2  9/1 to record a 3-1.

MO50 – Duane Harrison had a good Saturday and an even better Sunday beating Peter Lonsdale 10/8  9/3  9/7 and then No 1 Marc Aldridge in a very clean 1 hour battle, 9/4  6/9  2/9  9/5  6/9 to enter the Final. Eamonn Price beat Michael Wardle 3-1 and Darren Withey 3-1, but Harrison was still on fire, hitting the ball at 130mph all the time: 9/3  9/7  9/6.

MO45 – Good to see Andrew Murray back after his operation. James Piddington overturned the seedings, beating Stuart Summers  11/5  7/11  11/4  10/12  7/11. However, Nick Brown was too strong, as was fellow finalist Jon Gliddon in the top half------------- the Final was nip and tuck with Brown running out the winner, 11/9  11/2  10/12  11/9.

MO40 – 5/8 seed Jonathan Gallacher beat No 1 Ben Hutton, 11/7  6/11  8/11  11 5  4/11, whilst 5/8 Christian Donelan also removed Joss Hargrave, 13/11  9/11  11/13  11/5  11/6. In the bottom half, 3/4  Paul Boyle beat no 2, Ashley Bowling, 6/11  11/7  7/11  11/7  11/5, to set up the Final. Gallacher recorded his first victory in a very tense Final, winning, 8/11  11/9  11/15  9/11  11/9.

MO35 – No 1 seed (45 in July!) Jamie 'Peter Pan' Goodrich, played his way to yet another  Final, beating Jason Vigiers 3-0 and Mick Biggs 3-1........... But a youngster (35 in July) Keith Timms was there to contest the Final. Amazingly, Goodrich squared at 1-1, then 2-2, before a burst in the final game saw Timms record his first title 11/7 in the fifth, a along way to go to catch Jamie's  20+ regional titles!!

Finally, thanks go to Peter Alexander and the Club for hosting us, Anne and the Bar Staff, Marcia for Catering, Roy for Maintenance and Operations Manager.

To Referees, Pete, Mike and Paul and Brian and Roz Brock for all their hard work manning the IT and Event Desk.

Martin Pearse
Chairman