This event was played and completed on the weekend of 13/14 December in fine and hot conditions with a light breeze that increased on both days causing some difficulties for the players.
Eight teams participated in the qualifying rounds out of which 4 teams qualified having 2 wins. There were some close results but no team had 3 wins which is testament to the level of the competition.
There were also some surprising results with fancied teams of David Payne/Bruce McClintock/Phil Chisholm/Stuart Mackay; Ian Coombe/John Valentine/Barry Baillie/ Brian Rogers; Murray Radojkovich/ Barry McCrystal/David Lloydd/Steve McGregor all failing to progress to post section play.
On Sunday morning the semi finals were played with the team of Glyn Taylor/John Gledhill/Graeme McGregor/Graeme Storey defeating Gerry Strydom/Peter Orgias/Gordon Jenkins/Allan Langley, 17-9. This was a repeat of the outcome of the match in the qualifying rounds.
The other semi final was between Leon Wech/Stuart Jamieson/Bill Lowe/Tony Popplewell who defeated Larry Cain/Arthur Beale/Tony Trent/Tony James, 15-8.
The final was between the Wech team and the Taylor team which resulted in Leon retaining the title he won last year (with a couple of changes to his team). After leading 13-4 through 9 ends a late flurry from the Taylor team brought the score to 13-9 but Wech then prevailed to win the match and the title 14-11. This was Leon’s 8th win in this event so congratulations to him on this achievement.
Congratulations to all teams in the event played in the true spirit of the game.
Report by Allan Langley