Meadows
In contrast to last year, when only four players entered, there were 10 in contention for the Secretary Trophy this year. Handicaps ranged from Tony Whateley's 7 (reduced from 8 on the previous Saturday's results) to the maximum of 20 shared by Hamish and Janice Duguid and Jola Jurasinska. Robert Inder, who had come down to 18 last weekend, was now playing off 16 after an adjustment by the handicappers. Also playing were Campbell Thomson and Duncan Reeves (both at 14), Joe Lennon (11), Ian Wright (10) and Jamieson Walker (9). The non-playing part-time manager, Fergus McInnes, decided on a six-round Swiss format, and left Tony in charge during the afternoon while he went off to play at Lauriston, but returned just in time to help sort out the pairings for the fifth round. Games were played to 14-point advanced rules with bisques (hoops 3 and 5 as the lift hoops), with 90-minute time limits.
After four rounds there were four equal leaders, each with three wins: Hamish, Robert,
Campbell and Joe. Campbell had played the other three (beating Hamish and Joe and
losing to Robert), and Robert had had his only loss to Hamish. In the fifth round
Joe and Robert were playing each other, while Hamish and Campbell were set against
opponents with two wins so far, namely Janice and Jamieson respectively. Depending
on what happened in these games, there might be one, two or three players on 4/5, and
the contention might or might not be resolved by playing a sixth round - with any
remaining ties being decided by "who beat whom" or, failing that, by a shoot-out at the peg.
As it turned out, Robert beat Joe to take his count of wins to 4, but Hamish lost to Janice
in a low-scoring game (3 hoops to 4) and Campbell lost to Jamieson,
leaving Robert with a clear lead. (The Duguid v Duguid game was even closer than the
score might indicate, since Hamish's take-off to the potentially equalising hoop, after time
was called, went backward into the jaws of the hoop and was only about a millimetre short
of ending in position to run it.) It was now after 6pm, and the manager consulted the
players as to whether to go ahead with the sixth round. All agreed to forgo it, and
Robert was therefore the winner with four games won - followed by six equal runners-up
(is this a record?).
10 out of 25 games were won outright rather than on time, though in at least two of these
(Janice v Tony and Tony v Ian) the final peg-out came after time was called. Five
games were won by a single point (on time), and at the opposite extreme Jola beat Tony 14-0
with four bisques to spare. Jola was also pleased to achieve her first peel in
tournament play, in the game that she narrowly lost to Duncan in the final round, and
came quite close to making it a double peel. And Tony's final-round win over Ian
meant that no one went away without a win.
Fergus McInnes
The players: from left to right, Joe Lennon, Duncan Reeves, Robert Inder, Campbell Thomson, Janice Duguid, Tony Whateley, Jola Jurasinska, Hamish Duguid, Jamieson Walker and Ian Wright.
Results
Robert Inder 4/5: beat JJ +11, CT +7T (11-4), DR +3T (12-9), JL +6T (11-5)
Hamish Duguid 3/5: beat JW +3, DR +6T (12-6), RI +1T
Janice Duguid 3/5: beat IW +6T (7-1), TW +10, HD +1T (4-3)
Joe Lennon 3/5: beat JW +11, TW +5, JD +11
Duncan Reeves 3/5: beat TW +4T (11-7), JD +1T (7-6), JJ +3
Campbell Thomson 3/5: beat JL +1T (9-8), IW +4T (11-7), HD +1T (8-7)
Jamieson Walker 3/5: beat JJ +2T, IW +3T (13-10), CT +4
Jola Jurasinska 1/5: beat TW +14
Tony Whateley 1/5: beat IW +6
Ian Wright 1/5: beat JJ +3T (9-6)