Meadows West
This year's Meadows Open was seeded by Bayesian grade, which reputedly is the best known predictor of players' performance. Hence in the first round the top seed Peter MacGowan (handicap 1) played the lowest-ranked entrant Duncan Reeves (16); Rod Williams (2.5) played Joe Lennon (10); Jane Shorten (1) played Campbell Morrison (5); David Appleton (2.5) played Alan Wilson (5); and Martin Stephenson (3.5) played Fergus McInnes (5).
The one unseeded winner in the opening round was Fergus, who eventually got a three-ball
break going to win +4 after pegging out one of Martin's balls. Jane and Campbell
also had a close game, but Jane emerged the winner (+7), and in the other games
the seeds won by two-figure margins.
Wins in the second round by Peter, Jane and Fergus over Martin, David and Rod respectively
left the former three as the only ones undefeated so far. Round three set Fergus
against Jane, and Peter against Alan, who had added a +10 second-round win over Joe to his
-10 loss to David. Peter won his game +22, but the other two leaders had a much closer
contest. The three-hour time limit was approaching (and the other players had gone
off to the pub or elsewhere) as Fergus played a break to the peg, with his partner ball
on rover, and Jane's clips on rover and peg. He was planning to peg out Jane's forward
ball, and called Jane to watch as he attempted this; but when she queried the time, and
it transpired that the three hours had run out in Fergus's turn, he realised that it
was not a winning tactic and pegged out his own ball instead. It was to no
avail, since Jane hit a long roquet with her backward ball in the last turn of the game and
scored two points to secure a 25-24 victory.
Accordingly Jane and Peter met in the fourth round on Sunday morning. Their game was
another close one, which Jane won +6. So after this round Jane was in the lead;
Peter and Campbell had lost to Jane but won all their other games, and everyone else had
lost at least two out of four.
Fortified by Charlotte's excellent lunch, the players fought out round five on Sunday
afternoon. Jane had a speedy win over Martin, +26 in 49 minutes, to maintain her
unbeaten record. The game between the other leading contenders took about three times
as long, but it did get finished: Campbell beat Peter +4 after Peter's mallet failed to make
contact with his ball in an attempted half-jump over his partner ball in the jaws of rover.
A sixth round had been planned, but was not needed as Jane had a clear lead after
five rounds and had already beaten the only other player in contention. Also Rod and
David were suffering from wrist injuries, Peter had to leave to catch a flight, and the
weather at tea time was looking threatening.
Campbell could have pressed for another game against Jane, to be followed by a tie-breaker
if he won it, but he was content instead to play no more and settle for second place.
Therefore the Muffin Dish was presented to Jane, and the removable plate inside it was
presented symbolically to Campbell as a proxy for the Biscuit Plate, which Jane had
received as runner-up last year and had forgotten to bring over from Ireland. She
had hoped to avoid any resultant problems by coming second again this time, but had failed
in this ambition by playing too well.
A very depleted sixth round got started after the presentation, consisting of one game
between Alan and Martin. Duncan
began a game against Robert Lay in the Scottish Handicap Singles, double-banking with Alan
and Martin on the middle lawn, and the other two lawns were turned over to the Meadows Club
members who had come along in the hope of getting a friendly game. But all were soon
stopped by the rain, which had been heavy at times on both days but now became torrential
- with thunder and lightning - and flooded large areas of the lawns. As this has
happened on the Sunday afternoon of the Meadows Open in two consecutive years, it can now
be regarded as a tradition - but should the manager plan next year's event with a
five-round format instead of six rounds, or will that just tempt fate to bring the rain on
earlier?
To sum up the results, Jane and Campbell and Alan did better than predicted; Peter
and Rod and Martin did not manage to justify their seeding on this occasion;
and David, Fergus, Joe and Duncan performed roughly in line with expectations.
As to the off-court elements of
the weekend, top marks go to Charlotte Townsend for keeping us all well supplied with
food and drink, and hosting an enjoyable dinner (with food from her local Chinese
restaurant, the Loon Fung) on Saturday evening. Thanks are due also to the Meadows
Club's Sunday tea team, and to Brian Murdoch for his assiduous work in maintaining the
lawns.
Fergus McInnes
Results
Day 1:
Peter MacGowan bt Duncan Reeves +25
Rod Williams bt Joe Lennon +14
Jane Shorten bt Campbell Morrison +7
David Appleton bt Alan Wilson +10
Fergus McInnes bt Martin Stephenson +4
Fergus McInnes bt Rod Williams +16
Jane Shorten bt David Appleton +26
Peter MacGowan bt Martin Stephenson +8T (25-17)
Alan Wilson bt Joe Lennon +10
Campbell Morrison bt Duncan Reeves +24
Jane Shorten bt Fergus McInnes +1T (25-24)
Peter MacGowan bt Alan Wilson +22
Campbell Morrison bt Rod Williams +20
Martin Stephenson bt David Appleton +26
Joe Lennon bt Duncan Reeves +5
Day 2:
Jane Shorten bt Peter MacGowan +6
Campbell Morrison bt Fergus McInnes +6T (22-16)
David Appleton bt Rod Williams +15
Martin Stephenson bt Joe Lennon +10T (24-14)
Alan Wilson bt Duncan Reeves +22
Campbell Morrison bt Peter MacGowan +4
Jane Shorten bt Martin Stephenson +26
Alan Wilson bt Fergus McInnes +5
Rod Williams bt Duncan Reeves +13
David Appleton bt Joe Lennon +13
Winner: Jane Shorten (5/5)
Runner-up: Campbell Morrison (4/5)
Peter MacGowan 3/5
David Appleton 3/5
Alan Wilson 3/5
Fergus McInnes 2/5
Martin Stephenson 2/5
Rod Williams 2/5
Joe Lennon 1/5
Duncan Reeves 0/5
