Meadows West
The Middle Bisquers' Tournament was scheduled for two days, but speedy play meant that it got finished on the first day, with four games completed on the NW lawn at Meadows West (where the going was heavy after recent rain), and seven on the noticeably faster SE lawn.
The five entrants were, in
ascending handicap order, Stuart McKendrick (4.5), Tony Foster (5), Nigel
Gardner (6), Fergus McInnes (7) and Jamieson Walker (8). In the first
round, Stuart had a convincing win against Fergus, and Jamieson lost a
close game against Nigel by pegging out his opponent's ball and then
missing to near the end of B-baulk. Stuart then played his poorest game of
the day and lost to Jamieson, while Fergus improved and achieved a win
against Tony, pegging out with a big half-roll from SSE of rover. After
these two rounds of mixed results, Stuart and Jamieson established
themselves as the leaders, winning their remaining games. Nigel's play
took a sharp downturn and he suffered -26 losses to Stuart and to Fergus,
but he recovered his form just as sharply and completed three peels (but
alas failed the peg-out) in the course of a +25 win against Tony in the
last game in the block. Two more close results occurred: Stuart had a +4
against Tony, and a similar margin appeared after Fergus pegged out
Jamieson but then cross-wired himself at hoop 4, allowing Jamieson to take
position at penult, run it hard with a favourable deflection, make a
roquet and finish. The result of all this was that
Stuart and Jamieson had three wins each, and a tie-breaker was played,
which was notable for both players' going to rover and conceding contacts
- in Jamieson's case after peeling Stuart's forward ball through rover and
then breaking down. Jamieson had a further chance when Stuart was hampered
after 4-back and gave an easy lift shot, but he in turn was hampered after
hoop 1, and Stuart then took the game and the tournament. Stuart's
handicap came down to 4 after the day's successes, while Tony's four
losses put his up to 6. Fergus McInnes
Results
| SM | JW | FM | NG | TF | Wins | Aggregate | |
| Stuart McKendrick | -- | -15 | +24 | +26 | +4 | 3 | +39 |
| Jamieson Walker | +15 | -- | +4 | -4 | +20 | 3 | +35 |
| Fergus McInnes | -24 | -4 | -- | +26 | +12 | 2 | +10 |
| Nigel Gardner | -26 | +4 | -26 | -- | +25 | 2 | -23 |
| Tony Foster | -4 | -20 | -12 | -25 | -- | 0 | -61 |
Tie-breaker: Stuart McKendrick beat Jamieson Walker +14.
