Spring Weekend 2013

27-28 April 2013, Meadows

Alan Wilson won the SCA's first handicap tournament of the year to take the Spring Weekend tankard for a record-breaking fourth time.

With 11 players on Saturday and 10 on Sunday (the lowest numbers in this tournament since 2005), the Meadows Club's three lawns were not quite fully occupied, and a few of the weekend's games escaped double-banking.

The low-handicap players made a good start, with narrow wins for James Hopgood (-2) over David Houston (16) - by 2 points after David missed his roquet having scored all the hoops - and by Alan Wilson (3.5) over Hamish Duguid (9), and a +8 victory for Jane Morrison (1) over Roger Binks (20) despite Jane's ending her turn by rushing a ball onto the peg.  Fergus McInnes (3) also won his first game, over Roger, though not until the afternoon as he had the bye in the first round.  But Robert Inder (4.5) was having a bad day and didn't manage to overcome Joe Lennon (9) despite the early disappearance of Joe's bisques.  The other first-round game was won by Alasdair Adam (18) against Ruth Munro (12).

Alan continued his run of success with wins over Joe and Fergus, and Jane had a +26 win over James and had time to start a game against Alasdair before departing about 4pm.  Alasdair was the other player undefeated at the end of the day, though with only one game completed and two pegged down - the second of these with Joe as his opponent.  Hamish and Roger played on into the evening after everyone else had gone, and the result was Hamish's first win of the weekend, leaving Roger, like Robert, yet to win a game.

On Sunday morning Jane and Alasdair took up their game again, and Jane achieved a +5 win, in the only one of Alasdair's games to reach a peg-out.  Joe, meanwhile, had a fairly quick loss to David (-26 with one bisque standing) and was ready to resume the other pegged-down game when Alasdair became available.  David had been doing well, with two wins after his initial loss, and he went on to inflict Jane's only defeat - by 24 points with three bisques left.

The guillotine for the weekend had been set at 6pm on Sunday.  As the end approached Alan was still unbeaten, with a rating of 119 under the "Egyptian" scoring system, and was playing Roger, who was well behind despite a win over Robert in his previous game.  If Alan won he would reach 121 and be unassailable; if he lost he would drop to 111.  In that case David could win by beating Alasdair to reach 115, but if he failed to do so then Jane could just get ahead with 112 points after beating Joe.

As it turned out, Alan did win, and so did David to take second place, with Jane coming third and well ahead of everyone else.  Alasdair and Fergus had equal numbers of wins and losses, along with James who had played only on Saturday and had one of each.  The other five contestants were all down on handicap points for the weekend, though none of them without a win.  Robert's win over Fergus, following a series of disappointing losses on time, was particularly notable: +26 in the seventh turn, with a rover peel, taking less than half the allotted time and without using any of his 1.5 bisques.  (They were double-banked with David and Alasdair, who started a few minutes earlier and had just reached a score of 3-2 when Robert pegged out.)  It's an unpredictable game!

Fergus McInnes


Results

1. Alan Wilson 5/5, 121 Egyptian points: beat Hamish Duguid +2T (21-19), Joe Lennon +13, Fergus McInnes +6, Ruth Munro +12, Roger Binks +11.

2. David Houston 4/5, 115: beat Hamish Duguid +12, Joe Lennon +26, Jane Morrison +24, Alasdair Adam +2T (10-8).

3. Jane Morrison 4/5, 112: beat Roger Binks +8, James Hopgood +26, Alasdair Adam +5, Joe Lennon +9.

4. Alasdair Adam 2/4, 101: beat Ruth Munro +15T (20-5), Joe Lennon +15T (23-8).

5. James Hopgood 1/2, 100: beat David Houston +2.

6. Fergus McInnes 2/4, 98: beat Roger Binks +10, Hamish Duguid +6T (22-16).

7. Hamish Duguid 2/5, 96: beat Roger Binks +10, Ruth Munro +8T (15-7).

8. Robert Inder 1/4, 92: beat Fergus McInnes +26.

9. Ruth Munro 1/4, 90: beat Robert Inder +12T (20-8).

10. Roger Binks 1/5, 88: beat Robert Inder +3T (20-17).

11. Joe Lennon 1/5, 87: beat Robert Inder +3T (21-18).