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Sad News

Karen Southworth passed away peacefully last night at St Richard’s Hospice after a 4 year battle with cancer. Karen was a regular GC player and even won the prestigious Sandy Rennie Trophy once on a Wednesday afternoon. Our thoughts are with Chris and his family at this sad time.

SPALDING TROPHY 2023: 20 August 2023, Knightswood

Despite a rather uncertain weather forecast the Spalding Alternate Stroke Doubles Advanced play competition enjoyed a warm and sunny day throughout. On the Saturday night before the competition, the manager had six pairs evenly matched using a combination of high and low handicaps. Unfortunately, with a late withdrawal there was a need to improvise with the competition rules. It was decided that one player (Rosemary Saunders- Robertson) would compete as a single player but would need to peel one of her own balls in each of her games (she managed 2 out of 3). This was extended to round 3 for Roger Binks. Format 18pt. Advanced Rules. All clips start on hoop 5. Duration 2.5hrs.

The players were organized into 2 blocks of 3 pairs (A and B) and a crossover format was used to determine the pair with the highest hoop count using 3 rounds.
Using the total hoop count and discarding results where no peels were completed by single players (RSR and RB) Alan Wilson and Bill Strachan won the competition by a single hoop. Runners up were Brian Durward and Kevin Wright.
Bill Strachan has been a winner of this competition with different partners 5 times since it was initiated in 2016.
Block A
Stefan Colling & Michele Wright. Janice Duguid & Mark Shanks. Brian Durward & Kevin Wright
Block B
Alan Wilson & Bill Strachan. Rosemary Saunders- Robertson. Charlotte Townsend & Roger Binks
Round 1
Stefan Colling & Michele Wright (6) lost to Rosemary Saunder-Robertson (18)
Janice Duguid & Mark Shanks (13) lost to Alan Wilson & Bill Strachan (15)
Brian Durward & Kevin Wright (13) lost to Charlotte Townsend & Roger Binks (16)

Round 2
Stefan Colling & Michele Wright (9) lost to Charlotte Townsend & Roger Binks (14)
Brian Durward & Kevin Wright (14) beat Alan Wilson & Bill Strachan (11)
Janice Duguid & Mark Shanks (1) lost to Rosemary Saunder-Robertson (18)
Round 3
Janice Duguid & Mark Shanks (15 beat Roger Binks (12) no peels
Brian Durward & Kevin Wright (12) beat Rosemary Saunder-Robertson (12) no peels
Stefan Colling & Michele Wright (8) lost to Alan Wilson & Bill Strachan (14)

SUCCESS FOR STAPLES (At Last)

ACCC held its annual AC Tournament for the Aberdeen Quaich on 9/10th September at Albury Community Sports Hub. 6 players entered John Owen (Holder), Stefan Colling, John Henderson, Roger Staples, Mark Shanks and Robert Bell. Format was All play All, 18pt, AC Handicap rules, 2hr 20min duration.
Play started on Saturday morning in glorious sunshine and got progressively hotter as the day progressed. After the days play Mark S (53 hoops) narrowly losing to John O (17-18), John O (48 hoops) and Roger S (44 hoops) all had two wins, all the others had one win each. Mark’s wins resulted in a handicap reduction to 7.
Roger, Mark, Stefan with Zosia (his mum), Robert and Edna (celebrating her birthday), Bill and Meg enjoyed a very sociable evening at the Italian restaurant Al Fresco.
Sunday’s play started slightly overcast but soon warmed up as did the play. John O and Stefan C both won and with Roger S beating Mark S 18-10, the final round matches could result in numerous permutations of an eventual winner. Stefan C produced a devastating 18-0 win over John O. Mark S had to win and score 18 hoops to beat Stefan by one hoop. This was all academic should Roger S win his match against John H which he did 18-10 and with 4 wins won The Aberdeen Quaich for the first time.

Roger has played in almost every Tournament since it was first held in 2014 without featuring in the final results. It was with great pleasure that I presented him with The Aberdeen Quaich and a bottle of wine as this year’s worthy winner with 4 wins out of 5.
My thanks to Mark (the sweeper) Shanks for clearing the dew on the lawns every morning and everyone who helped setup and dismantle the lawns. Hopefully see you all next year.

Wilkinson Sword 5 August 2023

There were teams from Aberdeen (John Owen/Bill Strachan), Auchincruive (Kevin/Michelle Wright), Glasgow (Brian Durward/Steve Barnett ) and Meadows (Riger Binks/Mark Shanks) for this annual tournament, held at Knightswood in Glasgow. All arrived on time despite real and fictitious road closures due to the UCI world cycling championships.

Format 18pt. 2.30hrs. Handicap. All clips on hoop 5. Alternate Stroke or Standard Doubles to be agreed.

Aberdeen’s first game was against Auchincruive, and it was agreed to play Alternate Stroke Doubles (this ended up being the only match of the tournament to use (ASD). Aberdeen took their first ball all the way to the peg and Auchincruive did likewise, aided by Kevin spectacularly running 2-back from near 1-back. Their plan was to peg out the Aberdeen ball, but after that wasn’t possible, Aberdeen turned the tables and pegged out the Auchincruive ball, leaving two balls against one, which allowed Aberdeen to complete a 18-13 win.

Aberdeen’s second game was against Meadows using traditional doubles. Bill was able to get his red ball to penult in a few turns, then John took yellow round and attempted a straight double peel. He successfully peeled red through penult and rover but unfortunately hit red prematurely after going through rover with yellow, so the peg-out couldn’t be completed. Bill finished the game next turn after the opponents couldn’t hit in, and it was 18-6 to Aberdeen.

In the third game against Glasgow, John took black to penult but stopped as he was concerned about being peeled through rover and being pegged out. There were several short breaks thereafter, and Bill got blue to rover. He then looked at the scores and worked out that Aberdeen would win the trophy whatever happened after that. John had a couple of failed attempts to finish the game early. A brilliant cut-rush from corner 2 to penult was followed by an overhit hoop approach. Also an attempt at “precision croquet” failed to live up to its name as John went off the lawn in attempting to get behind a corner ball. This allowed Glasgow to come back to win, Steve finishing off with a 5-yard peg out, the final score being 18-13.

RESULTS
Aberdeen 18 v Auchincruive 13 : Meadows 18 v Glasgow 15
Aberdeen 18 v Meadows 6 : Glasgow 14 v Auchincruive 12
Aberdeen 13 v Glasgow 18 : Meadows 7 v Auchincruive 13

Aberdeen and Glasgow were tied on 2 wins but Aberdeen had 49 gross hoops to Glasgow 47 and therefore won the Wilkinson Sword.
Thanks to Brian Durwood for running the event and everyone who helped setup and dismantle the lawn. Special thanks to Gladys for providing tea/coffee and biscuits during the afternoon.

The Scottish Masters, 13-14 May, Meadows

John Owen won the Scottish Masters with 4 out of 5 wins, only losing to James Hopgood, who won all his 3 games but did not play on the Sunday and therefore could not qualify for the title. Alastair Burn-Murdoch also had 4 out of 5 wins but John had won their match 26-22.

Alan Wilson came close to upsetting John’s victory plans with a brilliant last turn after time had been called but came to grief at rover. Despite the brilliant sunshine on the Saturday, play was pretty slow generally and while a few random peels were observed, nobody came close to a triple. Occasional misty rain on the Sunday made for a gloomy day which brightened up considerably when Charlotte arrived with a gallon of Pimms.

Two handicap reductions were achieved over the weekend ; John down to scratch and Mark Shanks down to 11.

Against Andrew Symons, John unusually had a couple of hit-ins from distance. He had one good break and won 26-18 in a game where both players had chances. Against Alastair Burn-Murdoch, John took his first ball to 4-back but missed a short roquet when setting up the leave. Amazingly, Alastair did exactly the same thing, allowing John to get going with his second ball. He set up a break for brown, only for Alastair to politely enquire whether he (Alastair) was playing with brown. Oops! Both players attempted straight triple peels, but only succeeded in doing the 4-back peel, and John eked out a 26-22 win. James Hopgood had a one-sided win over John, despite making a couple of mistakes, leaving John 7-yard roquets to get breaks going. John missed both of them and James won 26-1. After a slow start against David Houston, John finally got going on a break but blobbed 3-back, maintaining his record of failing all weekend to get a break to 4-back with a good leave. David couldn’t take advantage, and John ran out a 26-5 winner. John’s match against Alan Wilson had a dramatic conclusion. Time was called during John’s last turn with yellow. He had a 5-hoop lead, but blobbed a tricky rover hoop rather than playing safe. Alan then brilliantly conjured up a break out of nothing under pressure and made 4 hoops with blue. All he had to do was get through rover and peg his own ball out for a +1 win, but he blobbed rover, handing John a 21-20 win.

 

Games Wins % Beat
James Hopgood 3 3 100% G. Plant +11T (23-12), C. Worsley +21, J. Owen +25
John Owen 5 4 80% A. Symons +8, A. Burn-Murdoch +4, D. Houston +21, A. Wilson +1T (21-20)
Alastair Burn-Murdoch 5 4 80% D. Knight +21, A. Wilson +20, G. Plant +23, A. Symons +3
George Plant 5 3 60% P. Thompson +6, C. Worsley +21, D. Houston +19
Andrew Symons 5 3 60% M. Shanks +20, D. Houston +11, A. Wilson +8T (23-15)
Calum Worsley 6 3 50% M. Shanks +7T (18-11), D. Knight +13, R. Binks +12
Rosemary Saunders Robertson 5 2 40% P. Thompson +1T (18-17), C. Worsley +2
Derek Knight 5 2 40% R. Saunders Robertson +2T (22-20), R. Binks +19
David Houston 5 2 40% D. Knight +2T (19-17), A. Wilson +12
Roger Binks 5 2 40% M. Shanks +1T (18-17), P. Thompson +7
Mark Shanks 5 2 40% P. Thompson +1T (16-15), R. Saunders Robertson +8T (20-12)
Alan Wilson 6 2 33% R. Binks +10T (21-11), R. Saunders Robertson +9
Peter Thompson 4 0 0%

AGM, Social Evening and Raffle

Slightly later than usual, our AGM attended by 28 members, was followed by a Social Evening/Raffle and held at the Aberdeen Squash and Racketball Club. After the AGM, the club provided a buffet which the members enjoyed, before the raffle was drawn. This was followed by a Beetle Drive organized by Brian Clark and won by Roslyn Justice, my thanks for all his work.
Bill presented John Owen with the Burnett Cup (Club Champion) and The Aberdeen Quaich (September AC Tournament) which he won in 2022 season.

Our thanks to Josh for all his help organizing the kitchen and helping Meg setting up the ovens, Meg for her “chef” duties providing the hot elements of the buffet, Lizette, Zosia and Brian for providing additional food, Zosia and Judy for their undoubted talent in selling raffle tickets, all those who provided prizes etc for the raffle and finally Judy for helping Meg tidy up at the finish.

We think the club has found a new home for any future social evenings during the coming season.

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