Isle of Wight Pairs VI - October 2015
FOURS
The evening Fours games would take place over Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday evenings, with everyone playing twice each night
and the winners being decided bythe results of those 6 games.
Monday's games produced a set
of results which could hardly have been closer. Of the 14 teams,
10 won one and lost one, two managed only one draw and the other
two won one and drew one.
So already no one had a perfect
record and the whole field was covered by just two points.
The early leaders were the
teams of Sainsbury/Lane and Johnson/Wilson/Savage.
But it was very much all to play for.
Unsurprisingly things weren't
quite so close following Tuesday's play, surprisingly things
were not mixed up as much as might have been expected. Without
being rude, the overnight leaders were not perhaps the ones you
would expect to be up top, but Tuesday saw them still there.
The Sainsbury/Lane and
Johnson/Wilson/Savage teams won both of their games to
move on to 7 points each. And those were results which would
have been particularly encouraging to the latter of the teams
who, in the Pairs on Tuesday had managed to accumulate between
them the grand total of zero points.
Third place was now firmly
in the hands of Clark/Poulter who also won both games
to move on to 6 points. The only other team with any kind of
chance, albeit an outside one, of taking the overall win was
the Pullar/Swan team who picked up 3 points to move on
to 5 and sat in a clear fourth place.
Come Wednesday and the final
set of games and sadly it was not to be for the Johnson/Wilson/Savage
team, who had a tougher time of it and were only able to garner
one extra point, to finish on 8, along with the Forrest/Moore/Harris
and Bennet/Orrin teams.
That left the way clear for
the Clark/Poulter team to come through, with a win and
a draw to finish in second place on 9 points.
However the clear win went
to the team who had started top and stayed there. Two more wins,
taking them on to 11 points, 2 clear of their nearest rivals,
saw the team of Eric & Carol Sainsbury and Robin &
Brenda Lane come home in first place.
PAIRS
Tuesday
Seven teams made it through their first two games of the week
with a pair of wins.
Top of the heap were Peter
& Diane Orrin who had managed 24 shots from their two
victories. Greg & Glenyce King were on 19 shots and
in third were Sylvia Cox & Annette Iskett with 17
shots.
The remaining teams not to
have dropped a point were Val Game & Sylvia Vaughan,
Mike Walker & Jane Evans, Laurence & Sarah
Pullar and Colin Spriggs & Peggy Alston.
Of course there was still plenty
to play for at this early stage and with a few surprises already,
even those teams who had begun with 2 loses would still have
every chance of qualifying if they won all their remaining games.
Quote of the Day:
From Margaret & Jim Forrest
Margaret I want to cover that brown.
Jim Why?
Margaret I don't know.
Wednesday
Much as expected things evened themselves out with the first
set of games on Tuesday.
Only three teams remained unbeaten
as we reached the halfway point of the Round Robin stage.
Mike Walker & Jane Evans were leading the way with
6 points and 27 shots, only one shot behind were Laurence
and Sarah Pullar and on 20 shots were Val Game & Sylvia
Vaughan.
Just one more win for each
of them was likely to see them through into the Knockout Rounds,
but it was more of a struggle for some than for others.
As Tuesday ended, there was
only one team left undefeated. Fours wins out of four, eight
points secured and qualification all but guaranteed and that
team was Mike Walker & Jane Evans, sitting at the
top, two points clear of the rest.
But behind them it was oh so
much closer. Eight teams were on 6 points and nicely poised to
make it through into the last 12. Those teams were Bernard
Moore & Paul Daniels, Peter & Diane Orrin,
Laurence & Sarah Pullar, Harold & Patricia
Ball, Robin & Brenda Lane, Maxine Poulter &
Joan Clark, Val Game & Sylvia Vaughan and Colin
Spriggs & Peggy Alston.
Thursday
Finally it was the turn of Mike and Jane to take a loss like
everyone else.
That meant that, with 5 games
played, there were now 6 teams on 8 points sitting at the top.
They were Bernard Moore & Paul Daniels, Peter &
Diane Orrin, Mike Walker & Jane Evans, Robin
& Brenda Lane, Laurence & Sarah Pullar and
Harold & Patricia Ball. All that separated them was 9
shots.
And although all those teams
had in all probability done enough to qualify, it wasn't yet
absolutely certain, because behind them there were 8 teams on
6 points and a further 2 on 5, with an outside chance of making
the cut.
Whereas in previous years it
was a case of getting to 8 points and crossing your fingers if
you were on 8, this year there was such a spread of results that
some teams made it on only 6 points from their 6 games.
Of course the biggest prize
was finishing in the top four. That guaranteed a place in the
Quarter Finals, while the next 6 teams would play off in the
First Round.
In the end there were 5 teams
who finished on 10 points. They were Bernard Moore & Paul
Daniels (51 shots), Mike Walker & Jane Evans (47
shots), Peter & Diane Orrin (46 shots), Harold
& Patricia Ball (45 shots) and Robin & Brenda
Lane (45 shots). Unfortunately the Lanes missed out on 4th
spot as a result of having more shots against, but would still
have the advantage of a First Round game against the final qualifiers.
Joining them in the First Round were Peter & Kay Masters,
Laurence & Sarah Pullar and Paul & Jacqui Harris,
who all finished on 8 points, Greg & Glenyce King
and Eric & Carol Sainsbury, both on 7 points and finally
Peter & Brenda Bol and Dee Whittaker & Chris
Tilbrook, who both snuk in as the best 2 of the 9 teams to
finish on 6 points.
First Round
Paul & Jacqui Harris
(8) started well with 3 on the first end against Greg &
Glenyce King (9) but it was all square on the next end, from
then on the Kings were ahead all the way and finished 12-6 winners.
Laurence & Sarah Pullar
(7) were 3-2 down to
Eric & Carol Sainsbury (10) after 3 ends, but got
their noses in front on the next end and slowly edged away to
a 7-3 win.
Robin & Brenda Lane (5) began well against Dee Whittaker
& Chris Tilbrook (12) but were three shots behind going
into the last end. They came close, but in the end Dee &
Chris took the game 6-5.
Peter & Brenda Bol (11) won the first end against Peter
& Kay Masters (6), but that single shot was the sum total
of their endeavours come the end of the game as the Masters romped
away to a 14-1 win.
Quarter Finals
Bernard Moore & Paul Daniels
(1) led from the start against Greg & Glenyce King
(9), and although there was only a shot in it at 4 ends, the
Kings only won the one end. Bernard & Paul took the win 8-3.
In a reversal of their First
Round game Peter & Kay Masters (6) won the first end
against Peter & Diane Orrin (3), but no more. The
Orrins came home 10-2 winners.
Mike Walker & Jane Evans
(2) and Laurence
& Sarah Pullar (7) were never far apart in their game,
just one shot per end for the first 6 meant that it was 4-2 to
Mike & Jane going into the last. It could ave gone either
way, but the Pullars couldn't quite make it as they went down
6-2.
Harold & Patricia Ball (4) against Dee Whittaker &
Chris Tilbrook (12) was the one game in the round to go against
the form. There was never much in it, but Dee & Chris always
held the upper hand, winning 7-2.
Semi-Finals
Bernard Moore & Paul Daniels
(1) didn't exactly run away with their game against Dee Whittaker
& Chris Tilbrook (12), but they chipped away, winning
the first 6 ends before an end was called to the game with the
score at 8-0.
And the other game was not
dissimilar, there was never much in it, but Peter & Diane
Orrin (3) kept getting the better of close ends and edged
away from Mike Walker & Jane Evans (2), in no small
part thanks to (according to the notes on the scorecard) a brilliant
blocker on the 5th end, to win 6-2.
Final
Bernard Moore & Paul Daniels
(1) made the better start against Peter & Diane Orrin
(3), edging a couple of shots on the first end and one on the
second. But the Orrins were all square on the third.
Having squandered a good start
Bernard & Paul re-established their lead with 4 shots, only
for Peter & Diane to hit back again with another to make
it 7-6 with two ends to go.
The 6th end was critical and
all but decisive as Bernard & Paul took two more shots to
extend their lead to 3 as they headed into the final end. Now
it was about defending the lead which Bernard & Paul did,
holding one, the woods fell badly for Diane & Peter, leaving
Diane with very little chance, and Bernard & Paul with one
more shot to take the win 10-6.
This has to have been one of
the most closely fought events we have ever run. The mere fact
that in the nearly 100 games played no one managed to get 6 on
a single end, speaks volumes. It is something which we have never
experienced.
And to top it all the weather
was as good as we could possibly have hoped for, plenty of sunshine
and not a drop of rain. Of course anyone looking forward to watching
the surfers struggling with the waves was out of luck, but you
can't have everything.
Click
here for the Full Results
tanddcarpetbowls@gmail.com
16th
October 2015 |