West of Scotland Championship 2007

6-7 October 2007, Glasgow

For the fifth year in a row, the SCA's last tournament of the year was also its biggest - this time attracting a record entry of 19 players, whose total of 56 completed games was the highest in an SCA weekend this millennium and possibly an all-time record.  It was very nearly 57 games, but Tony Whateley's impressive high-speed finish against Tony Thomas on Sunday afternoon just failed to beat the 5.30pm deadline for the game to count.

Read more: West of Scotland Championship 2007

20+ Tournament 2007

29 September 2007, Meadows

Short Croquet rules; time limit 1 hour 15 minutes; 5-round Swiss format.  The management was a collaborative effort, with Brian Murdoch taking over from Fergus McInnes during the second round.

Robert Inder (20) 5/5: beat Hamish Duguid +4T, Joe Henderson +7, Joan Marshall +4T, Janice Duguid +6, Ruth Munro +4T.
Joe Henderson (20) 2/4: beat Ruth Munro +4T, Hamish Duguid +2.
Joan Marshall (22) 2/4: beat Janice Duguid +2T, Jola Jurasinska +1T.
Ruth Munro (24) 2/4: beat Janice Duguid +4T, Jola Jurasinska +11.
Jola Jurasinska (24) 2/4: beat Joe Henderson +7, Janice Duguid +14.
Hamish Duguid (20) 1/4: beat Joan Marshall +5T.
Janice Duguid (22) 1/5: beat Hamish Duguid +7.

Winner: Robert Inder.

The Walker Cup 2007

8 September 2007, Meadows West

The tournament for the Walker Cup was played on Saturday 8 September in glorious sunshine in the morning and a fine autumn afternoon.

There were 11 players in this 10+ tournament, with handicaps ranging from 10 to 20.  It was particularly pleasing to see a mix of old hands and new blood.  Four rounds were played to a full bisques format (base 10), modified to fit the 18 point game.

Inevitably there were one or two mistakes in not moving the second clip to 3 back when the first hoop was scored and a few hoops 'scored' in the wrong direction, but mistakes were equally shared by experienced and newer players.

The draw for the first round produced an amazing set of well matched pairings and consequently some close results.  Results diverged rather more in later rounds but the eventual winner, Duncan Reeves, was very consistent in winning all his games.  He thought he might have earned a reduction of handicap from 16 to 14 but wasn't sure until he'd checked his index at home.  Two players who definitely reduced their handicaps by the end of the day were Joe Lennon (from 10 to 9) and Morven Wardley (from 18 to 16).

 

Read more: The Walker Cup 2007

Chairman's Rosebowl and Malmet Trophy 2007

15-17 September 2007, Meadows West

The flooding at its worstTwo weeks in advance, it looked as if the SCA's two invitation events might be full for the second year in succession, with 13 names on the list for the 12 available places.  However, four of the 13 dropped out for various reasons - health and fitness problems for Rod Williams and Ian Wright, family commitments for Campbell Morrison, and Melanie Foster's success in reaching the finals of the All England Handicap - and only one more came in to take up a vacated place, leaving a total of 10 players available.

Read more: Chairman's Rosebowl and Malmet Trophy 2007

SCA v CA 2007

1-2 September 2007, Meadows

A new format was introduced for this year's SCA-CA match, with the aim of giving more games per player against more varied opposition.  (The previous format of best-of-three doubles on day 1 and best-of-three singles on day 2 meant that each player met only one opponent in the singles and one pair in the doubles.  Also some Bo3 matches could be finished in straight games in three or four hours while others could go to a decider and take all day.)  Each day's programme consisted of one round of doubles games followed by two-game or three-game singles matches, with opponents permuted so that each English player or doubles partnership encountered different members of the Scottish team on the two days.  The singles matches involving the top two in each team were best-of-three, while those lower in the rankings played just two games per match.

 

Read more: SCA v CA 2007