Summer Weekend 2012
6-7 July 2012, Glasgow
Some of the Edinburgh players in the Summer Weekend passed through flooding on the way to their rendezvous after several hours of heavy rain early on Saturday morning, and were in doubt during their westward journey as to whether the lawns would be playable. But fortunately conditions in Glasgow, though rainy, were not as wet as in Edinburgh and there were three usable lawns throughout the tournament.
The cast of players varied in the course of the weekend - starting with 10, increasing to 11 with Alasdair Adam's arrival later on Saturday, and then becoming 12 on Sunday, when Richard Sparrow was not available but Robert Lay and Jane Morrison joined in. Handicaps ranged from Jane's 1.5 (or, on Saturday, from the 2.5 held by John Surgenor and Alan Wilson) to Alasdair's and Richard's 18. No consistent advantage for the high or low bisquers emerged from the weekend's results, but it was one of the low bisquers, John Surgenor, who took first place, with five wins from his six games.
The first round was drawn so that the five players from Edinburgh had opponents from elsewhere - Fergus McInnes playing John, Jamieson Walker playing Campbell Thomson (the furthest-travelled entrant - resident in Luxembourg), Janice Duguid playing Richard, Hamish Duguid playing Joe Lennon, and Jola Jurasinska playing Alan. There was no such separation in the later games, but the tournament did manage to avoid including a Duguid v Duguid game.
All Saturday's players except Alasdair got three games into the day, and Joe was the leader at the end of it, with wins over Hamish (by one point on time), Janice and Fergus. On Sunday morning Joe played John (who had beaten Fergus and Alan but lost to Jamieson), and John was the winner by six points - the same margin, as it happened, by which both John and Joe had won their games against Fergus the day before. The new arrivals, Jane and Robert, were set to play each other, so that neither had the disadvantage of meeting someone who had gained experience of the lawns on the previous day, though in fact this was less of a factor than it might have been since the grass was cut on Sunday morning and this combined with drier weather to make the going less slow than it had been. Robert was the winner, with the convincing score +24, of their game, which was doubly significant since they had agreed to make it count as their second-round tie in the Scottish Handicap Singles.
Robert went on to win his other two games on Sunday, against Alan (+25) and against Jola (+14), and earned a handicap reduction from 14 to 12. But he declined to start a fourth game (which could have made him eligible to win the tournament), and it was John, also with three wins on Sunday, who came out well ahead of the field to take the Summer Weekend quaich.
Only five out of 32 games went to time (set at three hours plus three minutes per bisque), but those that reached a peg-out included some close ones - among them the three +6s already mentioned, a +4 and two +3s. Fergus's last five games all featured peels or a peg-out of an opponent's ball or both: Joe won after pegging him out, as did Alan after a failed double peel by his opponent (though Fergus did hit in and score four hoops with the single ball), but it was Fergus who peeled and pegged out Jane in the next game, and then beat Alasdair and Campbell despite missing the peg after two peels against each of them. Jane pegged out Campbell, whose bisques had run out with his backward clip on 4-back, but then took a while to complete her +4 victory as he several times hit in with his remaining ball. One game fell victim to the guillotine at 6pm on Sunday (and so didn't count and is not included in the 32) - unluckily for Alasdair, who was close to finishing against Alan when the time elapsed.
Congratulations go to John, who can be seen with the trophy in the picture below, and thanks to Joe and Richard for their work in setting out the lawns.
Fergus McInnes
Results
("Egyptian" system)
1. John Surgenor 119 points, 5/6: beat Fergus McInnes +6, Alan Wilson +9, Joe Lennon +6, Janice Duguid +17, Jane Morrison +14
2. Robert Lay 114, 3/3: beat Jane Morrison +24, Alan Wilson +25, Jola Jurasinska +14
3. Richard Sparrow 106, 2/3: beat Alasdair Adam +10T (22-12), Jamieson Walker +12
4=. Janice Duguid 105, 3/5: beat Richard Sparrow +19, Alan Wilson +24, Jamieson Walker +3
4=. Jamieson Walker 105, 3/5: beat Campbell Thomson +13, John Surgenor +8, Joe Lennon +8
6. Fergus McInnes 104, 4/7: beat Hamish Duguid +9, Jane Morrison +13, Alasdair Adam +10, Campbell Thomson +11
7. Joe Lennon 102, 3/5: beat Hamish Duguid +1T (22-21), Janice Duguid +14, Fergus McInnes +6
8=. Jola Jurasinska 96, 2/5: beat Hamish Duguid +12T (23-11), Alasdair Adam +15T (19-4)
8=. Hamish Duguid 96, 2/5: beat Campbell Thomson +3T (17-14), Alan Wilson +21
10. Jane Morrison 92, 1/4: beat Campbell Thomson +4
11=. Alan Wilson 90, 2/6: beat Jola Jurasinska +10, Fergus McInnes +3
11=. Alasdair Adam 90, 1/4: beat Campbell Thomson +19
13. Campbell Thomson 81, 1/6: beat Jola Jurasinska +12