Scottish Masters 2023
13-14 May, Meadows
John Owen won the Scottish Masters with 4 out of 5 wins, losing only to James Hopgood who won all his 3 games but didn’t play enough games in the Swiss to be in the running 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 which 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 slightly 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.
Jane Morrison, Manager
John’s analysis:
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.
Results
| 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% |
(also on Croquet Scores)
(Photos by Janet Brunton)