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)

 John Owen receiving the trophy from Jane Morrison

Andrew Symons

Mark Shanks

Alastair Burn-Murdoch

John Owen

(Photos by Janet Brunton)