Aberdeen Tournament 2024
7-8 September, Albury
John Henderson wins on his 10th attempt.
ACCC held its annual AC Tournament for the Aberdeen Quaich on 7/8th September at Albury Community Sports Hub. Six players entered: John Owen (0), Stefan Colling (½), John Henderson (3½), Roger Staples (4), Mark Shanks (4) and Robert Bell (16). Format: all-play-all, 18pt AC handicap, 2hr 30mins duration.
Play started on Saturday in misty conditions but as the day progressed the sun made a welcome appearance resulting in pleasant conditions. After the day's play four players had two wins: John H and John Owen (51 hoops), Mark (48 hoops) and Stefan (44 hoops). John Owen’s wins resulted in a handicap reduction to -½. Roger, Mark, John O, Stefan, Zosia, Bill and Meg all enjoyed an excellent evening meal at the Italian restaurant Al Fresco.
Sunday’s play started overcast but warm and remained so for the rest of the day.
John O’s first game as a minus handicap was against clubmate Robert who used his bisques gradually, while John kept missing roquets and took brown through rover. John blobbed hoop 3 with white, but got another chance and took white all the way round, pegging brown out. The 3-ball ending should have been favourable for John but Robert had still six bisques left. He crept round with green using the remaining bisques and eventually through rover. He narrowly missed the shot at the peg from south of rover, so John moved his ball to near corner 2, whereupon he hit the peg from at least 20 yards winning 18-14.
On lawn two Stefan played Mark in what must be the quickest match ever in our tournament. Turn 1: Stefan put a ball on east boundary. Turn 2: Mark put a ball in mid-lawn. Turn 3: Stefan hit the ball on the east boundary, took a three-ball break to rover, left Mark's ball stuck in penult and joined up near 3-back. Turn 4: Mark hit in, used one bisque to go to rover and peel Stefan's ball through rover and a second bisque to peg it out. Turn 5: Stefan missed. Turn 6: Mark finished, winning 18-13.
John H beat Roger 18-17 in an extremely close match to keep his hopes alive.
The final round could, depending on the results, produce a winner from three players. John H simply had to beat John O to win the Quaich which he did in style winning 18-0. Mark beat Roger 18-5 to tie John H on 4 wins but missed out on first place by 3 gross hoops. Stefan beat Robert 18-6 to finish in 3rd place.
Having played in the tournament since 2015 this is the first time John H had won and I was delighted to present him with the Quaich and a bottle of wine.
My thanks to John O, Stefan and others who helped setup and dismantle the lawns, Zosia for acting as photographer and Keith for supplying the lawn sweeper to remove the early morning dew.
Hopefully see you all next year.
Bill Strachan
Results
| JH | JO | MS | RS | SC | RB | Wins | Gross | Pos | |
| John Henderson (3½) | +18 | -3 | +1 | +8 | +5 | 4 | 87 | 1 | |
| John Owen (0*) | -18 | +6 | +11 | -1T (15-16) |
-4 | 2 | 65 | 4 | |
| Mark Shanks (4) | +3 | -5 | +13 | +5 | +8 | 4 | 84 | 2 | |
| Roger Staples (4) | -1 | -11 | -13 | -16 | +4 | 1 | 49 | 6 | |
| Stefan Colling (½) | -8 | +1T (16-15) |
-5 | +16 | +12 | 3 | 75 | 3 | |
| Robert Bell (16) | -5 | +4 | -8 | -4 | -12 | 1 | 61 | 5 |
* reduced to -½ on Sunday
