On the last weekend in November, Richard and Pat from East Berks played in the Winter Matchplay tournament at the Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes. There were 18 games; 10 on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday. 56 players were divided into just 2 divisions. Richard played in A, and Pat in B.
All games were played in the one conference room, which made it a little cramped.
Pat had a good day on Saturday, winning 6 games, but only won one on Sunday. Her best move score was a nine timer of SCANTIER scoring 131 - but she still lost that game. Her next best move was QUEENLIER scoring 109, and this did win the game.
Richard had the reverse of Pat's experience. He started poorly on day 1, losing the first six games and had some miserable racks resulting in 4 sub 300 scores in one day! However, he might have got a win if he'd challenged off SULLIER in game 4. Also in game 1 he'd noted early on that QUAIL takes a front S but forgot about it later in the game when he played a lower scoring bonus elsewhere and the opponent then used the hook. Oops!
After that he ended the losing run with a nervy 8-point win in game 7, a 40-point win in game 8 and a 12-point win in game 10. Each of these could have been lost so he was pleased to get over the line and limit the damage. Day 2 started well with bonuses of KAURIES and SOFTLING giving his first good win and got 3 bonuses to win the next.
The remaining games had a lot of one-sided games. Lost by 221 and 135 in two of them but had a 582-309 win in game 15. The best result was the final game where Richard challenged off two phonies early on and got 4 bonuses to win by 632 -285 which was the highest score and margin in the tournament. This meant that Richard ended the tournament with 8 wins overall
Notable bonuses were:
Richard - THRIVEN -94 POWNIES-103, KAURIES -78, SOFTLING 91, HAGRIDE 72, DISNEST 74, BUDGERO 84, INEDITA 72, ANTIHERO 92, SWINGLE 89
Opponents- UNRAZED -81, COMPEND 77, MARGENT 95, NOSEBAG 82, CROFTER 93, PESAUNTS 83
Here are boards from two of Richard’s games:
