Keith Aiton wins Northern Championship (29/8/06) – report by Ian Lines

Keith Aiton won the 2006 Championship of the North of England at Bowdon, beating James Death +13tp, +16tp, +18tp, to win the Faulkner Cup for his first time. The games in the final were almost error free, with supershot openings and James getting the first ball round on each occasion. However, Keith was hitting lifts, popping and doing tight hoop leaves, so in the 3rd game James tried for a sextuple, but came to grief very early by taking off from 2 into the back of hoop 1.

The Consolation Event (The Tollemache Plate) was run as an 8 player knockout for those with the best percentage wins after the first 3 days. There was a 3 way tie for the last 2 places between Marcus, Richard and David Harrison-Wood, and although David got the unlucky bye, he and Richard both qualified by beating Marcus. In the final of the Plate, Sam Tudor played Ian Lines. Sam put out a supershot near the peg, Ian went to maximum length on east boundary, Sam missed into corner 4, Ian missed partner from A baulk, Sam missed from corner 4, Ian went to 4 back with a diagonal spread. Sam then hit the long lift and went to 4-back with a B spread, Ian missed the long lift and Sam finished with a very tidy delayed triple to win +17tp.

The presentations were made by Bowdon President Sheila Black, who thanked all those involved in setting out the lawns and hoops, particularly Colin Irwin for his tireless efforts in setting hoops and mowing the lawns during the event, and also all the various Bowdon members who laid on truly excellent lunches and teas. The Bowdon lawns were described by Keith as currently the best in England, although due to recent rain they were fairly easy paced. Andrew Davies earned a handicap reduction to -1, and Sam Tudor went to -2 – a notable achievement.

David Maugham wins Bowdon June Advanced Weekend (4/6/06) by Ian Lines

The Bowdon June Advanced Weekend was won by David Maugham who beat Ian Lines in the final (+14otp, -19, -26tp, +14tp, +15tp), finishing at 7.15pm in glorious evening sunshine. The consolation Egyptian Event was won by Brian Storey, who only lost two games (to David Maugham in the semi-finals). All the main event games went according to seeding (8 seeds), except Ian Lines beating Colin Irwin in the semi-finals. Ian won the first game +1 after Colin did all three peels of a triple and pegged out one of his own and Ian’s peg ball. Ian hit the 14 yard lift from A baulk and 2 balled out from 4 back.

In the final, Ian went first every game, going 8 yards north of corner 4, David to corner 2 every game, Ian hit partner from A baulk every game! In the first game, Ian went off in corner 2 (lawns just on the fast side of medium), David to 4-back, but broke down (hampered) after hoop 1 with his second ball. Ian did the TPO leaving balls in corner 1 and 10 yards north of corner 4. David split from east boundary to corner 1, rolled off hoop 2 !, +14otp to David. In the next 4 games Ian had various rough dream leaves 3rd turn, and went round to 4-back 5th turn with diagonal spreads. In game 2 David started a TPO but broke down at 2-back after doing a death roll penult peel, leaving Ian a 7-yarder for an easy finish. In game 3, Ian had a 7th turn TP. In games 4 and 5 Ian broke down after a few hoops with the second ball, and David finished with tidy TPs, Ian missing the lifts by next to nothing.

The Bowdon lawns were excellent, with hoops set firmly to 1/32nd. Various photos can be found on the Bowdon web site at http://www.bowdoncroquet.co.uk/ . The Peterson Trophy was presented to David by club president Sheila Black, and thanks were recorded to John Saxby and his team for the magnificent catering, and to all those involved in preparing and setting the lawns.