Ian Lines won the Southport Advanced Weekend by Ian Lines (19/04/10)

Ian Lines beat Keith Aiton +15, +26, -5tp, -24tp, +26 in a closely contested final to win the Jubilee Tankard at the Southport April Advanced Weekend. All the preceding rounds of the 16 player main event also went exactly according to seeding, with no great surprises. The consolation plate (a flexible Swiss) was won by James Hopgood with 5/6, only losing to Lionel Tibble who was also playing well.

The final was a fairly interactive match, with both players making uncharacteristic errors, generally caused by the slight hills around some hoops (all set at ~1/32″) leading to some difficult hoop approaches. The early season top dressing and sand was also sticking to the balls a little in the morning, which also made things slightly tricky. However, both players shot quite well throughout the match. Keith’s tps in the afternoon, when conditions got drier and easier, were very neat, but he just failed to hit a few shots in the final deciding game.

Many thanks to Southport for laying on an excellent tournament, and particularly to Terry Foster for all his work setting out the lawns, and for stepping in at the last minute to replace Lee Hartley, who was stranded abroad (is this the first time a croquet tournament has been affected by a volcanic eruption?). Congratulations also to Paul Rigge for getting his handicap down to -0.5