AC Progressive Doubles Tournament

A small but select field of 8 assembled for the Club’s AC Progressive Doubles Tournament, managed by Roger Hayes, on Saturday, 28th September. It was a pity that, due to many and varied factors, the numbers participating were just half of those from last year but, nevertheless, sufficient to make the event worthwhile.

The usual arrangement of splitting the field into high and low bisquers led to all competitors playing the first 4 rounds with a different partner, progression in the more customary format taking place only for the fifth and final round. With a view to encouraging the low bisquers to advance their high bisquer partners through the six hoops, the latters’ scores were doubled, leading to a maximum possible of 21 on the half-lawns. Additionally, winners achieving the maximum scores within the 75 minute time limit received a bonus point, resulting in 3points for a win as opposed to only 2 for a winning margin but without a peg-out.

At the start of the final round, Paul Francis and Andrew Willis were in contention for the low bisquers’ top spot, with Nigel Dawson-Cocks and Lynne Passfield competing for the high bisquers prize. No doubt with an eye for the bottles of wine to be awarded to the Tournament winners, careful play resulted in neither of the final games scoring maximum points but did result in Andrew Willis and Lynne Passfield qualifying for the prizes.

The panorama below shows 7 of the competitors (on the two half-lawns converted from Lawn 1) during the first round of the day, Nigel D-C being the missing one, and the full complement in front of the Clubhouse after the close of play.
Richard Jelly and Margaret Murray completed the low bisquers group, with Tony Jackson and Timothy Cantell doing the same for the high bisquers.