As we do each year, Reigate competed in the Association Doubles at Southwick, on a glorious weekend, sending a different team each day.
While we didn’t really trouble those at the top of the table, it’s a great tournament for bumping into old friends and meeting new, from different clubs in the area, and the matches are played with the right mix of competitiveness and friendliness. The games were full 26-pointers, unless the total handicap of all 4 players involved was too high, in which case the game would be reduced to 22 or 16 points accordingly.
On the Saturday, the pairings of John Staddon & John Knight breezed through their first game, but didn’t manage to follow up their strong start in their next 2 games, although having fallen a long ay behind in their third, very nearly managed to pull things back before the end. John Bristow and Chris O’Byrne didn’t start so well, but won their second after a quadruple peel by Chris, and should have won their third – having completed all 3 peels of a triple, Chris missed the return roquet after rover, leaving their balls on peg and peg, versus 1 and 2B. Bill Arliss stepped up with a controlled break from 1 to the peg, and opted to peg out Chris’ ball, leaving John on his own. After a little back and forth, Liz Farrow took on a tricky jump over her own ball to run rover, and subsequently finished the game +1.
The only returning Reigate player on Sunday was John Knight, who was playing with Joyce Carlisle, unfortunately losing both of their close games. Doug Dykes and Phil Davies (who only took up the game very recently) both performed excellently, winning both of their games.
Overall Reigate won 4/10 games, and the deserved winners were Cheam (featuring Reigate member Geoff Gunton), with Purley Bury in second place.