Great weather, good lawns thanks to Simon and firm hoops thanks to Ed greeted the 8 players battling for this years' Silver Medals. Some withdrawals meant that there were only three clear contenders: Simon,
Ed and Andy with the rest of the field made up from a mixture of Irelands' new talent and some older(!) talent.
Leo fought well and had numerous long hit-ins in many games but couldn't convert these into
winning positions.
Danny, Kieran and Robert all finished with 2 wins each and plenty of experience in the process.
Michael played some canny stuff and beat everyone except the 3 favourites.
Simon's results were slightly off-par with only 2 TP's and 1 TPO in his matches and he lost to both Andy and Ed (albeit -1 to Andy).
Ed seemed to be playing well, in his first 6 games he conceded just 8 hoops and completed 6 TP's.
Andy warmed up as he progressed and completed 3 TP's and had wins against the other 2 contenders. The final round between himself and Ed was an interesting tussle, won by Andy in the end. (A turn-by-turn
account of the game is below.)
Congratulations to Andy for his clean sweep of 7 games and with it his first Silver Medal.
Final placings:
1st: Andy 7/7 wins 3 TP's
2nd: Ed 6/7 wins 6 TP's
3rd: Simon 5/7 wins 2 TP's 1 TPO
4th: Michael 4/7 wins
=5th: Danny 2/7 wins
=5th: Kieran 2/7 wins
=5th: Robert 2/7 wins
8th: Leo 0/7 wins
Full results:
Round 1:
Andy beat Leo +25 TP
Ed beat Danny +26 TP
Michael beat Kieran +24
Simon beat Robert +5 TPO
Round 2:
Kieran beat Robert +18
Simon beat Michael +25
Ed beat Leo +26 TP
Andy beat Danny +12 TP
Round 3:
Michael beat Danny +8
Robert beat Leo +22
Andy beat Simon +1
Ed beat Kieran +26 TP
Round 4:
Simon beat Leo +26 TP
Danny beat Kieran + 22
Ed beat Michael +19 TP
Andy beat Robert +26
Round 5:
Ed beat Robert +25 TP
Andy beat Michael +14
Kieran beat Leo +19
Simon beat Danny +11
Round 6:
Andy beat Kieran +26 TP
Ed beat Simon +26 TP
Robert beat Danny +13
Michael beat Leo +15
Round 7:
Simon beat Kieran +14 TP
Michael beat Robert +6
Danny beat Leo +21
Andy beat Ed +8
Andrew Johnston vs Ed Cunningham (Round 7):
1. Ed won the toss and chose to play first to E boundary level with hoop 4.
2. Andy lays a tice on W boundary almost peg-high.
3. Ed hits tice and sets a crosscourt leave.
4. Andy hits down the boundary from corner III and goes to 4-back with a New Standard Leave.
5. Ed lifts ball at hoop 4 and shoots down the boundary from corner III- very narrow miss.
6. Andy runs hoop 1 but is hampered and shoots off into corner III.
7. Ed misses partner in corner IV from 4 yards N of hoop 1.
8. Andy plays ball in front of hoop 2 to end of B-baulk, joining wide.
9. Ed sets a leave.
10. Andy shoots with his forward ball between hoop 1 and side boundary at Ed's balls in corner IV - hits and makes a leave.
11. Ed misses 21 yarder at Andys' balls near corner III.
12. Andy gets break set up and jawses first peel before hoop 6, rush peels it after hoop 6, rolls it to penult and makes 1-b. After 1-b he sends pioneer down to 3-b but gets wired on peelee which is tight against penult. Hits 2-b pioneer instead but clangs the hoop.
13. Ed has a 2 yard lift shot, makes a break to the peg peeling Andys' forward ball through the last two hoops, but makes a mess planning the leave and ultimately misses the peg-out on Andys' ball.
14. Andy takes contact and gets a good rush to 2-b, makes hoop but poor croquet stroke leaves him a 6 yard shot on Ed's backward ball in corner IV - misses this.
15. Clip situation: Ed on hoop 1 and peg, Andy on 3-b and peg. Ed tries a quadruple peel on Andys' ball!?! Good control but approaches 1-b from terrible position 1" directly behind the hoop, fails angled jump shot through 1-b with 3 peels of the quad done.
16. Andy plays with his peg ball and sets a leave for his rover ball.
17. Ed misses 25 yard double at Andys' balls.
18. Andy makes last hoop and pegs out for a +8 victory.