Last Thursday (August 13th) we held, for only the second year, the lower section Pairs Competition. In 2025 the Competition attracted 27 entries, but disappointingly this year only 10 pairs entered despite all teams outside of the Premier and A sections being eligible and actually only 8 pairs showed up on the night. This competition is intended to be one that encouraged players who don’t normally enter our Competitions the opportunity to play competitions without fearing being drawn against Dave Dix, Phil Adams or indeed any of the other players who play regularly in the top sections.
Despite the low entry the Competition took place at the Harwellian Club thanls to Ellie and Woody Reizner and Harwellian club steward Phil Hinchcliffe for organising and hosting this on behalf of the Association.
As a result of the low entry level the Committee, with the agreement of all of the participants, made a very late change to the normal straight knock out format which would only have required 6 games and probably an hour or so’s play. We adopted a ’round robin’ with 2 groups each playing 3 two legged games with 2 points for a win and 1 point each for a draw. Not only did this guarantee every pair 3 games (6 legs, but it also kept the evening’s play going until close on 10pm! Each team was drawn separately into their group and games were games were played alternatively to avoid both too much waiting between games and back to back games for the same pairs.
The night went pretty well and the winners of each group were conclusive although in the A section, won by Simon Skelly and Danny Towlerton of the Fleur de Lys they needed to beat Kevin Sanders and Steve Pembroke of the Plough, West Hanney in their third game to secure top spot. In Group B, our league sponsor John Pownceby partnered by Gerry Austin from The Vine secured their place in the final beating The Fox’s Steve Fernback and Ian Matten to confirm their place.
The final of this competition will take place together with all of the other team finals on Wednesday September 16th at Abingdon United FC. The open singles and pairs competition semi finals will be held on Friday October 18th prior to the formal presentation of all league and individual winners trophies, again at Abingdon United.
Our next scheduled competitions all follow the completion of the league season with the Team 3 and 4 Competitions scheduled for September 2nd followed a week later by the Team 5’s provisionally, although we failed to reach the minimum entry level of 8 teams for this competition by the closing date so a decision needs to be made by the Committee next week as to whether this prestiguous long standing competition can take place this year. And then our outdoor season closes on Wednesday September 23rd with our Founders & Legends Trophy at Abingdon Conservative Club. This is an open to all competition, but entrants must be aged 50 to take part. There is no entry fee nor closing date it is just turn up on the night and play! The venues for the team competitions on both the 2nd and 9th of September will be confirmed next week.
No comments yet.