The weekend before last saw the Masters tournament take place (10th of November), entries were strong in the Mens o40s category but as usual numbers were a little low for the ladies.

 

We started the afternoon with the o40s Mens Doubles, sadly while we had multiple pairs where one member would qualify for the o50s we only had one true pair where both players were over 50 and so didn’t have enough for the o50s category but full credit to Brian & Kevin from South Cheshire who mucked in with the youngsters in the o40s group!

 

With 9 pairs we split the pairs into two groups, the first group consisting of John & James, Rob & Carl, Jez & Warren and Wren & Chris. With it being the smaller of the two groups, to ensure each pair played a reasonable amount of games then it was done as a round robin but everyone playing each other twice. It was a cracking group and of the 12 games played at this stage, 5 of these went to 21-20 so the handicappers were rather pleased! In the end though Rob & Carl and Jez & Warren came top in the group to move to the semis.

 

The second group consisted of Matt & Rich, Phil & Neil, Brian & Kevin, Sebastian & Alex and Jeff & Pawel. So not to tire out everyone to much this was played as a round robin with one game against each opponent. While this group didn’t boast as many 21-20 games, all bar one of the games had the losing pair getting well into double figures and with a three way tie for the top spot it was still a tight group. The top two had to be decided on points and so meant Phil & Neil and Jeff & Pawel went through to the semis.

 

The semis were a well fought affair with Rob & Carl going against Phil & Neil and Jez & Warren competing against Jeff & Pawel. Jez & Warren and Phil & Neil proved victorious to go through to the final where ultimately a 21-17 win to Jez & Warren meant they took the trophy with Phil & Neil coming in as runners up.

 

The Women's o40s saw a good battle between Ruth & Claire and Anna & Gillian, the first game was a close affair with Ruth & Claire edging ahead to take the win 21-19, the second game proved more decisive with a 21-13 win to Ruth & Claire again to take them to the title.  

 

With only 2 entries in the o40s Mixed and 3 in the o50s the two groups were initially pooled together to create a bigger round robin group consisting of Brian & Sue, Dave & Ruth, Jez & Claire, Gillian & Sebastian and Anna & Alex. From the round robin Anna & Alex and Gillian & Sebastian moved into the o40s Mixed final with Jez & Claire and Brian & Sue moving into the Mixed o50s final. Both games finished 21-16 with the victors being Anna & Alex and Jez & Claire.

 

Congratulations to all our winners and I hope everyone enjoyed the day! Many thanks again to everyone that was involved either with the handicapping, setting up or just getting involved in the tournament, it's all very much appreciated!

 

Photos in the gallery.