Two weekends ago, a nail biting Handicap tournament brought together players from across various clubs in the Crewe and District league. With players representing 8 out of the 11 different clubs in the league, it was lovely to see such a variety of faces!

Based on the positive feedback from the Open tournament, we decided to play the doubles matches first to ensure players had fresh legs. There was a strong entry of 12 pairs – Richard Jakeman & Matthew Dex, Jez Touch & Joshua Bamford, Greg Hulme & Dave Lee, Nathan Barker-Chadwick & Wren Wang, Carl McGregor-Ogden & Rob Evans and Tom Bentley & Daniel Dring in the first group. The second group consisted of Phil Wall & James Burnham, James Stewart & Chris Petty, Brian Horrocks & Sam Zair, Chris Slinn & Marcus Walsh, James Croucher & Jordan Kelly and David Dodd & Matthew Owen. 

The first group had a wide range of handicaps from -10 to +8. However, it proved to be a close affair with the first two pairs tied in the top spot on games, as both won 4 games and lost 1. The next three pairs were all tied having won 2 games each and losing 3 demonstrating how close the result was. The two pairs tied at the top of the group came down to the head-to-head where Matt Dex & Richard Jakeman who had a -10 handicap, just about beat Tom Bentley & Daniel Dring who were on a -7 handicap. 

While the second group had a more definitive finishing order, this doesn’t necessarily reflect how close some of the games were as there were multiple final game scores of 21-20 so could have finished quite differently! In the end, James & Phil, on a -6 handicap, finished in the top spot as they won all their games, and Dave & Matthew, on a +1 handicap came in as the runners up. 

The winners and runners up of each group proceeded into the semi finals with the winner of the first group playing the runner up of the second and vice versa. The two pairs from the first grouped proved the victors to move into the finals to face each other again, and given the score in the group was 21 – 19, it was all to play for still. In the end though the final was a repeat of the group with Richard & Matt winning 21-19 again to take the win and Daniel & Tom the runners up. 

There were only two entries in the Ladies singles; however, unfortunately, outside circumstances meant the games couldn’t be played and so was marked down as not held. 

The Womens doubles saw only two pairs, Claire & Zoe, and Kara & Mie go head to head in a straight final. The games were expected to be close so there was only 1 point difference in the handicapping in favour on Kara & Mie however on the day it proved not to be needed with Kara & Mie taking both games to 16. 

After a last minute drop out, the mixed saw three pairs, Claire Griffin & Dave Dodd, Joshua Bamford & Zoe Raiswell, and Kara Robinson & Rich Jakeman. The handicappers decided there wasn’t a huge amount between the three pairs, and so there was only a 6-point difference across the top and bottom handicap. The first game between Zoe & Josh and Claire & Dave was a tie with both winning a game each, so all to play for. Next up was Kara & Rich and Zoe & Josh, which proved a little more clear cut with Kara & Rich taking both games. Final games with Kara & Rich and Claire & Dave decided the title, but with each pair taking one of the games, Kara & Rich took the win with Claire & Dave coming in as runners up. 

The Mens singles proved to be another very busy event with 14 entries initially, but one drop out on the day meant we had 13 so two busy groups still! The first group consisted of Jez Touch, Sam Zair, Peter Garside, Wren Wang, Marcus Walsh and Chris Slinn and the second group had Matthew Owen, Phil Wall, Nathan Barker-Chadwick, James Stewart, Steve Astley, Josh Bamford and Chris Petty. Both groups were well fought and had a wide range of handicaps ranging from -6 to +10. In the end, both groups had several players finishing on the same number of games won, so we had to look at head to heads to decide winners and runners up, which meant Chris S went through as the winner of his group with Jez as the runner up and James the winner of his group with Nathan the runner up. 

The men from the second group proved the victors this time, which meant James and Nathan got to face off again in the final. With a 21-17 win to James in the group, it was potentially favoured to go James’s way; however, Nathan turned it around and then some to take a 21-12 win (apparently not even realising that the game he’d just played when he came off was the final!). 

Many congratulations to our various winners and runners up, and a massive thank you to all that participated in the handicapping and to everyone that played. It was especially nice to see more new young faces getting involved and the enthusiasm from all that played.