A short report on the Masters event last weekend at the Northumberland Club.

First of all, the entries were rather poor and despite advertising on the Masters website no-one except Colin Shields entered who would entry a regional tournament from south of Newcastle...so it was largely a local competition for the keen age group players.

I had only 4 players in the 040 and one dropped out after losing his first match. Nevertheless there were some close matches between Russell Hunter( Alnwick) and Mark Haigh & John Peacock from the Northumberland Club. Russell played exceptionally well and won both matches 3-2. He plays in the premier division in Northumbria and he commented " he may play in the regionals this year in the 045 level".

The 050 event was very strong with 9 entries so I used a round robin format of 3 groups of 3 players following by a semifinal and final.

I had Tommy Elves and John Smith in my section and I played Tommy first who was in sparkling form and easily despatched me 3-0. Every shot he hit arrowed into the nick or was millimetres above the tin. He then played John and perhaps I worked him harder than I thought as he lost quite easily.

Colin Shields played John Thompson from Tynemouth in his first match and before he knew what happened he found himself 2-0 down. He recovered to 2-2 but John won a close fifth. Kevin Dryden won his group as did John Thompson and Colin got through to the semis with the best 2nd place record.

So the semis were John Thompson versus John Smith and Colin Shields versus Keven Dryden.

Both semis were closely fought but John S and Colin both won 3-0.

A great final then resulted in Colin winning 3-0 although John put him under a lot of pressure.

The ladies 040 final was between 2 members of the Northumberland Club Chris Park and Eleanor Bowles. It proved a very close encounter going to 5 games with Chris just the fitter in a tight 5th game.

Overall, an enjoyable tournament but would have liked a few more entries from the South!!

Best Regards,

Jim Douglas