CA Chairman's Salver
Day 1, Friday 5th September 2014 by James R. Hopgood
Location, Hurlingham, London, UK.
Weather: Overcast, cool, no breeze, sunny periods, lawns running at 11 seconds.
Essentially this is a shooting competition, and giving away contact is dangerous if you're not shooting well. Relatively few break play errors in most games, with blobbed hoops typically only the result of long angled hoop attempts. You need both hands to count the number of hoops you are likely to run without touching a wire (in an all round break), whereas you only need one finger to count how many forward rushes there are. Disappointing. Ropey breaks are rarely punished, and there is no need to worry if you have a pioneer out of place. Which is all a shame really.
Robert Wilkinson is back on form, not making any of the characteristic errors that has plagued his season. He finished off the contact after Hopgood TPO'd him, rolling from peg high on the East boundary, narrowly missing hoop 5, and ending up with one foot position in front of hoop 1.
The fourth round is still going on due to several long games involving Mr Goacher.
05 Sep 2014 5:22PM (Tournament); 1 Readers
I think it will be interesting to see whether the Chairman's can complete more peeling turns than the President's Cup. One characteristic of the Hurlingham hoops is that peels are very very easy, as they rarely bounce out of the hoop or stick on the wires. Why don't we have Chairman's hoops for the Chairman's which are equivalent to the President's Cup hoops? As I speak Robin Brown is on a QP but bizarely didn't Irish a straight rover peel. So he's set trying a combination pegout, having hit peelee to the South boundary after rover. Will he get this .....???
05 Sep 2014 5:28PM (Tournament); 2 Readers
[Shame it's not possible to post pictures on this site ....]
05 Sep 2014 5:28PM (Tournament); 3 Readers
Robin missed the peg-out, which is disappointing for the peeling stats. Meanwhile, Robert Wilkinson is on a straight double against Jeff, and if he wins, Jeff will only be on three wins, and therefore the competition will be wide open. Lionel is playing Robin, and David Goacher is playing Gabrielle.
05 Sep 2014 5:30PM (Tournament); 2 Readers
Robert beat Jeff, and Richard and James are off to play Golf Croquet, on the basis that practising breaks is pointless, and we both need shooting practice!
05 Sep 2014 5:39PM (Tournament); 2 Readers
So, after Robin missed his combination pegout on his quad, with Lionel on 1 and 1, the eventual winner, after considerable interaction, was ...... Mr Tibble. Unlucky for Robin at the end when shooting at the peg, he missed and hit 3b full on, sticking. That was the hoop which Lionel was for, and he was joined up.
05 Sep 2014 6:20PM (Tournament); 4 Readers
David is on a tortuously slow standard triple against Gabrielle, pretty much playing in the dark. He loves it. We're all in the bar, so no one is watching him.
05 Sep 2014 6:37PM (Tournament); 3 Readers
David failed a straight Rover peel, so the game has been pegged down.
05 Sep 2014 7:41PM (Tournament); 2 Readers
At 31 Oct 2024 11:16PM (Tournament) there are 11 people reading commentaries.