Club Event 2018 – Report

With a bit of a struggle we just reached the ideal of 12 teams – until a late drop-out reduced this to 11 with no chance of filling any gap – a shame but these things happen. The clubs entering changed somewhat from last year with Invicta/Pilgrims being absent and The Kings and Apollo(C) entering. So we had a group of 6 teams and one of 5. A sub-group of the Committee sorted out handicaps for each player based on information from the clubs themselves and from our own knowledge – but these handicaps were and remain secret.

The matches consisted of a mens, a ladies and 2 mixed doubles with each using the format of two games from scratch. Group 1 matches were played to 21 points with no setting. To allow for the reduced number of games the play in Group 2 ended at 26 points.

Following comments from last year we asked clubs entering 2 teams to make their A team the stronger of the two and these we allocated to Group 1. This seemed to work well. Play in both groups resulted in close games.

At the end of the event the overall positions of the teams (combined from both groups) depended on the total points scored and the total points conceded, after the application of the handicaps. As usual some of the handicaps worked very well – some were way out – we live and learn.

The winners were The Kings B from Group 2 – congratulations to them. The strongest team in Group 1 were Kings Road A who came second overall.

A summary table and a full set of detailed results are available.

One question perhaps to consider for next year. Is the event too long? It started soon after 10.00 and ended around 5.30. Would it be better to shorten it by playing one game to 31, say, rather than 2 to 21?

Having said all that, the feedback indicated another enjoyable day.

David Gardner