Top 8 roundup-divisions 4 & 6
Published 15/04/2019 at 18:24:42 by Michael Howard; edited 3 times, last on 15/04/2019 at 19:28:44 by Michael Howard.
The Top 8 for each division produced the exciting, excellent, quality we have come to expect from this popular end-of-season event, which included several matches between team-mates. Well done to everyone who participated, with particular thanks to those players who turned up at short notice when others had to withdraw.Division 4:
Rupert Greyling won his group, beating Ian Spanswick and Richard Weston in 3 legs, although he needed to hold his nerve in his 3rd match to take the final leg when Andy Tan drew level after conceding a two-leg lead. Richard was the group runner-up, beating Andy in 5 legs and then Ian. The other group was decided on legs countback, after Graham Silversides and Mark Meagrow each won 2 matches. Graham had lost to Pedro Anastacio in 5 very close legs, before beating Robert Anderson and then Mark, who had beaten both Robert and Pedro. Robert won the final group game against Pedro. In the semi-finals, Richard beat Graham over 4 close legs, while Rupert easily beat Mark. The final was a marathon effort by both players with Rupert beating Richard 11-8, 12-14, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, to add the Top 8 trophy to the divisional runner-up trophy and the Ray Jones Trophy.
Division 6:
John Taylor, who had lost only once this season, had no trouble winning his group, beating David Rusted, James Hu and Dave Donovan. James secured the other semi-final spot by beating both David and Dave. Dave Donovan won the first 2 legs in his match against David Rusted but a 3rd leg 12-10 win for David turned the tide and he won the final 2 legs to give him his sole win on the night. In the other group, Brian Huang won his initial matches easily against Peter Amsden and Kyle Joseph. However, he found his team-mate Vincent Huang a different proposition and it took 5 tough legs for him to record a win, after Vincent came back from 2 legs down. Vincent also qualified for the semi-finals after beating Peter and Kyle. In the semi-finals, John beat Vincent and Brian beat James, another of his team mates. The final was between John and Brian, the only person to beat John this season. Brian repeated the feat, with a win over 4 legs. With their teams having secured promotion, it will be interesting to see how these two players fare in a higher division next season.