Joe Lennon won the HC Tournament at Albert Park
Manager/Reporter: Charles Waterfield
The visiting competitors came from Crake Valley, Keswick, Glasgow, Sheffield and Tyneside, with five from Middlesbrough (including newly joined Anthony Miller). Handicaps ranged from 0 up to 12.
The tournament involved two blocks of six players, with five pre-drawn rounds played as 18‑point games, with 2‑hour time‑limits; four on the Saturday and one more the next morning. The resulting ‘rankings’ in each block put competitors in the following order:
A. Joe Lennon (Glasgow), Nigel Roberts (Mbro), David Millener (Tyneside), Derek Johnson (Tyneside), Jim Allcock (Crake), Dennis Scarr (Mbro)
B. Andrew Carpenter (Tyneside), Steve Skelton (Keswick), Mark Simmerson (Sheffield), Andrew Killick (Mbro), Anthony Miller (now Mbro), Julian Gibson (Mbro)
On a much sunnier Sunday afternoon there were six play-off games (26-point, 3 hour) between the corresponding Block A and Block B places, with the following results:
Joe Lennon beatAndrew Carpenter +5
Nigel Roberts beat Steve Skelton +3
Mark Simmerson beat David Millener +9
Derek Johnson beat Andrew Killick +13
Jim Allcock beat Anthony Miller +17
Dennis Scarr beat Julian Gibson +9
Joe has now won the trophy three times (every other year since 2015)!
Handicap changes: Steve (7 to 6), Nigel (9 to 8), Julian (12 to 14), Mark (9 to 8)