The Middlesbrough Handicap Singles Weekend has had a reputation in recent years for not being for the faint-hearted. Cold, wind and rain has severely tested the metal of participants. But what was this – sunshine? While a bit of a cold breeze appeared from time to time, it was for the most part lovely, particularly Sunday, and a few even decided to wear shorts.
We had 9 players covering 8 places over the 2 days. Six were Middlesbrough players who were joined by players from Tyneside, Penrith and Keswick. Handicaps ranged from minus 1.5 to 12.
Given it was Handicap the 2 Blocks of 4 were drawn randomly.
A time limit of 3 hours using all 4 lawns worked well with only a few games going to time.
On Day 2 the winners and runners-up in each block had cross-block semifinals with cross-block matches for those finishing 3rd and 4th in the blocks.
In block A Steve Skelton swept the board winning all 3 of his matches; the runner-up being Andrew Killick.
Block B was a little more problematic. Philip Hastings, who was only there for the Saturday won all 3 of his matches however, his block position was set aside meaning the block B winner was Derek Johnson with Julian Gibson runner-up.
Sunday morning’s semifinals saw a reversal of fortunes with both block winners losing to runners-up from the other block.
In the final, Andrew Killick (-1.5) played Julian Gibson (8) with Andrew triumphing 26 – 21.
Dennis Scarr – Manager.