It was a cold, foggy evening for the Christmas Rapidplay tournament. Tony Soames had taken time out to celebrate his wife’s birthday and I (Denzil) was tasked with running this tournament.
Patrick struggled in, hitting the curb and damaging his tyre, whilst Tony Lane failed to make it. Several others were foiled by the poor weather
We ended up with a healthy 14 competitors. A buffet was provided and there was plenty for everyone.
After round two we had four people leading the pack, Phil Cattermole ,Joachim Trier , Nick Evans and Geoff Laurence.
In round three Phil beat Joachim and Geoff drew with Nick giving Phil the lead going into round 4 .
We briefly had a puzzle board for two rounds for competitors to entertain but Patrick decided to commandeer this board for his games although there were two other free boards available.
Round 4 saw Nick Beat Phil and Joachim beat Geoff opening thing up. Nick now led the field with Joachim and Phil in close second.
The final had real drama
Adrian and Patrick didn’t start their clocks
Alan made an illegal move an Francis gained a minute
Phil beat Tony Brough to end up on a winning 4 points
Joachim beat reckless Nick (who lost a piece without noticing) ending up on 4 points , leaving Nick having to settle third with 3.5 points
Geoff and Phil Colville (both on 2.5 points after 4 rounds and both could have tied for third place with a win) –drew
In eventful tournament which was played in the right spirit.
However there were times when Players were frantically pressing the clock and moving pieces. Things got so bad that pieces were knocked over and players lost track of what was happening. Strictly speaking, players are required to move and press the clock with the same hand and players should adopt this practice to avoid the uncontrolled frantic finishes
Result
=1st Phil Cattermole 4
=1stJoachim Trier 4
3rd Nick Evans 3.5