The Christmas UK Finals. 3, 4, 5 December 2010
It's not always as bad as you think. On Friday morning my car was snowed in on my driveway, and the road outside my house was a skating rink. I had to dig the car out of snow 18 to 24 inches deep, in the process almost covering Sharen's as there was nowhere else to pile it! Why go through all this trouble? Well, for a couple of days emails, texts, messages and phone calls had been arriving asking if the UK Finals was still on - and I had answered Yes to everyone - so I had to be there, didn't I? But, it's not always as bad as you think - once I hit the main roads in Lincoln and then the main arterial roads there wasn't a flake of snow to be seen on any carriageway. In fact our journey to Hinckley took 15 minutes less than it usually does! So, I made it, but one Qualifier didn't - Gerry Enslin. Unable to get out of his village as far as the main roads, he remained snowbound in Norfolk and missed out on his Last 16 place. Gerry's loss was Rachel Rhodes's and Mick Butterfield's gain as they filled his two slots after coming 1st and 2nd in the Snowball after they defeated Tony Fawcett and Michelle Ford respectively.
Mick & Rachel While the Qualifiers was going on the six pre-qualifiers played out the Champion of Champions. George Hall lost to Andy Darby, and Nicky Check lost to Marc Turner in the semis. In the Final, Andy came out the Champion up and left Marc as the Runner-up So, after the Saturday qualifying round we had a draw thus (Pre-Qualifiers in red, except for Rachel and Mick): Mick Butterfield vs Simon K Jones Andy Darby vs Philip Tutchings George Hall vs Tony Lee Rachel Rhodes vs Andy Bell Marc Turner vs Paul Learmount Nicky Check vs Paul Christmas Paul Gilbertson vs Marcus Wrinc Neil Everritt vs Chris Ternel From these fixtures we got: Mick vs Andy Darby; Andy Bell vs Tony; Marc vs Nicky; Chris vs Paul Gilbertso. From these the first mentioned prevailed and we had the semi-finals between: Mick and Andy Bell, Chris and Marc, who was the sole remaining pre-qualifier. Andy had already knocked out two-times winner ('03, '08) Tony Lee, and now, in the semi he knocked out another two-times winner ('06, '07), Mick. In the Final he faced Chris, and it was Chris that emerged the 2010 UK Finals Champion.
Andy & Chris
Joint 3rd/4th: Mick & Marc In the Consolation, non-progressive side, joint-sponsor, Peter Christmas got the better of Myke Wignall; and in the progressive side, Marcus Wrinch got the better of Simon K Jones. Peter got to take home one of his own trophies, but alas, it was the Runner-up one as Marcus came out the winner.
Peter & Marcus In the semi-final of the Last Chance, Jerry Limb was beaten by Paul Plumptre and Phil Tutchings triumphed over Paul Learmount. In the final, Paul carried on his winning streak and took the winner's trophy. As can be seen in the photos, this year we opted for 'gifts' rather than regular trophies, and they proved to be very popular indeed! So popular that not one single 'trophy' was handed back - much to the regret of Deana and Sharen, both of whom were dying to get their hands on a big Santa! Paul & Phil
Paul and Phil . . . . the Christmas Trophies Of course, it all kicked off on Friday night with the 16 entrants in the Friday 500. All but two turned out, Andreas Sophocleous and Mick Harris as a happy Peter Christmas and George Hall took their places. Top favourites, Andy Darby and Nicky Check met in Round 2 and Andy prevailed, but only that far, in the next round he was knocked out by Brian Lever and Brian went into the final. Simon K Jones beat Rachel and went into the final against Brian, an encounter from Brian emerged victorious and £500 better off! As the 500 got underway we had a Jackpot going on in which I got to the final to meet with Dorothy Lee (fresh from her Las Vegas victory). I was was robbed in the final (literally - a victim of 'cheating' that neither of us were a party too!) and Dorothy went to bed a worthy winner and I went to bed puzzled at the final score. I might just add a reminder here for someone: Do not interfere with the score! On Saturday night the Poker Grand Prix came to a conclusion. On the night, Tony Lee came in 1st with Lawrence Powell 2nd; Andy Bell 3rd and Marc Turner 4th. Lawrence's victory was enough to propel him into overall 3rd place as he nudged Vicki Pemberton and Rosey Bensley down, who in turn knock organiser, Mark Calderbank into 6th place and out of the money! Simon Jones managed to increase his points total, but it was three short of Andy Darby, as Andy kept his #1 slot and Simon came in at #2.
Simon & Andy The Team event dragged on a bit in my opinion and, after my team was knocked out I went to bed for some much needed beauty sleep. As I lay dreaming, Nicky Check was having a nightmare . . . and he was awake! He was facing Michelle Ford across the board in the Team final, and no matter what he did, he couldn't get the better of her and she thrashed him. What made it even worse for Nicky was that they were playing winner-takes-all! I do wish I'd stayed up to have seen that! A few more events took place: Rosey Bensley held her famous, Rosey's Rollout for a bottle of Bollinger, the lucky winner, matching her score and winning a play-off was Dorothy Lee. Peter Christmas won £25 for being the only entrant in the Design a Christmas Card competition. Mind you, I reckon he'd have won it anyway. It was a very professional entry, so much so that Paul Weaver (he of the 31 opening move!) asked about producing it commercially!
The Secret Santa was very poorly supported and just a handful bothered to bring one. That was a pity, really. It would have been nice to have seen a lot more presents under the tree - perhaps next year? The last 'event' to mention was the Christmas Raffle in aid of Help Lewis Walk. There were over 35 prizes and we raised a whopping £213 in ticket sales! A fantastic result and I'd like to thank everyone who took part. Still with Lewis, we also sold £90 of tickets for the Online Raffle (see here), plus £49.60 sundry collection (TT+UK). Finally. I'd like to thank Peter and Paul for sponsoring the event, and Rosey for the Rollout and everyone who turned out during a cold, snowy, winter's weekend. |
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