Quarter Finals
It was hats, coats and gloves on the balcony to watch the 4 quarter final matches in Tuesday evening.
In the first match of the night Mark Knott was up against John Ormsby (John went through as highest runner up after Ian Morton pulled out with injury)
Mark coped well with John’s fierce serve and played many cross court drops for winners. At 9 all in the first it looked like it could be a close contest however Mark put his foot down and went through to 21 in no time. 21-11.
The 2nd game was a little closer but Mark held out 21-18.
Martin Davison had a touch of good fortune when up against Dave Hall in the next match of the night. Unfortunately Dave injured himself very early on. It was clear that Dave struggled laterally and any number of Martin’s unorthodox and often unexpected ‘cross courts’ had him beat. 21-12 and 21-9.
Peter Archbold and Rob Owen were next to spar. Rob had a 5 shot advantage (-9 to -4 respectively) It took some time before Peter clawed back the deficit, 9-9 at one point. Peter then went away quickly and won 21-13.
The second game swung back and forth, both players had several runs of 5 or 6 points on the trot. At 9’s Peter ran away to 16-9 and never looked back. 21-13 again- to win the match.
The last game of the night saw the marathon that was Tony Hedley against Chris Brock. Huge handicaps -25 against -11 was going to be lengthy, and so it was. First game was tight all the way through until Tony had a run to 19-14, he looked secure but Chris was having none of it.
After a decision went against him (only a let) Chris hit the ball somewhat harder and battled back winning the first 21-20.
Both players had put in much effort, perhaps Chris working slightly harder……….. but he is 20 years younger !
The next 2 games were simply a war of attrition. Tony placed the ball slightly better throughout and Chris was run-down rally by rally. Tony’s drops also started to tell.
A great game to end the night with Tony going through 21-14,
21-12.
Semi finals on Wednesday (12th December)
Mark Knott plays Tony Hedley and Peter Archbold takes on Martin Davison.
Ian Mc
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