Hartley PC hosted the second Kent qualifier on Sunday 1st June. Twelve teams competed for ranking points in the series to represent Kent at the Inter Regional Championships in September.
A three round Swiss system was used in the morning for seedings, leading into gold and silver knockout competitions in the afternoon. In the gold knockout, top seeds David Hurren, Richard Spillett, Matt Horrigan & Rowland Jones narrowly overcame 8th seeds Andy Dunstall, Mat Lomas & Phil Jarrett in an epic 13-12 match! Team Dunstall taking an early lead but just couldn’t close out the game. Two of the other three quarter finals were also close affairs with 13-10 wins for Team Spillett over Team Edwins, and Team West over Team Wenban. The fourth quarter final was a much more straight forward affair with Team Golder beating Team Nash 13-3.
Two more very close semi finals saw a 13-12 win for Team Spillett against Team Hurren, and a 13-10 win for Team Golder over Team West. Both matches really could have gone either way at the end.
In the final, as expected, it was another tight start, but eventually Team Golder edged into an 8-4 lead and looked to be controlling the game. Team Spillett made a substitution with Rob Booth replacing Russell Brewis and going straight into the shooter role. This really turned the match in their favour as Rob hit the ground running and shot very well, getting Team Spillett a foothold in the game, and they went on to close out the match 13-9 to win the second Kent qualifier!
The gold consolage semi finals saw another two tight matches, both ending 13-12! There were wins for Peter Clarke, Martin Pennell & Carolyn Edwins and Joyce Nash, Mick Nash, David Baxter & Barry Soilleux. Team Nash won the final 13-7 over Team Edwins and always looked in control of the match.
The silver final was won by Pam Plummer, Peter Shillinglaw, Richard Baker & Neville Plummer with a 13-5 win against Christine Menzies, Reg Dobson, Christine Clacey & Janice Keemer-Richards.
All teams present today earned ranking points and the Q2 results are below, as well as the current overall standings. There are 4 qualifying days in the Kent series and each team’s best 3 results count in the final rankings. The top 12 teams qualify to represent Kent! Many thanks go to Hartley PC and their volunteers for setting up and hosting the event.
Qualifier 2 Results:
Overall Qualifying Series Rankings:
