County Nationals 2024/25 season begins.
This Sunday (29th September) saw the start of this season’s National Qualifiers / County competitions start at Stevenage with our new County Competition Organiser, Darren Stanford in charge. We began with the triples and had twelve teams enter this year. An early start of 09.00 saw much activity with the mats being rolled out. All thirty six competitors were then ready for the begin of play. The teams were arranged in three groups of four with each team getting three games in the morning session. The winner of each group and the highest loser were to go through to the afternoon knockout stage.
Lunch time arrived and our competition organiser, ably assisted by Rebbeca worked out the draw for the semi-finals. The three group winners, all of whom had won all three of their morning games were Group A winners: Brian McGivern, Alan Spicer and Martin Nash, Group B winners: Audrey Fowler, Mark Spalding and Darren Brown, Group C winners: Terri Watkinson, Roger Watkinson and Darren Stanford. They were joined by the highest runner up team of Trevor Knight, Michelle Conlon and Neil Rixon.
Semi Final one was played on mat four we had Trevor Knight’s team playing Audrey Fowler’s team. In a close match Audrey’s team just got the upper hand to win 8 – 6. Semi Final two was played on mat one. We had Terri Watkinson’s team playing Brian McGivern’s team in a very close match with its ups and downs the two teams were tied after the nine ends at eight all. Playing an extra end Brian’s team held a single and won that second place in the final.
The third/fourth place game was played on mat three. Trevor, Michelle and Neil played the nine ends slowly pulling in front to win 9 – 3 over Terri, Roger and Darren S.
The final was played on mat two. In a good tussle we had Audrey, Mark and Darren B play Brian, Alan and Martin. At the conclusion of the nine ends, Audrey’s team had the upper hand taking top spot and becoming this season’s Hertfordshire County Triples winner with a score of 10 – 4.
Well our first competition day came to an end with all players looking forward to our next County competition on the 20th October when we will be playing the over 55’s pairs.
We have listed all four teams on the 2024 2025 National Qualifiers page, however until the middle of January we will not get full confirmation of our number of entries, we do quite often get four places although this is not guaranteed. As soon as our final allocations are published we will let everyone know.
On a separate note next time you visit Stevenage please be aware of the change to the car parking situation. The car park on the left is now part of a building site and is not available. Please continue on the dual carriageway past the leisure center, pull in past the Bus Station and pull into the right-hand side car park. This car park does not issue tokens anymore as it has a number plate recognition system in use. You will however be pleased to know that the daily charge for a Sunday remains at £2.50.