The third annual Australian pairs tournament took place last week at the Alvor Club. The tournament is undoubtedly now one of the most prestigious tournaments in the Algarve bowling calendar.
This year saw 32 pairs in all competing for 3,000 euros in prize money, with entries from England, Holland and Jersey, as well as a healthy local entry.
The unusual and interesting feature of Australian pairs is that both players have to alternately play skip and lead, so a good all round game and good teamwork are essential to success.
The competition is based upon eight groups of four teams playing each other on a round robin basis. Each team playing qualifying matches on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the top two from each group to qualify for the last 16. Losing pairs go into the attractive plate competition starting on the Thursday.
By Wednesday night, the 16 qualifiers were known and these did battle on Thursday morning for a coveted place in the quarter finals on Friday morning.
The draw for the quarter finals was an international affair, with Chris Reynolds (Lindfield, England) and Janice Clarke (PDF, Portugal) paired with John and Sheila Currall from the local Alvor Club; Colin Skinner and Terry Ewart from Essex, England, were up against Saskia Schaft and Jan Reinders from Holland; Alan and Frances Reynolds (Alvor) played Terry Hughes (Lindfield) and Malcolm Peters (Alvor) and, in the fourth quarter final, Alan Clarke (Alvor) and Ian Watson (Lindfield) took on Geoff and Liz Cole from Jersey. After some tense and close encounters, the Reynolds/Clarke, Ewart/Skinner, Reynolds/Reynolds and Clarke/Watson combinations emerged victorious and went through to the semi finals on the Saturday morning.
Chris and Janice beat Alan and Frances Reynolds by 27-10 to go through to the grand final. The other semi final saw Alan and Ian defeat Terry and Colin by 21-18 in a most absorbing, skilfull and close meeting.
The final was a more tense affair, not helped by a gusty wind across the green. It was made more interesting in that all four competitors hail from the same Sussex club (Lindfield). Eventually, the match finished all square 14-14 after 18 ends of play. A gripping extra end saw Alan and Ian squeeze through to take the title, having been losing semi- finalists last year.
The plate competition started on Thursday and offered another opportunity to win a title and some worthwhile prize money also. The 16 non-qualifiers were joined by the eight losing last sixteeners to make up the 24 entries. Each pair played three matches of 12 ends each, the four pairs with the best record going through to the semi-finals on Saturday.
Pat Derouane and Sheila Rapsey met Vince Cresswell and Mike Browning (all from Alvor) in one semi, while Joan Worrall and John Cooke met last year’s overall winners Mike and Catherine Webb in the other. Pat and Sheila won through 17-12 and Mike and Catherine won 21-7 to qualify for the plate final over 15 ends. Another close encounter also required an extra end to decide the outcome, Mike and Catherine eventually winning by 16-15 to take the plate.
Next year’s tournament promises to be a bigger and better event.
Alan Clarke
(for the Alvor Club)
