Good morning from Cheltenham. Sunshine and clouds, it's going to be a warm one.

Today the 4 quarter-finals are played. Best-of-5, SuperAdvanced.

Reg Bamford v Mark Avery on lawn 11
James Death v David Maugham on 4
Paddy Chapman v Pete Trimmer on 5
Ben Rothman v Robert Fulford on 10

So the seeds have all reached their appointed positions. Before the seeding committee congratulate themselves too much, it should be pointed out that seeding is a self-fulfilling sort of thing. However I expect today’s matches to continue to go with seeding (the seeders failed to call Death v Maugham).

Having awoken early I’ve been delving around Statto’s site:

Bamford has won 22 / 29 games v Avery - they have not played since 2003!

Maugham has won 24 / 41 games v Death. I remember Death winning at the 2005 Worlds here in Cheltenham on an easy lawn 9. +26tp -26tp + 26tp if I’m not mistaken. Their last match was here in the 2010 Opens quarter-final, Dave winning 3-1.

Chapman has won 3 / 5 games v Trimmer, all at last year’s World Championship. (Paddy lost their block game then beat Pete 3-1 in the quarter-final at Roehampton.)

Fulford has won 3 / 8 games v Rothman. I remember Ben winning 3-0 in the 2009 Worlds in Florida - that was a second round match, Ben went on to lose to Reg in the final. Rob won 2-0 in the 2010 Mac, but lost 1-2 in the 2014 Mac.

All are practising, save the Manager who's explaining there are no lawns...

We're off on 11.
Reg K to 9yN IV
Mark R near II
Reg U at K from A-baulk, missing to 6" N of ball.
Mark Y misses from A-baulk

And on 10
Ben Y 9yN IV
Rob U near II
Ben R off 1yN of Y
Rob U misses to 2yN of IV

Oops first error (by me not them) Rob played K 4th turn.

Ben rushes K well short of 1, approaches, runs hoop, misses 8-yard return roquet.
Rob K hits R on S bdry (7y).

Reg is picking up 5th turn break. Just made hoop 2.

Lawn 5
Pete Y hits hoop 5.
Paddy K roquets Y, approaches 1 sending Y peg-high between 1 and 2. Underapproach, retires near IV.

Wixy will now take over lawns 4 and 5, so you need another window!

Rob K has a break, just run 3.
Reg is up to hoop 5.

Reg has made 6 hoops and is making a spread with Red at the peg.
Mark lifts Yellow to B-baulk, misses to near IV

Rob has POPped Y thru 1, and attempts a longish POP of 2 before 6. Will be conceding contact.

Looks like Y was in IV, and Reg (K) has rushed R into IV after 1 for a cannon.
K attempts to peel U thru 1-back. Y is 5yE of 1, R is 3y SE of 3.
Peel goes thru, but only by 6". K is nicely on R.

On 10:
Clips are; Ben: R3, Y3; Rob: U1, K3-back.
U is left 7yN of I, K in IV. R and Y nr II.

Ben, Y ends up rolling off 3 from the N bdry, makes it.

Reg peels 2-back before 5.

Reg peels 3-back before 6

Ben has a break.

Sorry for delay there not sure what happened.

Reg is attempting 4-back peel before 2-back. Peel doesn't go thru and has quite an angled cut rush to 2-back, which he rushes to 2' from hoop!

Ben has made 4 hoops and is having a leave.

Reg has rush-peeled 4-back before 3-back.

Ben's leave is sort of a reverse OSL.

Rob lifts U from nr 4 to A-baulk, centre-balls K (14y, maybe R and Y in background.

Reg peels penult before 4-back.

Rob picks up break,has all the balls, a standard QP ahead of him.

Reg has straight rover peel from 1' in front. Irishes them thru.
Game 1 Reg 26sxp

Goodness you don't get much applause for an sxp these days.

Rob making 3 with K at 4.

G2
Mark K 8yN of IV
Reg R duffer 1y NE 6
Mark U at K from a-baulk, missing to 9" N
Reg Y at UK from A-baulk. Hits K

Rob has peeled 3-back, before 4 I think.

Reg's rush of U to 1 is so good he can POP U thru safely. Now has break.

Rob peels 4-back before 6.

Rob attempts death roll of penult peel going to 2-back. Peelee bounces off.

Reg POPs K before 5.

Rob gets penult peel going to 3-back.

Reg to 1-back, having POPped Mark to 2 & 2. The usual spread.
Mark lifts ball at peg (U) to A-baulk. Misses.

Rob has straight rover peel to negotiate.

Rob pegs out from 3 yards. Game 1 +18qp.

Reg is off on another sextuple.

Game 2 Ben K 9y N of IV
Rob R near ii
Ben U at K from A-baulk. Misses to 1y N.
Rob Y at UK from B-baulk. Snicks U.

Reg peels 1-back after 2. This time peelee goes most of way to 2-back..

Rob has a cut rush of K to R, but can't hit it hard enough. Leaves K 3y SE of 2, leaves R and Y nr II with wired rush.
Ben attempts to jump over 2 - does so, hits! Fist.

Looks like Reg has jawsed Y in 2-back before 4. Rush-peeled before 5.

Ben K makes 1, ends up with take-off approach to 2 from N bdry, copes, has break.

Reg has peeled 3-back before 6, now peels 4-back before 2-back.

Reg's rush to 2-back ended up nearer hoop 5, but he copes.

Ben sticks in hoop 5, handing Rob the innings with Y.

Rob picks up break with Y.

Reg peels penult before 4-back. Peelee within a yard of rover.

I must say I think the SuperAdvanced variation is a Good Thing. Many different strategies contacts, SXPs, QPOs (or indeed OQP). Not sure about the other TV - ie “Banning the Supershot”. Personally I am delighted whenever player lays a supershot against me - I get many more 4th turn breaks!

Rob (Y) managed to jaws Blue in 1 after the hoop, but fails to get rush after 2 so Blue will stay there for a while.

Reg finishes. Game 2 +24sxp. Mark yet to take croquet.

Game 3
Reg K 9yN of IV
Mark Y nr II
Reg U hits K from A-baulk. Doesn't go to Y, just leaves rush for K.
Mark R from A-baulk. Misses.

Rob is setting up to POP U thru 2 before 6.

Reg K taps R, rushes U to 1. Makes hoop, rushes K near R. Good cut rush of R to Y. Is it a corner cannon? Robin Brown is reffing. Hopgood there also. Yes a cannon has been awarded, should mean a break.

Rob is making 2-back.

Clips on lawn 10:
Rob R 1 Y 4-back; Ben U 3 K 5.
Contact leave: R in I,Y in II, UK across IV.

Reg is POPping Y thru 1 before 5

Ben plays with K, tapping R out of I. takes off to Y. Rolls Y very near East bdry, misses 7-yarder at partner.

Rob Red hits Black (23y)

Reg has made 6 hoops with 1 POP on Y. Spread.
Mark lifts Y from near W bdry, to A-baulk. Misses.

Rob rushes U to Y, Y to 1.Makes 1.

Now whenever I make a comment such as the following, Chris Clarke laughs at me and offers to bet large money on the opposite, but what do we think Reg's chances are of finishing this turn? 80%? 90%? He's made hoop 1 by the way.

Apparently on lawn 4 James finished from 1-back and 4-back. Which is why they're called Clips of Death.

Rob has done well to find himself with a standard TP.

Reg has peeled 1-back after 2 to just S of peg-high. Peels 2-back before 4, leaving himself 10' cut rush (!). Doesn't cut it, rolls up to 4 form 5y, copes.

Rob's TP still completely standard.

Clarke reckons 80% for Reg's sextuple (at the start of the turn).

Reg has now peeled 3-back before 6, getting a rush on the hoop 6 pioneer. "Best player I've ever seen" reckons the opponent.

Rob has peeled rover before 2-back.

Reg jawses 4-back peel before 1-back. Finishing odds must have reached 90%. He allows himself the luxury of having his 3-back pioneer actually at 3-back.

Reg attempts penult peel before 3-back, peelee bounces off.

Rob wins Game 2 +20tp

Reg peels penult before 4-back.

Lawn 10, Game 3
Ben K attempts to lay supershot, misses all the furniture, ends up in B-baulk.
Rob Y rushes K nr II, Y to 1yN of IV K is 1yE of II.
Ben U roquets K from B-baulk. Rolls them S leaving long rush toward Y.
Rob R misses Y from A-baulk.

Reg finishes. Wins match +26sxp +24sxp +25sxp (Mark did not take croquet.)

Rothman U makes 1 off R. Rolls up to 2 from a few yards and he's on a break. Still has to dig out Y from nr IV.

Reg and Mark still chatting.

Wixy taking commentary duties very seriously, getting rather annoyed with some idiots not knowing the SuperAdvanced rules. Good to see. And he's playing well by all accounts.
Having said that he's popped off for a natural break, in case you were wondering.

Ben made 5 hoops and a leave - a rough spread.
Rob chose one of his many medium-length roquets and hit a 12-yarder at partner.

Some mallet-tossing on lawn 6 from MM. He has lost to Mr Todorovich.

Rob failed to get going - misapproached 1 I guess.
Ben misses 20-yarder.
Rob does get going this time.

Manager's back in the hut. He'd already spotted lawn 11's vacancy.

It's a pretty good spot this hut between 6 and 7. If they moved the bar here it'd be perfect.

Not quite sure what Rob's up to. There's a lot of thinking gong on. He's got to hoop 5 with no POPs. Partner ball has been left near 4 for some reason.

So the result of all that thought is making 6 hoops and having a spread with Blue at the peg.
Ben lifts Blue to B-baulk, misses (24y) into IV.
So now do we get to see a Rob sextuple?

Courtesy of an excellent Hogan roll out of IV Rob picks up the sextuple. 1-back peel after 2, sails through.
Attempts 2-back peel before 4, but it fails - not rush-peelable. Does peel before 5.

I seem to have lost my co-commentator. Chapman v Trimmer has resumed. I think Paddy failed hoop 1 2nd turn and Pete is going round 3rd turn.

Rob does 4-yard peel of 3-back before 6. Sails through so nicely I wondered if it had missed the hoop altogether, but no it's going to 4-back now.
Bit of a roll to hoop 6. Here I received 2 contradictory opinions.
Kibble: "He'll fail that hoop"
Death; " nah, he'll run it to the boundary."
I shall be retaining Death as one of my expert analysts.

Rob jawses 4-back peel before 2-back.

On lawn 5 Pete has decided to make 8 hoops 3rd turn.

Rob has failed to get a rush after 3-back, so he will need a straight double peel to finish.

Pete has left Yellow 10yS of II, K in IV R 12yN IV. (not the most controlled leave - his last shot was a huge roll from near 2 to get K and R off.

Rob's penult peel puts peelee 4' in front of rover. How do these chaps miss the peg?
Straight rover peel from 6" in front.

Rob wins match +18qp +20tp +21sxp

As Wixy is now required to play I shall now commentate on the matches on lawns 4 & %.
I think it a good time to start a new session, so please join me ina few minutes on a new page.