The President's Cup
Round 12 by Robert Fulford
The round started with Jose on 9 and Me and Christian the next closest on 7.
Jose met Christian. Christian hit turn 2 putting Jose's roughly 9 yards S of c3 and then going in c1. Jose took croquet in c1, approached poorly but ran a 3 yard angle hoop. However he then failed 2.
Christian hit and went to 3b peeling Jose to 3.
Jose went from 3 to 1b but giving Christian a short lift shot. Christian missed and Jose started a sextuple.
The sextuple didn't start well and Jose only jawsed 2b before 6. After rushing it through Jose split the peelee to 3b, but got the line wrong for going towards his 1b pioneer and his ball went through 1 by a few yards. However he still hit his 1b pioneer from 16 yards to carry on. He finished with an STP.
I played Stephen. Stephen had a third turn ball round to 3b. Sixth turn after a leave I had a QPO and peeled Stephen to 2.
Stephen made a 5 yard angled hoop 2, but then failed a much more straight forward 3.
I failed a very angled 1 off partner, but Stephen missed a 15 yarder from 2. I approached 1 from the boundary and had a 3 ball break.
After backward take offs to make 3b and 4b, I failed to reach on a third one. Looking to play a scatter I missed completely and finished 3 yards east of the end of A-baulk. Stephen hit but taking off to the ball near penultimate cross-wired himself. He took good position at 3.
I hit the ball in front of 3 from penultimate and layed up in C1. Stephen missed his 40 yarder.
I rushed to penultimate and under approached again and retreated to c2.
Stephen hit the ball by penultimate, approached 3 and had a two ball break.
Jose was finished now and only needed Stephen to finish to win the event. Jose looked much more nervous watching than when he was playing as Stephen two balled through 6 and then rushed perfectly into c2.
Stephen looked like he was having to work out the cannon from first principles (involving a walk to c1) rather than just knowing what to do and played it poorly only getting half way to 1b and the 2b pioneer 10 yards short, but that was the last bad shot and he finished.
So Jose won. Jose is a very deserving winner with fabulous consistency in his strokes. He should only get better as he gets more tactical experience.
Christian has made a very good debut too. He has always had excellent hard shooting and over the last couple of years his control has greatly improved.
End of Pres reporting for this year. Good luck to everyone playing in the Worlds and watch out for Jose!
10 Sep 2017 8:32AM (Tournament); 3 Readers
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