Victorians v Rayne Swan – 22nd January 2012

Report from Brenda Wilmot - photos from Bob Wilmot

Victorians move to the next round of the competition after defeating Rayne Swan 3 – 2. They join three other clubs (Jolly Farmer P.C., Coventry P.C., and NHIA P.C.) in a round robin on 26th February.
From the start, this promised to be a close-fought match. In the open triples, the Vic team of Dinesh Seetahul, François Bourquin and Phil McCrostie played against Keith Flack, Dean Middleton and Dean Little. Rayne Swan scored first with 2 points but failed to maintain the advantage. The Vic team, thanks largely to the outstanding pointing of François, supported by Phil and Dinesh, seldom missing a shot which showed in the final score of 13 – 2 to the Vic.
In the Mixed Triples it was the Rayne Swan team of Beryl Gibson, Adam Buxton and Vince Schofield that took a commanding lead to 9 -5 at which point the Vic team of Andy Wilmot, Raj Tupsy and Dawn Bourquin started to pull back. At 10 - 10 the coche was pushed back giving the Rayne team the 3 points to win. During this game Beryl’s pointing was excellent and gave them the advantage.
With the teams even at 1 -1 going into the Doubles there was everything to play for. In the Mixed Doubles, with the Vic team of Andy Wilmot and Dawn Bourquin against the Rayne team of Beryl Gibson and Adam Buxton, it was the home team that took an early advantage with some good pointing and shooting. This time it was the Vic team that outpointed the Rayne team, winning 13 – 3 although this did not reflect the high standard of play from both teams.
In the 1st Open Doubles the Vic team of Raj and François took a steady lead against the Rayne team, Dean Middleton and Vince. The Rayne team evened up to 10 - 10 at which point the excellent pointing from François and the experience of Raj in this game helped the Vic team to victory at 13 – 10.
In the 2nd Open Doubles with Rayne’s Keith and Dean against the Vic’s Dinesh and Phil, it was the Rayne team which, by not allowing the Vic team to get into the game until it was too late, won 13 – 7.
The standard of play from both teams was excellent and possibly one of the best matches that the Victorians have played in for many years. Thank you Rayne Swan for giving us all such excellent games.