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Tournament Review
by Duncan Hartshorne (Point Blank DSC)
THE BRITISH OPEN 2003
HAYLING HURRICANE VIII: Who stole the wind?
It was Thursday afternoon
when I decided to check the weather forecast for
the weekend, the predictions were good, slightly
cloudy with sunny spells and wind speeds of only
2 miles per hour on the Saturday and 3 mph on the
Sunday. I chuckled to myself, this is Hayling we're
talking about, it could never be that calm -could
it?
Friday morning and
the journey to Hayling began. Arriving about 12ish
I found a few of the regular tourists had also got
there early. Gwyn and Squeaky were pitching their
tents, Paul Buck had arrived and set up camp (unlike
his usual tournament journeys for once he arrived
without breaking down or indeed getting lost). Out
on the course were, amongst others, Dan Massey,
Billy Ault and Matt Pike all making their bids for
stardom in front of the watchful cameras of central
TV.
There were five partnerships
entered into the pre-tournament Friday evening fun
round of doubles. Tom Soper and Dazza Rose eventually
triumphed due to some scintillating play from themselves
and, it has to be said, quite erratic performances
from some of the other groups.
As more and more of
the tournaments competitors arrived, the beer started
to flow and once again the now famous Hayling social
had got underway, Gwyn, Squeaky and Dazza broke
out their guitars and everyone was entertained until
the early hours of the morning.
The following morning
as the competitors rose there were a few groggy
heads about, but they were soon rectified by the
bacon sarnies and orange juice supplied for the
bargain price of just 1 squid. There was even time
for a few practice holes before the players meeting
and the commencement of the first round.
I was drawn alongside
Tom Soper and two debutantes, Carol and Sharon for
the
first round. It was a very enjoyable round and even
though the scores of the girls did not match either
Tom's 58 or my 63, Carol scored 109 and Sharon 136,
they both enjoyed the round immensely, especially
when Tom and I did the gentlemanly thing and retrieved
their discs from various wet or prickly locations.
New players to the
sport are always encouraged and made to feel welcome
wherever possible, never more so than at Hayling.
The two highlights of the round for me were when
Sharon scored her first ever 5 on a hole she endeavoured
to remove her top, running and jumping in celebration
- nice!
Secondly on hole 12 where you can either play for
the safe par by going to the left of the tree line
or you can take the risky option to the right over
the OB field bringing the disc back into bounds
just before it lands for a birdie. If you take this
option and fail to make it over the OB you are taking
shot 3 from the tee and looking at a painful score.
Myself being myself, I took the risk and launched
my disc to the right, it looked good, it looked
very good, fading back in left towards the basket,
then came sound
of metal, an Ace? Had I achieved the magical Hole
in one?......... No, I hadn't. The disc had skipped
of the top of the basket and landed some 20-30 meters
away on the tee for the next hole, oh well! My next
shot was a hammer and the "ching" of plastic
hitting chains was heard, only for the disc to bounce
out to the ground. So for all my efforts I had to
settle for a par 3 and it is very rare you can say
you hit metal 3 times but still got par.
Elsewhere in the tournament
Pierre Christopherson, who had ventured all the
way from Sweden, took an early overall lead, setting
a new Hayling Island course record of 51 (9 under
par!). Derek Robins though was only one shot further
back and looking for any kind of slip from Pierre.
John 'Pope' Massey
took an early lead in the Am division with an excellent
59, but Dazza (60) was close behind. Towards the
rear of the field in a duel of Point Blank rivalry,
Andrew Bell and Pete Black were tied with scores
of 78.
The second round did
little to affect the overall positions as the lack
of wind and favourable conditions meant players
generally scored similarly to the morning, though
Dazza had moved into the Amateur lead overnight.
As play ended for
the day the BBQ got underway and the beer once again
started its flow. A highlight of the evening had
to be "The Burger Olympics" where competitors
were tested in three disciplines, Accuracy where
the aim was to get a "hole in bun" over
a distance of about 20 meters. Distance, where you
had to send your burger flying as far as you could,
and Throw Run Catch, the crowd favourite, mainly
because of the potential for horrific injury...
The winners were:
Accuracy: John
Massey
Distance: Derek Robins
Throw Run Catch: Duncan Hartshorne (that's me!)
The Sunday saw all
the players going out in the morning for a final
round of 18 on the more difficult old course, again
the sun was out and there was no wind to speak of,
could this really be Hayling Island?
In the Open division Pierre stretched his lead over
Del to 3 shots. Those two, along With Charlie Mead,
Liam Young and Jester Wilson all qualified for the
Open final of 9 holes.
In the Amateur division Dazza had a solid lead going
into the finals ahead of John Massey, Gwyn, Flake
and Tyler who had surprised many people in winning
the junior title so convincingly and showing unerring
consistency on his drives and approaches. The Juniors
in the states will have a lot to look out for when
he and his father return home next week.
Elsewhere on the third
round Andy Bell won his close fought battle with
Pete Black. Benny Ayres finished 2/3rds of the way
down the field in what could prove to be his last
ever British tournament, as he is moving to Australia
with his girlfriend for at least a year. We wish
him well for the future and the entertainment he
has provided us all with over the last few years,
his many trips through bushes, trees, rivers, seas
and in fact any obstacle ever in his way will be
sorely missed. Last place in the open division went
to Matt Pike who finished with a round of 72 not
helped on the way by a double OB 8, though at least
he kept some of his discs out of the sea this time
round.
In the finals, Pierre
held on to his overall lead despite the best efforts
of Del, who improvised brilliantly at times especially
with an inspired roller shot through the OB field
of hole 16, Charlie took third, Liam fourth, and
Jester took fifth in his first British Open final.
In the Amateur division,
an inspired 9 holes in 26 shots by Darren Rose saw
him stretch his margin of victory to 10 shots over
Gwyn and John, tied in second. Tyler made an impressive
fourth and Flake (aka Tickle Monster) came home
in 5th.
All in all it was
a very enjoyable tournament and a good time was
had by all. A big thank you must go to the Nomads,
Dan, Billy, Matt, and anybody else who helped in
making a very special tournament.
Dunc.
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