Tansy and Paul Mayfield made their annual pilgrimage to Bordon for their Good Friday triples, playing for the third year with recently married mucker Mike ‘rain cloud’ Tull.  Bordon was particularly well attended this year with 32 teams playing in bright, but very cold weather.  A favourable draw in the pool stage that morning saw them drop just 13 points on the way to the main competition.  A good win in the quarters finals set them up with a tough semi-final against a very good Isle of Wight team: luckily the plentiful bar had got the better of their pointer and we started very strongly taking an 11-2 lead.  The last 2 points proved elusive for a while as Sean Pemberton’s shooting kicked in, but in the end the Tull-Mayfields prevailed winning (I think) 13-7.   The final was played under a cold and rapidly darkening sky, with last year’s winners Debbie Elcombe and Graham Elcombe aiming to make it a double with their Spanish team-mate David. Tansy’s pointing deserted her, but despite this the match was fairly closely fought right up until the last end which saw the Elcombes win out 13-9. Will they be able to make it 3 in a row in 2013?

The Easter Monday comp at Crondall also had 32 teams playing off. Tnasy played with ‘her son’ Harrison Ash, and in the first round played Julie and Ian Bailey of Monkstone – they could have saved a long trip and played at the Clytha as per! At 0-9 it was looking bleak, but they rallied to win through 13-10, and then won their next 2 games to make it safely into the Main. In the meantime Paul Mayfield (playing) with Mike Tull, had a tougher draw having to beat 3 good teams to win through to the Main. After dinner, Tansy & Harrison played Julie and Ian once again and beat them to set up a semi-final against Paul & Mike who had battled through their quarter-final. In spectacularly cold, wet and windy conditions Paul & Mike set off well but Harrison’s consistent pointing, followed by his successful switch to shooting (to cover for a rain-sodden and fed up Tansy) saw them through the final where they met the giant-killers of the day, a father and son team from Southern. Tansy and Harrison had the rub of the green for the first half, taking a 9-1 lead – however, the team just wouldn’t lie down and they eventually crept back up the board to win 13-12.

Tansy can’t decide whether to be pleased at playing in 2 finals – or distraught at losing them both! (and Paul is sick of hearing about it).

Thanks to Bordon and Crondall for two great competitions as always – and particular thanks to the Tull clan and to Hamilton for good company and good play as always.