The day finally dawned, with all the bookstall still to be taken down to the Royal Beacon Hotel and set up, and the playing kit to be laid out. I’d taken this down the day before (Sunday), to find the hall beautifully set up with tables and starched tablecloths, and chairs… enough for 100 players! We only had 62 entries, so a fair amount of pruning had to be done. This didn’t take long, and left players with more elbow room and floor space.
There were one or two minor glitches as 1 o’clock approached, but nothing to prevent a prompt start.
Here are the day’s results.
Most excitement for the neutrals seemed to centre on the Junior’s Section, where Colin Sellwood enjoyed a storming win against the normally rock-solid Steve Dilleigh, 2nd seed, while top seed Mark Page lost to Ian McAllan, thus throwing the section wide open from Day 1.
| SENIORS | ROUND 1 | |||||
| Bd | White | Grd | Result | Black | ||
| 1 | Sherriff, Alan J | 142 | 0 – 1 | Norman, Kenneth I | 184 | |
| 2 | Footner, Andrew F | 177 | 1 – 0 | Sandercock, E Barry | 141 | |
| 3 | Smith, Ewart J | 140 | ½ – ½ | Kendall, Paul SN | 177 | |
| 4 | Adaway, William | 175 | 1 – 0 | Namouk, Omer A | 135 | |
| 5 | Belt, Malcolm | 133 | 0 – 1 | Everson, Robert J | 165 | |
| 6 | Toms, David A | 162 | 1 – 0 | Robertson, Jim | 135 | |
| 7 | Harris, William F | 133 | 0 – 1 | Gamble, Raymond J | 160 | |
| 8 | Price, Andrew | 160 | 1 – 0 | Hunt, Ray K | 132 | |
| 9 | Shaddick, John | 131 | 0 – 1 | Gosling, Brian GE | 154 | |
| 10 | Page, Martin C | 153 | ½ – ½ | Adams, Martyn W | 130 | |
| 11 | Egan, William J | 130 | 0 – 1 | Annetts, Ivor S | 151 | |
| 12 | Scowen, Roger S | 143 | 1 – 0 | Smith, Richard J | 128 | |
| 13 | Errington, Paul T | 126 | ½ – ½ | Purry, Nigel A | 98 | |
| 14 | Burt, David F | 101 | 1 – 0 | Hurn, Robert AJ | 124 | |
| 15 | Gordon, Philip L | 120 | 0 – 1 | Lucas, Peter | 94 | |
| 16 | Thorpe-Tracey, Stephen F | 94 | ½ – ½ | Clapp, Joseph D | 118 | |
| 17 | Tidy, Norman F | 118 | 1 – 0 | Kaye, Mike | 92 | |
| 18 | Cox, Reg E | 88 | 0 – 1 | Dow, Michael J | 110 | |
| 19 | Waters, Roger G | 110 | ½ – ½ | Cox, Marian | 87 | |
| 20 | Leggett, Peter AW | 85 | 0 – 1 | Dean, Michael J | 108 | |
| 21 | Fraser, Alan R | 107 | 1 – 0 | Queen, Andrew R | 75 | |
| 22 | Moloney, Tom | 70 | 0 – 1 | Welch, Hazel | 107 | |
| 23 | Jones, Robert H | 118 | 1 – 0 | bye | ||
| 24 | Wood, Peter C | 141 | ½ – 0 | bye requested |
| “JUNIOR”s | ROUND 1 | |||||
| Bd | White | Result | Black | |||
| 1 | Page, Mark E | 189 | 0 – 1 | McAllan, Ian | 159 | |
| 2 | Morgan, Jamie | 158 | 0 – 1 | Brown, Alan M | 187 | |
| 3 | Dilleigh, Stephen | 187 | 0 – 1 | Sellwood, Colin | 156 | |
| 4 | Halmkin, Peter E | 152 | 0 – 1 | Wells, Jonathan | 182 | |
| 5 | Heppell, Ian N | 179 | 1 – 0 | Roberts, Malcolm | 135 | |
| 6 | Blencowe, Ian P | 134 | ½ – ½ | Dean, Steve K | 164 | |
| 7 | Rogers, David R | 140 | 1 – 0 | Bye | ||
| 8 | Bartlett, Simon | 167 | ½ – 0 | Requested bye | ||
| 9 | Burton, Ronnie | 160 | ½ – 0 | Requested bye |
Here’s the scene as play got under way…..
General view of the playing hall.
2nd seed, Andrew Footner, playing a pensive Barry Sandercock (facing)
Steve Dean makes his move in the self-contained "Junior" Section.
Reg Cox (stripes) in action, while his wife, Marian plays Roger Waters (out of shot).