A two year lay-off from the GC Tournament scene did Dogmersfield’s Roger Barnacle no harm at all, and he arrived back with a vengeance, to win the Wiltshire Open in late May.
Unfortunately due to the bad weather, this year’s event at Hamptworth was reduced to being a single day affair on the Sunday, writes Richard Jenkins.
The Semi-Final between Simon Carter (Dulwich) and Nick Cheyne (Surbiton) was a very close and hard fought match indeed, with Carter just managing to gain the upper hand in the third game: 7-6, 6-7, 7-4. This despite an amazing angled ‘dam-buster’ jump shot from Cheyne from level with the centre peg to hoop 6 in the final game. Barnacle recovered from a very close 7-6 win in his first game of the day against Keith Southern (Swanage), to progress all the way to a semis match with Richard Brookes (Sussex), which was rather more one-sided, despite Brookes fighting back well, but to no avail.
The Final between Barnacle and Carter swung one way then the other throughout the whole match, before the former pulled away in the deciding game: 7-3, 5-7, 7-3.