NZ Masters Tournament 2009

Day 1

After the first eight games on day 1, leader of the pack was Howard Warner on 7 wins, ahead of Andrew Bradley on 6.5 wins. Giant killer Rosemary Cleary achieved the only victory against Howard, and in game 6 Andrew drew with Rogelio Talosig on 363 points each. At the end of the day there were 5 players on 6 wins—in order of spread: Peter Sinton, Mike Sigley, Glennis Hale, Jeff Grant and Blue Thorogood.

The highest score of the tournament was Howard's 603 against Val Mills' 469 in game 3 - this also turned out to be the highest aggregate score achieved.

John Foster played his 2000th tournament game in game 3 and was awarded some Tigers beer by the President.

Day 2

Andrew won 7 games on day two to take a 1.5 win lead over Howard and Peter on 12 wins. Jeff and Mike remained in contention on 11 wins

Rosemary achieved her win expectancy on day two, earning her the President's bottle of wine.

Day 3

By lunch on day 3 Howard had 4 consecutive wins to overtake Andrew by half a win. Peter and Mike were half a win back on 15 wins, with Blue and Jeff close on their heels.

Howard lost the first game after lunch 401 - 481 to Rogelio, while Andrew won his game against Rosemary to claim back a 0.5 win lead. Peter joined Howard on 16 wins, while Jeff and Mike remained in contention on 15 wins.

In the penultimate game Howard had a win, while Andrew lost so Howard was back in front. Peter and Mike were together on 16 wins.

Going in to the final round Howard only needed to win his game as he was a long way ahead of the other contenders on spread. Andrew needed not only to win the last game against Mike, but had to hope that Howard would lose. It was technically possible for Mike or Peter to win if they won their last games by a large margin and Howard had a huge loss.

Howard had a decisive victory 592 - 315 against Blue to win his seventh Masters title. Mike beat Andrew 541 - 351 to take the runner-up position. Andrew held third place with his half win lead over Jeff and Peter.

A separate competition was played between teams from the Mt Albert and Wanganui clubs for the New Zealand Shield. Mt Albert was represented by Andrew Bradley, Howard Warner and Liz Fagerlund, while Wanganui was represented by Mike Sigley, Denise Gordon and Rosemary Cleary. The Mt Albert team proved too strong and Andrew collected the shield.

Full results are here. 

Photos are here