Report

The National Champs got underway in Christchurch on Saturday 30 May with 81 players.

Day 1

In the A Grade Joanne Craig won all seven games to take the tournament lead. Blue Thorogood and Jeff Grant lost only 1 game apiece to take 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

In B Grade John Barker, another Sydney resident, took top honours by winning all 7 games. Nick Cavenagh was close behind on 6 wins, with Lynn Wood, Glenda Foster and Selena Chan all on 5.

In C Grade Scott Chaput won all 7 games to top the leader board. Anderina McLean and Shirley Martin were on 6 wins, with Ann Barlow on 5.

In D grade Chris Handley lost only one game on day one to take the early lead. Fran Lowe, Veronica Zilinskas and Roger Cole-Baker were in 2nd to 4th place on 5 wins apiece.

In E grade Kerry McKenna and Tony Charlton led the field on 6 wins, followed by Suzanne Frederick on 5.5 and Nola Borrell on 5.

Day 2

By lunch time on day two the A Grade was sorting itself out. Joanne was top of the field on 10 wins, Jeff was still in contention on 9 wins, while Blue and Kris Saether were on 8.

Going into the final game Joanne and Jeff were locked together on 12 wins, with Joanne well ahead on spread. Blue and Kris were in 3rd and 4th spots on 10 wins with no chance of overtaking. Jeff had narrow victory over Peter Sinton 471-455 and waited anxiously for the result of Joanne's game with Howard Warner. However Joanne had another narrow victory 425-395 to secure her first NZ National Champs title.

In Grade B Glenda had climbed to top spot on 11 wins, with 4 players breathing down her neck - Murray Rogers, Lynn, John Baird and early leader John Barker. Of these only Murray and Lynn had a realistic chance of winning should they win their games and Glenda lose the final game. However Glenda had a comfortable win, while Lynn pipped Murray for second place.

In Grade C Scott retained a 1 win lead over Pam Barlow and was virtually assured of winning the grade even if he lost the final game. He did lose to Anderina, but Pam also lost and Scott retained the lead ahead of Pam and Anderina.

In Grade D Marian Ross had a good day to climb to the top, 1 win clear of Gabrielle Bolt and Chris, and with a healthy spread. Both Marian and Gabrielle won their games to retain 1st and 2nd place, while Chris lost to Carolyn Kyle 330-335 which allowed Carolyn the 3rd spot.

In Grade E Kerry McKenna was in an unassailable position on 13 wins, 2 ahead of Herb Ramsay, with Lisa Tam 1 win back. Although Kerry lost the final game, while Herb won and Lisa had a bye, she retained 1st place.

Prize-giving

The prize-giving dinner was held at the venue - Rangiruru Girls School. The Team Trophy was taken by the Christchurch Club—Joanne, Kerry and Herb. The Georgie Award was presented to Kerry in recognition of her above-expectancy performance in E Grade. The Eileen McLean Memorial Trophy was presented to Betty Eriksen who played the most tournament games (201) since the last Nationals.

The high word of the tournament unusually came from B Grade where Hazel Purdie scored xx for xx. The highest individual game was Steven Brown's' 616.