Our photo shows the 3 winners with their trophies and Jack with his Hilton Hotel dinner voucher as well in the centre with JOHN PAPADOPOULOS to the right and JOHN O'GRADY to the left - another happy bunch indeed.

2008 SPRING TOURNAMENT

by Nick Begakis

We had 15 starters with SIMON USTICK travelling from interstate that morning to compete. This was a triple elimination event so players were assured of a few live and meaningful games if they were unlucky to start with. And it is interesting that SA Club President NICK BEGAKIS performed the draw in full view of all players present and still managed to score the only bye going! Not that it did him much good in the long run.

So the final four in the non-loss section were JACK CLARK, JOHN O'GRADY, VASSILIOS TOUBAKARIS and NICK BEGAKIS. Jack knocked John out and Nick knocked Vassilios out. Jack then knocked Nick out in spectacular style according to those present leaving Nick in apparent shock. So Jack was in the final. NICK BEGAKIS then played the winner of those who had lost just one match, and that was JOHN PAPADOPOULOS. John knocked Nick out.

JOHN O'GRADY meanwhile fought his way back as the winner of the two losses group where he played NICK BEGAKIS in that final. John knocked Nick out. So JOHN O'GRADY played JOHN PAPADOPOULOS to see who made it into the final and who received 3rd spot. In the battle of the Johns, JOHN PAPADOPOULOS triumphed and went on to play JACK CLARK.

The final [see score sheets attached] went like this.

In the first 9 point match, Jack started slow losing two double games and then winning an 8 pointer taking his score to 8-4. But that was a far as Jack went. John fought back to 8-8 with John taking the match 9-8. One to John!

The second 9 point match went all John's way, 2-0, 4-0, 5-0, 9-0. What more can be said. Two to John!

You might be asking now what is going on with the scores here. Given this is a triple knock-out event, the player who makes it through without a loss need win just one game in the grand final to win the tournament The player who comes up through the field with one loss must win one more game than their opponent to win the tournament. This method gives some measure of success acknowledgement for the no loss player.

The third and final 9 point match started well for Jack moving 1-0, 5-0, 6-0 with John scoring finally at 6-2. But that was it for John with Jack moving to 8-2 and then 9-2 for the match and tournament.

This is Jack's first major tournament win and we wish him well for the future.