The final of this season's John Ford tournament took place last night (Friday 13th March) at Alsager. The teams were the same as last year Canute versus Goostrey albeit slightly different personnel.

Goostrey went with Jake Hartley, Cameron McGregor-Ogden, Carl McGregor-Ogden, Pam Jeffs, Barbara Eades and Meriel Currie. Canute had their established line-up of: Mark Henderson, Matt Webber, Phil Wall, Kara Robinson, Rebecca Bailey and Christine Rotherham. The handicappers had seen a distinct balance of power in favour of Canute and thus awarded Goostrey 135 points, to be revealed at the end of the match.

It was a great match. Youngsters Jake and Cameron were inspired in their play, particularly as a level doubles pair when they went toe to toe with vastly more experience Matt and Phil only losing out to game 18 and 15. Both of them found the mixed a more difficult assignment finding it hard to record double figures in their games. Dad Carl on the other hand enjoyed a rare victory beating Phil and Christine in one of the mixed games to 20. Ladies doubles proved a tough nut to crack for Goostrey especially with the powerful ladies play of Kara, who shepherded both Rebecca and Christine through to handsome wins.

The final analysis was that Canute compiled 377 points (one short of the expected maximum) and Goostrey reached 210. Adding the handicap meant that Goostrey achieved a final total of 345 and as such fell short by 32 points (1.8 points a game). Many congratulations to Canute who defend their title. President Alan Horne was on hand to present the awards.

Photos attached of teams and scoresheet