2016 Quaich Finale

It was a beautiful afternoon for the finale of the 2016 Summer Quaich - the first time we have ever officially played in the afternoon - in the 26th year of the event.

There were 6 potential contenders in what was the closest contest for years and they went out in two groups of three with the rest of the also-rans following on:

Hugh Riches, Chris Dickinson & Ian Sharp

Jas Bhagrath, Keith Gray & Ian Dring

Something spooky about the order in which the above two groups lined up - as you'll see from the final results. Do you think the leaders subconsciously knew how it was going to turn out and lined up accordingly?

It was pretty windy and nobody anticipated many improvements in the current Top 10, leaving Chris and Ian as distinct favourites beforehand. As it transpired, however, the scoring was much better than anticipated, with three of us coming in with 39 points - Jas' inward half of 23 points being the best on the day:

Bhagrath, Jas	39
Stewart, Ian	39
Riches, Hugh	39
Dickinson, Chris	35
Grant, Gary	35
Simpson, Jack	35
Sharp, Ian	33
Grigor, Malcolm	33
Dring, Ian	32
Taylor, Dick	32
Gray, Les	32
Gray, Keith	30
McWhinnie, John	29
Page, Ken	29
Meaden, John	28
Black, Ken	27
Pollard, Rob	25

Rob got this week's winner and last week's to present each other with their prize balls:

What did the day's scores mean to the overall table? Ian and Chris had 32 and 33 respectively to drop off, while Hugh needed at least 37 just to catch up with them - if they didn't improve. Ian only improved by one and Chris by two, meaning that Hugh and Chris finished level with a best 10 score of 368 points. Countback was now in play for only the 3rd time in Quaich history. Chris had 2 wins to his name - matched by 2 DoD's - whilst Hugh had 3 wins, so it was the tall lanky one who took the trophy - his second win, with the last one coming 12 years ago. I did the honours after we finished our meal:

Then we all lined up for the team photo:

Now time to fill the Quaich:

It didn't take long for the assembled crowd to finish off Hugh's fine malt, so it was time to take Chris up on his earlier comment that, win or lose, the bottle he had brought with him wasn't going back home - but first he had to break the security tabs:

The Quaich was being passed to the left round our circle, but Les, in particular, was queue-jumping by swapping seats, so it was no surprise that this bottle was soon scoffed too. Did we need more? Perhaps some wine or beer? Jas did offer but some had their sensible shoes on and decided to quit. I left about 9 pm - but I was far from the last to leave. By that time, a few of the group - mostly the prizewinners - had completely lost the power of comprehensible speech. I wonder how they fared with the plans for a cycle early on Thursday morning?

Anyway, a lovely way to finish the official Quaich season. Hugh has promised that next year will see the return of some of the old features of the Quaich in years gone by. As a reminder, these included:

• Senior Moments
• Big Girls' Blouses
• Tiffs, Tantrums & Tirades
• Magic Moments
• New Toys
• Knobbly Knees & Varicose Veins

For the record, this is how the 2016 Quaich finished:

		Top 10	Apps.	Wins
1	Riches, Hugh	368	20	3
2	Dickinson, Chris	368	15	2
3	Sharp, Ian	367	19	3
4	Bhagrath, Jas	366	13	2
5	Gray, Keith	361	18	2
6	Dring, Ian	357	20	4
7	Taylor, Dick	342	18	1
8	Stewart, Ian	342	13
9	Pollard, Rob	341	21	2
10	Meaden, John	337	19
11	Simpson, Jack	333	19
12	Gray, Les	325	13
13	Black, Ken	301	12
14	McWhinnie, John	299	10	1
15	Page, Ken	299	12	1
16	Corbett, Daniel	283	12
17	Grigor, Malcolm	229	8
18	Moir, Gordon	151	5
19	Freeman, Syd	114	4	1
20	Cook, Archie	114	4
21	Grant, Gary	99	3
22	Salter, Harry	33	1