Border Challenge - 6th May 2000


40 players made the trip to Wagga Wagga this year for the Border Challenge. This figure included 3 Richards family members still getting back to Adelaide from the Nationals in Brisbane, and two local ladies wanting to try out tournament play.

This year it was decided that the start would alternate for each of the two Border Challenge teams, and that the team captain who drew out the letter closest to A would decide which team started. To my dismay, I drew the Z out of the bag, enabling Geoff to force the start on the NSW team of 10. This of course meant that the Vics would have the advantage in then last and potentially crucial final round.

As it turned out, the final round was an anticlimax, with Victoria having the event stitched up at the end of Round 9. A brief rally in Round 8 in which NSW had won 7 of the 10 games gave as some hope, but this was snuffed out with a convincing performance by Victoria in Round 9.

Going into Round 9, the Victorian captain in Geoff Wright was unbeaten, but the Wollongong duo of Wilma Vialle and Rod Talbot inflicted consecutive losses on Geoff. This enabled the late inclusion and Kenyan player, Cecilia Ruto to sneak past him and take the individual honours. It was a good thing Victoria did not have David Lloyd and Saheed Jimoh in their team as well!

Despite top players on both sides being absent, there was no lack of enthusiasm on both sides and it was resolved the next Challenge would be in August 2001.

In the Open Division Mum Richards put on a convincing display to win all but one game. An eleventh game was played in that Division when it was discovered we were nearly an hour a head of schedule. The ubiquitous and stocky Richard Birch snared the high word score for the entire tournament with STOCKIER, for a mere 176 points.

Special thanks go to Wilma and Ros Gibbons for preparing tournament booklets and player labels for the wall chart, and devising a distributing the tournament draw. And of course to Geoff Wright for bringing the swivel boards, and rounding up enough good players to inflict a third consecutive defeat on NSW (Victoria 55 wins, NSW 45 wins).

Results after game 10
BORDER CHALLENGE OPEN -- CHALLENGE

Rank Player            Wins     Mar
---------------------------------
  1  Cecilia Ruto         8     567
  2  Geoff Wright         8     205
  3  Bob Jackman          7     941
  4  Kerry Constable      7     406
  5  Wilma Vialle         7     151
  6  Sal Costanzo         6     255
  7  Jim Warmington       6     130
  8  Dianne Davis         6      -7
  9  John Barker          5     185
 10  Nan Smith            5      95
 11  Rod Talbot           5     -19
 12  Gwen Chadwick        5    -301
 13  Gwen Lampre          4     -34
 14  Cristine Small       4     -81
 15  Margaret Warmington  4    -171
 16  Graeme Lock Lee      3    -139
 17  Alison Pollard       3    -245
 18  Zina Costanzo        3    -617
 19  Gary Pollard         2    -639
 20  Peter Sheehan        2    -682
HIGH GAME: Bob Jackman       584

Results after game 11
BORDER CHALLENGE OPEN -- OPEN

Rank Player            Wins     Mar
---------------------------------
  1  Karen Richards      10     823
  2  Liz Jackman          7     461
  3  Pat Kennedy          7     358
  4  Paul Richards        7     297
  5  Ros Gibbons          7     172
  6  June Hodgson         7      38
  7  Michael Adler        6     429
  8  Sunny Wright         6     192
  9  Richard Birch        6     122
 10  Jean Balmer          6      99
 11  Beverley Sell        5.5   -44
 12  Christine Foot       5     127
 13  Mary Craven          5     118
 14  Heather Sorenson     5     -33
 15  Ann Fiddler          5    -101
 16  Daphne Bezuidenhout  5    -250
 17  Alastair Richards    5    -312
 18  Merriss Adler        2.5  -575
 19  Jeanette Rosetta (N) 1.5  -863
 20  Chris Horsley (N)    1.5 -1058
HIGH GAME: Liz Jackman       507
HIGH WORD: Richard Birch     176
            "STOCKIER"

Stats for Tournament : BORDER CHALLENGE OPEN

+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| state     Name           | National  | State   |   Wins    | Rating Points |
|                          | Old  New  | Old New | Exp  Act  | Old Change New|
+--------------------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------+
Section: *CHALLENGE                   +         +           +               +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| VIC Cecilia Ruto         |   17   14 |   9   9 |  6.9  8.0 | 1764 +22 1786 |
| VIC Geoff Wright         |   20   18 |  12  10 |  6.7  8.0 | 1738 +28 1766 |
| NSW Bob Jackman          |    6    6 |   2   2 |  8.1  7.0 | 1889 -18 1871 |
| NSW Kerry Constable :act |   97   57 |  28  16 |  3.7  7.0 | 1521 +75 1596 |
| NSW Wilma Vialle         |   43   35 |  12   9 |  5.2  7.0 | 1635 +36 1671 |
| VIC Sal Costanzo         |   81   64 |  41  34 |  4.3  6.0 | 1546 +34 1580 |
| VIC Jim Warmington       |   31   30 |  20  19 |  6.2  6.0 | 1695  -2 1693 |
| VIC Dianne Davis         |  100   77 |  52  40 |  4.0  6.0 | 1515 +41 1556 |
| NSW John Barker          |   36   36 |   9  10 |  5.8  5.0 | 1680 -16 1664 |
| VIC Nan Smith            |  133  115 |  62  57 |  3.3  5.0 | 1462 +33 1495 |
| NSW Rod Talbot           |   22   28 |   8   8 |  6.4  5.0 | 1725 -28 1697 |
| VIC Gwen Chadwick        |   35   37 |  22  21 |  6.0  5.0 | 1683 -19 1664 |
| VIC Gwen Lampre          |   27   38 |  17  22 |  6.3  4.0 | 1706 -45 1661 |
| NSW Cristine Small       |   74   78 |  24  24 |  4.2  4.0 | 1561  -5 1556 |
| VIC Margaret Warmington  |   50   63 |  29  33 |  5.1  4.0 | 1607 -21 1586 |
| NSW Alison Pollard :act  |  149  147 |  43  42 |  2.8  3.0 | 1438  +5 1443 |
| NSW Graeme Lock Lee      |   37   47 |  10  13 |  5.7  3.0 | 1672 -54 1618 |
| VIC Zina Costanzo        |  134  139 |  63  65 |  3.3  3.0 | 1462  -7 1455 |
| NSW Peter Sheehan        |   73  100 |  23  28 |  4.2  2.0 | 1561 -45 1516 |
| NSW Gary Pollard         |  222  219 |  56  55 |  1.7  2.0 | 1317  +7 1324 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+
+Section: *OPEN                        +         +           +               +
+--------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------------+
| SA  Karen Richards       |  128  117 |   7   7 |  9.1 10.0 | 1471 +19 1490 |
| VIC Pat Kennedy          |  197  206 |  86  88 |  7.9  7.0 | 1362 -18 1344 |
| SA  Paul Richards        |  201  211 |  13  15 |  8.2  7.0 | 1355 -22 1333 |
| NSW Liz Jackman          |  301  293 |  77  77 |  6.5  7.0 | 1174 +11 1185 |
| NSW Ros Gibbons          |  229  226 |  58  57 |  6.7  7.0 | 1305  +6 1311 |
| VIC June Hodgson         |  467  388 | 158 142 |  2.7  7.0 |  930 +106
1036 |
| NSW Richard Birch        |  242  264 |  62  71 |  8.5  6.0 | 1276 -49 1227 |
| NSW Jean Balmer          |  320  307 |  81  78 |  4.8  6.0 | 1140 +24 1164 |
| NSW Michael Adler :act   |  274  292 |  74  76 |  7.4  6.0 | 1213 -26 1187 |
| NSW Sunny Wright         |  452  444 | 108 106 |  5.8  6.0 |  949  +6  955 |
| NSW Bev Sell :act        |  375  380 |  90  90 |  5.8  5.5 | 1060  -7 1053 |
| NSW Christine Foot :act  |  227  253 |  57  65 |  8.3  5.0 | 1309 -65 1244 |
| NSW Ann Fiddler          |  461  441 | 110 104 |  3.9  5.0 |  937 +23  960 |
| NSW Mary Craven :act     |  474  463 | 115 111 |  4.3  5.0 |  925 +13  938 |
| NSW Heather Sorensen :ac |  638  608 | 158 151 |  3.7  5.0 |  758 +27  785 |
| NSW Daphne Bezuidenhout  |  327  358 |  82  86 |  7.4  5.0 | 1129 -47 1082 |
| SA  Alastair Richards    |  835  762 |  74  61 |  1.5  5.0 |  547 +79  626 |
| NSW Merriss Adler :act   |  860  850 | 219 217 |  1.5  2.5 |  511 +20  531 |
|*NSW Jeanette Rosetta     |    0  869 |   0 223 |  2.8  1.5 |  500      500 |
|*NSW Chris Horsley        |    0  913 |   0 232 |  2.8  1.5 |  500 -40  460 |
+-------------------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------+