WSC Failing Memories

I'm cheating a bit here because I was asked to write a short report for the SSA...

Allan and I were travelling together on the Tuesday, flying from Edinburgh via Amsterdam to Warsaw, due to arrive at 4.30 pm. We picked Allan up and arrived at Edinburgh with plenty of time to spare only to see our flight was delayed by half an hour. This eventually became an hour and a quarter meaning that we missed our onward connection. Unhappily for us they (KLM - name and shame) decided to put us on a Lufthansa 7.30 pm flight via Munich! Allan managed to get a message to Philip to let him know. We were both getting stressed out as the Munich flight started to also show a delay, and our connection there looked in jeopardy. Half an hour late, and when we landed in Munich we ran to the next gate which they had kept open, knowing we were coming! We finally arrived in Warsaw at 11 pm, but unfortunately my baggage didn't run us fast as us at Munich. After filling in a lost baggage form we arrived at the Hilton around midnight and managed to register as they were still getting the room ready.

So I sat down to game 1 just relieved to be playing. I lost the first and last matches of day 1, but won the 5 in between, which was more than I had hoped for considering the circumstances. My baggage had arrived by the time I got back to my room. I was very grateful with how many people came to say how glad they were I had made it during the day, and offering help. Beverley Calder let me use her score pad for day 1.

This turned out to be a frustrating tournament. Everytime I made a move up the leaderboard to be in contention I then had a run of losing games to drop back down the field. However, I was still in with a chance on the final day which started well. I missed my chance in the afternoon when I dismissed K(EROS) against Chris Lipe which would have won me the game and moved me up to fifth or sixth with 3 to go. I lost the next game too against Komol - a horribly frustrating game from my perspective. I bounced back to win the penultimate game which gave me a chance to finish 10th if I could win the final match against Alistair Richards. It started well, with me taking a decent lead but then a run of 4 vowelless racks killed my chances as he got back-to-back bonuses and a substantial lead that I could not overhaul.

On the whole I think I played well. I got a couple of 'gifted' games that I should have lost, most notably Nathan Benedict not knowing/blocking MONETHS on my final rack. I was also happy to make a miracle comeback against Lewis Mackay - I knew I needed to make dangerous openings and sometimes luck smiles on you.

I finished 18th, very disappointed. But happy that Scotland has achieved a fifth spot for 2013.

Lucky and Unlucky

As I was taking the dogs out at lunchtime Poncho started to get very interested in something on the side of the road opposite Margaret's. And then it flapped its enormous wings a couple of times and landed a couple of yards further in to the verge.
Poncho was still quite excited and began straining on the lead and barking.
A few more wing beats and it perched on the metal feeding trough a bit further back.
I turned the dogs around and got them home.
Grabbed my camera, hoping it was still there as I headed out the back door.
I couldn't believe my luck.
I had just got out the gates, camera switched on and was approaching the road quietly when two elderly cyclists came by. This was very unfortunate. A cheery "Hello!" from the man at the back and all hopes of a photograph evaporated as the bird flew off.
I have no idea what it was. Definitely a large bird of prey. The only colour that I could see was a dark brown, and looking up my bird book has not helped. The closest I could get was an eagle, but I don't think we get them around here...