The “Winter Knockouts” By Euan Stevenson

For the fourteenth year, Overton Club sponsored the “Winter Knockouts”, the contestants competing to win, not only trophies, but also the festive prize of turkeys. The Club’s full title is “Overton Recreational Club” and the idea of the competitions is to provide recreation and stimulation for the residents of Overton during the long winter nights.

This year saw a high number of entries for the 6 “sports” – Darts, Dominos, Snooker, Billiards, Pool and Chess. Over several weeks the competitors tested their brains and hand-eye co-ordination in knockout competition.

After over 100 contests, the finalists were decided and they all met to do battle in the club on Friday, December 10th.

The finals saw some terrific performances – a special congratulations to Dai Jones, who,

(as well as serving drinks ) managed to win both the snooker and the darts – quite a feat.

In the snooker he defeated Will Jones, but Will got his revenge by winning the Pool competition. In the darts final, Dave “wavy” Williams battled hard but could not live with the almost professional standard of the arrows from Dai “the bar”.

 

The Edwards family was again much to the fore in the competitions – Paul Edwards and Kath Dorey got the better of the Crockfords ( Brian and Katharine ) in the mixed doubles darts and Derek Edwards won against Clay Threakson in the final of the Billiards.

Sandy Foster, always a finalist, won the ladies darts, beating Kath Dorey.

 

 n the absence of local chess “grandmaster” Kelvin Davies, Euan Stevenson pipped Sally Tayor in the Chess final. The Stevensons ( Euan and Val ) were again successful, winning the Dominos doubles final against Mary Perrin and Bryan Williams.

Perhaps the most intriguing final of the night was the Dominos singles in which Club chairman, Brian Hamlington, faced his wife Doreen. Brian has been organizing the “Winter Knockouts” for 14 years, but had never managed to win a final. Well, this was his night and he managed to reach the finishing line first and win his first trophy.

The question is – where did he sleep that night?  The evening was a fitting end to a couple of months of stimulating competition – well done to Brian and the other club organizers for providing good entertainment for all those who took part.