2012 Newcastle Open Info

Mick Dyett has won the Newcastle Open for the first time in 2012.
Mick has added the Open trophies to his Australian, NSW and Newcastle Club Championships, among others, defeating John Hedge 9-7 in a final that contained no gammon or backgammon finishes.

Thirty players, a very pleasing rollup, attended with a few new faces joining long time competitors to make up 8 round robins (6 four player and 2 three player groups) in order to qualify for the Top 8 knockout final. New players to the Newcastle Open were Jan Spillekom, Brooke Eisenhuth and Gerhardt Macor, two of whom won through to the last 8 whilst Kee Yio and Susan Wan, Greg Hern and Jim Bean made returns.

At the start of the day, Tony Walker was presented with his Life Membership which was awarded to him by the Newcastle Club members at the 2012 AGM.
Tony has been on the committee in one form or another for the last 23 years and has been Club Champion 15 times.

Also presented with their Captain's Trophy trophies were Greg Mitchell ( Captain's Top 8 ) and Chris Belton ( Capt's 2nd Division ) won earlier in the year.

The 8 winners of the round robins who qualified for the Knockout Final were (in ranked order) Steve Clarry, Gerhardt Macor, Brooke Eisenhuth, Tony Walker, John Hedge, Alex Ivanovski (Australian Rummikub Champion!), Mick Dyett and Kee Yio Wan.

In the quarter finals, Alex's dice lost their mojo after he won 3 in a row in the round robin, Brooke taking him out 7-2. Brooke put to shame travelling companions Ben Phillips and Steve Davy who managed 1 win between them in the qualifiers.
Mick beat Gerhardt 7-4. Gerhardt came along to a Newcastle club night for the first time last Friday night, winning his group and so had a successful first couple of outings in Newcastle. We hope to see much more of him in time to come.
Kee Yio Wan creamed two time Newcastle Open winner Steve Clarry 7-0. Steve, after originally winning the raffle, donated the prize back for a second drawing to help the club pay for the day. For this we thank him :-)
In the longest match of the Finals series, John Hedge survived Tony Walker's challenge 7-6.

So to the Semis and Brooke took on Mick (the Monster) in a fearless manner but the dice were not so brave, the final score being 9-3 to Mick. All in all though, a very successful Newcastle Open debut by Brooke.
In the second, as shown in the "action" pic, Kee Yio was playing catch up from mid match but couldn't make up the gap, John winning 9-6.

In the Final, after a quick jump by Mick to a 3-0 lead, John worked his way to be up 6-4 mid-match. Four more 1 point cube drops later and it was all tied up at 7.
Mick went straight on the offensive and doubled at the first opportunity making it match game.

John looked the likely winner after rolling a timely 1-6 off the bar to hit but as is his wont, Mick hit a late long shot to close out the match 9-7.

Mick scooped the pool winning the major end of the prize money, the bonus pool and the Newcastle Members Bonus as well as taking out the raffle!!

Thank you to all who attended the 2012 Open and to the Staff at Kotara Bowling and Rec Club and Rose's Restaurant for their service on the day.


	2012 Winner, Mick Dyett

Semi Finalist, Brooke Eisenhuth	Runner up, John Hedge	Semi Finalist, Kee Yio Wan