Thulecraft Open 2011/12

The first Grand Prix of the new season Thulecraft Open was played on friday night at the Lerwick Legion, with an excellent turnout of 61 men entering the draw. After the dust had settled on the early rounds the quarter final line up saw Brian Patterson beat Danny Irvine, Paul Scarsbrook win against Jim Wood, George Mackay saw off Gareth MacRitchie and Neal Redfern took out Ronnie Johnson with the help of a terrific 11 dart leg. In the first semi final best of 7 legs veteran Paul Scarsbrook showed there's plenty of life in the old dog yet beating Brian Patterson 4-2, the second semi final was a very close affair with Neal Redfern edging out George Mackay 4-3. In a very high quality final Neal did just enough to defend his title beating Paul by 5 legs to 3. All in all a splendid competition and here's hoping we see a similar turnout at Whitedale snooker club next month. There were 14 maximums recorded on the night Brian Patterson had three, Neal Redfern, Jim Wood, Ronnie Johnson & George Mackay two each and Barry Couper, Arnold Brown and Paul Scarsbrook with one apiece also Andrew Simpson had two 177's. High checkouts recorded were George Smith 132, Neal Redfern 121, Paul Scarsbrook 106, Gareth MacRitchie 103, Jim Wood and Danny Irvine both had 100.

In the womens competiton only 8 ladies entered, after two boards of round robin Melanie Couper beat Vickki Scott 3-1 in the final, Iris Polson had an excellent 141 checkout.

The SDA committee would like to thank Thulecraft for their continued support, Lerwick Legion for hosting the event and April & Sandra for help sell raffles.

(Below women's runner up Vickki Scott, women's winner Melanie Couper, men's winner Neal Redfern, men's runner up Paul Scarsbrook).