Spring Foursomes - Rounds 1 to 5 Highlights

Round 1
Two of the top eight seeds lost a life to unseeded teams in the first round.

Nick Doe, Simon Husband, Stuart Nelson & Alan Shillitoe beat the No. 5 seed Rob Helle, Steven Green, Egbert Henstra, Ed Hoogenkamp & Simon de Wijs.

Steve Johnston, David Owen, Stephen Peterkin & Samantha Punch neat the No. 8 seed David Mossop, Gojko Zivkovic, John Carroll, Tommy Garvey, David Price & Colin Simpson.

However the result of the round was achieved by a team of Under 20's Juniors. James Paul, Graeme Robertson, Adam Hickman & Daniel McIntosh who are the England Under 20's B team beat the No. 13 seeds Sarah Dunn, David Ewart, David Gold, Gunnar Hallberg, Andrew McIntosh & Tom Townsend the latter four being the team that were runners-up in the trials for the European Open team only two months ago. Very well done to James, Paul, Graeme & Adam.

Round 2
Just one upset this round, again it was achieved by a team of Juniors (well almost). I say well almost, Michael Byrne is no longer a Junior, but only just, he still qualifies for our Under 28 team, and is Squad Trainer & Captain for our Under 20's team so that counts, surely? Anyway, his team consisting of Michael Byrne, Ed Jones, Rob Myers, Ben Paske, Tom Paske beat the no 7
Geoffrey Wolfarth, Gary Hyett, Vladi Isporski & Valio Kovachev, so another great result achieved by a Junior team. Well done!

Round 3
The result of the round was achieved by Sandra Penfold, Nevena Senior, Rumen Trendafilov & Kalin Karalvanov seeded 25, who comfortably beat the No. 9 seed Espen Erichsen, Glenn Groetheim, Nick Irens, Norman Selway & Ulf Tundal in the undefeated pool.

Meanwhile in the once defeated pool No. 21 seed Sarah Teshome,Tony McNiff, Bill Townsend & Richard Winter inflicted the second defeat over the No. 5 Seeded Rob Helle, Steven Green, Egbert Henstra, Ed Hoogenkamp & Simon de Wijs, causing them to become the first of the top eight seeds to exit the tournament.

Round 4
This is the round that will reduce the Udefeated Pool from 8 teams down to four. Three of the top four seeds survived, the only on that didn't make it through this round was No 2. Seed Simon Gillis, Boye Brogeland, Tom Hanlon, Espen Lindqvist, Hugh McGann & Odin Svendsen who lost their first life to No. 10 seed Chris Jagger, Filip Kurbalija, Ian Pagan & Tim Rees

Meanwhile in the once defeated pool the Under 20's team of James Paul, Graeme Robertson, Adam Hickman & Daniel McIntosh collexted another scalp, this time beating 21 seed Sarah Teshome,Tony McNiff, Bill Townsend & Richard Winter.

Round 5
We were now down to the last four Undefeated teams. No 1. Seed Alexander Allfrey, David Bakhshi, Peter Crouch, Tony Forrester, Glyn Liggins, Andrew Robson beat No. 4 seed Janet de Botton, David Burn, Jason Hackett, Justin Hackett, Artur Malinowski & Nick Sandqvist while No. 10 seed Chris Jagger, Filip Kurbalija, Ian Pagan & Tim Rees beat No 3. Neil Rosen, Martin Jones, Ben Green, Duncan Happer, Catherine Draper & Andrew Woodcock.

In the once defeated pool one more of the top eight seeds was destined to go out, as two were drawn against each other. The outcome was that the no 7. seed Geoffrey Wolfarth, Gary Hyett, Vladi Isporski & Valio Kovachev survived, at the expense of John Armstrong, Paul Hackett, John Holland & Tony Waterlow.

The run of the Under 20's team finally come to an end when they lost to No. 11 seeds Jon Cooke, Martin Garvey, Frances Hinden, Graham Osborne, Jeffrey Allerton but they can be proud of their achievement, surviving as far as round 5 in such a tough tournament is no mean feat.