Tinsley Green 2001

General view 2001

It was Friday 13^th April the day of the championships; I set off bright and early for the Greyhound, Tinsley Green. At 7.30 am it was cold, too early for the sun. I arrived at 8 am and began putting the 100 white plastic chairs around the main ring to keep the playing area free of cars.

Some of the sand to be used was still a little damp, to dry it, it was sprinkled over the three rings to be used of the days play-So far so good.

Sam sanding the ring

In the office, the draw, score sheets and the other paper work was sorted out. Red target marbles were counted out – 49 plus some extras for each of the three rings. Red marbles are traditional in England whereas blue are used at the National Marbles Tournament at Wildwood.

Julia my wife arrived to register the team ready for play, this year 13 team pre-registered – nine British teams and four from Germany. Six other teams registered on the day making 19 teams in all.

The nose drop in the final game

FIRST ROUND

Cruisers (15)	v	Purple Heads (7)
Saxonia 1 (G) (22)	v	Top Tolley Totties (1)
Tolleymen (12)	v	Where’s Ma Balls (5)
Bow Street Fudgers (23)	v	Tinsley Tigers (14)

SECOND ROUND

Earlswood Army (12)	v	Barrel Scrapers (18)
Handcross 49ers (19)	v	Tolleymen (18)
Saxonia 1 (G) (26)	v	Handcross Rebels (13)
Johnson Jets (21)	v	Saxonia 2 (G) (10)
1^st MSC Smithy (G) (12)	v	Wunch of Bankers (4)
Schwarzmurmler (G) (10)	v	Black Dog Boozers (25)
Bow Street Fudgers (13)	v	The Lions (11)

QUARTERFINALS

Cruisers (21)	v	Barrel Scrapers (17)
Saxonia 1 (G) (15)	v	Handcross 49ers (25)
1^st MSC Smithy (8)	v	Johnson Jets (25)
Black Dog Boozers (26)	v	The Lions (17)

SEMI-FINALS

Cruisers (14) v Handcross 49ers (27)

Johnson Jets (33) v Black Dog Boozers (3)

FINAL

Handcross 49ers (18) v Johnson Jets (25)

The winning team 2001
From l to r Graham Smith, Trevor Baker, Les Rogers,
Donny Smith, Paul Smith and individual champion Mark Parsons

In the Individuals, four marbles for each of the 19 players plus one extra are placed in the ring, 77 marbles this year. Each of the contenders dropped the tolley from nose level to decide the order of play.

John Tolleymen 7

Tim The Lions 1

Dave Wunch of Bankers 10 (K)

Randy Saxonia 2 5

Stefan Schwarzmurmler 6

Glyn Purple Heads 3

Freddie Saxonia 2 3 (K)

Swampo Cruisers 8

Tom Tinsley Tigers 0 (K)

Alison Handcross 49ers 4

Chris Black Dog 2

Adrian Where’s Ma Balls 0 (K)

John Barrel Scrapers 2

Richard Handcross Rebels 3

Mark Johnson Jets 13

Nick Earlwood Army 1

Tony Bow Street Fudgers 4 (K)

Nina Top Tolley Totties 0

Roger 1^st MSC Smithy 1

After five rounds 68 of the marbles were knocked out of the ring, Mark with 13 was in the lead and only Swampo with eight could beat him. In the sixth round the first five players knocked out five of the remaining marbles and Mark was declared the winner. (The biggest surprise of the day was the break of 9 Dave of the Wunch of Bankers which took him 10 minutes to achieve.)

A blast from the past Jack Norris who last played
for the Whiteman Flippers in 1951

RESULTS

Best Lady Alison Reimer

Individual Champion Mark Parsons

Runner-Ups Handcross 49ers

Team Champions Johnson Jets

MARBLE FACTOIDS 2001

19 Teams or 114 players

55 Tolleys were nose dropt

959 target marbles were used – 658 or 69% were knocked out

22 players were killed 4 of them twice

21 players had no score and 23 players made double figures

Highest Break of the day was 20 marbles form both Paul Smith and Darren Ray

* * *

The British Marbles Board of Control would like to thank:

Clive and Rosie at the Greyhound,
Jean & Ron Fox,
Southern Paper,
John Burnet,
Kevin Friend,
Worthing MIND,
And The Marble Museum for all their help,

*** This article must not be reproduced without the express written permission of the British Marbles Board of Control. Copyrighted 2001. All correspondence to: The Secretary, British Marbles Board of Control c/o The Greyhound, Tinsley Green, West Sussex. We wish to thank Sam McCarthy-Fox for making The Marble Museum the official North American correspondent to The Board. The contents of this web site have been copyrighted 2001 by The Marble Museum Inc. All rights are reserved.