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MANORCON
86
Injury-hit
All-Stars in Dramatic Last-Gasp Victory Shock Sensation!
by
Richard Walkerdine
With a
breathtaking display of dogged rearguard defending combined with some
scintillating touches in mid-board and an aggresive attach the MAD POLICY ALL
STARS overcame their recent problems to grab a dramatic and well-deserved
victory in this years University / Team Diplomacy Tournament. The recent injury
to captain Richard Walkerdine and the mid-season transfer of Jeff Edmunds had
meant only Pat Lenihan, Rob Lozynskyj, Dane Maslen, Andy Murby and Ken Simpson
were available from the regular first-team squad and although reserve players
Paul Finch and Mark Osborne had been highly praised before the match by their
manager few observers had given the new-look squad much chance of improving on
the 4th place the team had achieved in
each of the two previous years. But on the day the combination of the
defensive skills of Lenihan and Maslen, the mid-board domination achieved by
Murby, Osborne and. Simpson and the attacking flair of Finch and Lozynskyj
proved enough to overcome even the resistance of favourites Liverpool. Interviewed
shortly after this historic victory team manager ‘Ashen-faced’ Ron Wakerding,
his voice almost breaking with emotion, could scarcely find words to express his
feelings at finally achieving tile victory he had sought for so long. “Well
Brian,” he told our reporter, “we’re really over the moon about this one.
Of course I’m personally delighted but mainly I’m pleased for the lads.
They’ve worked really hard for this result and I’m just glad that, on the
day, when they got cut there on the park, it all came right for them. I don’t
want to take anything away from the opposition but I think the lads proved they
were the better squad, both physically and mentally. I must admit when Wakerdine
suffered his groin injury so soon after the transfer of Edmunds I was feeling as
sick as a parrot, but then we’ve always had a strong reserve line-up so even
then I was hoping for a result. And all I can say is that on the day both Finch
and Osborne really done great, and of course Lenihan, Maslen, Murby and Simpson
done great too. Why, even the boy Lozynskyj done great. They really played for
each other and I’m proud of all of them. And like I said before, we’re
really over the moon about this one.” The Results in Detail If you can decipher the purple prose up there you will realise that the
MP team has finally won the Manorcon Team Diplomacy Tournament, much to my
delight, thanks to all seven players achieving a draw in their games. No other
team managed to avoid at least one defeat, which gave MP a small but vital
margin. Well done lads (you done great!). I’ll obviously have to work hard if
I’m going to get back into my own team next year! Full results of the
tournament were as follows: 1.
Mad Policy The Other Tournaments As you know we tried to expand the scope of Manorcon this year by
running quite a few other tournaments as well as Diplomacy. On the whole I think
it worked very well and has certainly given us enough incentive to repeat the
idea (or even expand further) next year. Individual
Diplomacy: 1.
Jim Mills Railway
Rivals: 1. Ian le Brocq; 2. Brian Flatt; 3. Terry Hill; 4. Andrew Poole; 5.
Andrew Glynn Acquire:
1. Terry Hill; 2. Dane Maslen; 3. Mike Moor Croquet:
1. Paul Oakes &
Steve Marshall; 2. Peter Calcraft & Niall Litton American
Football: 1. Trog Celtic Wrargoddesses; 2. Vienna Vikings 5-a-side
Football: 1. Quartz Civilisation:
1. Daniel Victor For
the Record Although I wasn’t there on the Saturday (Queen, ’Quo concert at
Wembley - absolutely fantastic, but I’ll tell you about that some other time)
everything seemed to run fairly smoothly and everyone I asked said they’d
enjoyed it and were looking forward to coming back next year - so we must have
got something right. The only minor problems were barely enough rooms on Friday
night (because the University hadn’t done what we told them) and the bar
running out of beer on Sunday. But we survived. As I was
only there part time I didn’t manage to see more than a couple of new faces
this year, which was a shame, but I hope to make up for that later in the year
at Midcon. Speaking of people many thanks to Andy Bate for sterling work as the
local contact man, Nick Kinzett for trojan efforts running the Dip tournament
and, in no particular order, Alex Bandy, Pete Calcraft, Pete Tulk, Francis
Tresham, David Watts, Mark Nelson, Andrew Poole, Steve Jones and Mark Adams for
the various forms of assistance they all provided - it would have been a right
old mess without you all. Finally, some numbers: Total attendance: 180 (equal to last year’s record) Figures for income and expenses are only approximate as I don’t expect
to get all the bills in for another few weeks yet - running cons is big business
these days though, as you can see. The profit by the way gets left in. a
building society for a few months until we’re ready to use it to pay the
deposit for next year’s event. And still on the subject of money a total of £16 was contributed to the
Hobby Stats and £16.50 to the Hobby Development Fund. A further £8 was
contributed to the HDF by Tony Wheatley as a result of selling some of his zine
collection. And lest there is any doubt in anyones mind (Rip Gooch please note) let
me remind you that MANORCON 87 will be held in Birmingham next July. See you
there. Reprinted from Mad Policy 120 |