Round 4 was held at Stirling in glorious conditions, with cool air temperatures to offset the warm summer sun. Once again, our extraordinary run of luck with the weather continued, only this time rain wasn’t the issue. What we dodged (by two days) was the most severe heatwave seen in these parts for some years.
Looking at the podium at the end of the day there was a distinct air of familiarity, albeit with some subtle differences. On the top step this time was the ESP trio of Alexi Alexi, Nick Armstrong & Ken Maski. Alexi’s second gold medal in a row adds once again to his outstanding record as the most prolific winner in the history of the Interclub competition. In fact, there are only two other players who have won more than half as many as Alexi! One of these is Ken, who was already in second place on the list.
Taking the silver medals were Deb Rodda, Ha Nguyen & Van Nguyen, also from ESP. For Ha and Van, this was one step down from their usual position, having won 7 of the previous 9 rounds including the first three of the current season. The opportunity for a season clean sweep is now gone, but they still have a chance to be the first players to win 5 out of 6.
There were familiar faces on the third step of the podium too, with the in-form Adelaide Hills trio of Mike Read, Peter Davies & Brian Tuckfield going home with the bronze medals as they also did in the previous round. These guys could rightly consider themselves unlucky not to have finished even higher. On both occasions, they defeated in the earlier rounds the team that eventually finished above them in second place.
As for the club v club points tallies, there was also a close resemblance to Round 3. Once again, ESP got maximum points with teams in first and second place, and, once again, Adelaide Hills got the second highest tally for the day. Meanwhile, the other clubs got scores that more or less reflect their position on the ladder, with the exception this time of Gawler who managed to claw back some of the ground lost to FAB in the previous round.
Thanks to the Adelaide Hills club for hosting the event and the usual excellent catering.
Download a full report of scores (PDF): Scores-2025-26-Round-4.pdf