The weekend of 29th February brought the fourth consecutive weekend of stormy weather to the UK. Despite the general mood of negativity surrounding the prospects of the tournament that seemed prevalent amongst almost everyone who messaged me in the week running up to the tournament, it was incredibly encouraging to see a field of almost sixty (yes, you read that right) for the first English 2-day event of the year.

Bedworth disc golf club had done an excellent job preparing for the tournament, the amount of effort that had gone in to ensuring there was wood-chips on some of the wettest holes, freshly stapled-down temporary astroturf tees on every single hole and even temporary holes posted to add some difficulty, variety and better flow to one part of the course. Much credit should be handed out as without that effort the course could have been dangerous at best, and unplayable at worst.

The tournament, the first of what promises to be a yearly spectacle, was accompanied by the UK matchplay championships, an invitational matchplay bracket designed to take the 16 highest rated players in the country (well, four countries?) and match them against each other. Sadly, due to ongoing political circumstances and tournament scheduling issues, there was a notable but maybe not unexpected absence of players from Scotland and the north. This article isn't the time or place, but hopefully a future edition of this tournament will find a way to include more of our combined community.

As a mere 856 rated player, I obviously did not qualify for the matchplay championships, but for those who did make the cut, the action and entertainment was outstanding. Coming into the weekend, expectations were high amongst locals for the defending champion and TD, James Luton, to have to defend his crown against 16-year-old wunderkind Noah Smithson who has been pushing hard to catch up to Luton's rating, however this match was not to emerge.

Round One results for the British Matchplay Championships

Round One started as expected largely, with Luton, Tweed, McDougall, Luard, Smithson and Robins all advancing as expected. The only upsets according to the initial rating seeds were Angus Green's victory over Sam Stevens, although anyone who saw Angus throwing could tell that the disc was coming out clean and the putts were going in, and local and assistant TD Mark Davis's victory over Josh Birmingham which was clinched in the most dramatic of ways with an amazing ace on the final hole. If you have to lose to the 12th seed in round one, at least an Ace on a 320ft hole is landing on Mayfair with a hotel!

Round Two lead to some exciting matchups. Noah facing up against his mentor, grandmaster Derek Robins - he himself a multi-time winner of this trophy - was always going to be close, and Smithson lead for almost the entire match, but as the conditions worsened and the wind picked up Derek's experience shone and he advanced on the first play-off hole. Defending champion Luton was also eliminated somewhat shockingly in what was, by all accounts, a close match but one that Luton was never ahead in. Angus Green claimed his second scalp defeating his second Londoner in a row to move on to the semi finals, while the remaining tie was won by another masters-age player in Manchester's McDougal.

Three of the higher seeds lost out in Round Two

This lead to Day Two, with four players remaining in contention (the eliminated players also played more matches to establish a final order). The semi-finals were once again upset stories with both 8th and 10th seeds advancing past more experienced opposition. Both Tweed and Green were playing their best golf, and the final looked to be incredibly exciting, with a new name guaranteed on the trophy following the elimination of Robins.

With the finals commencing shortly after the conclusion of the semis, it was Jon who would emerge victorious, in what ended up being a decisive victory as Angus's putter failed him at the end. He can be proud of his result though, as no-one had really given him a chance at the start of the weekend. The same could be said for Tweed, who had to overcome four of the top nine seeds on his way to victory! Having spent much of the previous week getting the course ready for play, he was a popular winner and the event was completed in good spirits, with the final standings as follows:

Position Name Prize 1 Jon Tweed £150 2 Angus Green £100 3; Derek Robins £75 4 Iain McDougall £50 5 Simon Luard 6 James Luton 7 Mark Davis 8 Noah Smithon 9 David Pearson £75 10 Neal Pickett £50 11 Josh Birmingham 12 Mark Fleetham 13 Edward Green 14 Samuel Stevens 15 Charlie Mead 16 Paul Stoddart

The Midlands Open

The side event for the remaining 40 players was called The Midlands Open and was a two-day PDGA C-tier. Three rounds on the full Bedworth Disc Golf Course and a final nine, the competition was notably the first two-day of the year and with fifteen MA4 players, almost all of which were new to the sport within the last year, and deep MA3 and MA2 fields to match, and without the usual suspects playing MPO (as they competed for the matchplay title mentioned above), the stage was set to see some of the UK's newer talents emerge. I personally was playing MA3 for the 7th time, and was feeling pretty negative heading into the event. I hate the cold and the wind, and having played only a handful of rounds this year due to work and weather problems was not feeling up for it at all, if I'm honest.

Nevertheless, it was with anticipation I warmed up in the driving rain on Saturday morning and begun the round. Playing with a group of lovely, patient people, I had a nightmare of a round. 20m upshots were left 11m short, drivers were flying half of the distance I was expecting and grip was at a premium. I'm not too proud to admit publicly I lost my cool multiple times. Discs were slammed into the ground, etiquette rules ignored, curses spat into the cold air. My card-mates were supportive but I can't imagine I was a pleasant person to be around, and I sincerely hope that my apologies after the fact were accepted!

My first round, 5 pars, 8 bogeys, 4 doubles and a triple

For those who know me, this kind of reaction is pretty out of character and I hope that I didn't leave any of my new friends with a bad impression! I ended up shooting a 782-rated +19, my worst rated round in more than 10 months (or half the time I've been playing tournaments).

Somehow this picture of my round-1 card makes the park look calm and beautiful. It was anything but...

I honestly wanted to quit. The rain and wind had dried out my hands to the point where I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers making grip impossible, I was in a dark, dark mood. Even Mark Davis's ace, witnessed from across the park, and the news that my friend Noah had won his round 1 match barely cracked a smile on my face. Thankfully, a lunch with Noah, Jamie, Kevin and Kelly managed to bring me out of my mood and seeing that I had been put on a card with three players from MA4 (based on score) who didn't know me made the pressure feel slightly off and I was able to keep the tee-box from them for almost the entire round and shoot eight shots better in the afternoon, 871-rated +11, despite the conditions being just as bad, if not worse.

The ground was wet and marshy and the wind bitter and cold. At least the rain stopped! Hole 18 at Bedworth 📷Don't Shoot

Still, the leaderboard made grim viewing. I was dead last in MA3, two shots from the nearest competitor and 9 full strokes away from a tie for third, where I had wanted to be before the start of the tournament.

Still, tomorrow is a new day. And boy it was!

After an evening enjoying the excellent hospitality kindly offered to me by the Smithson family, I was ready to endure another day of what I expected to be more of the same. I'm not going to lie and suggest that I had a positive mentality. In fact I had called home and told my long-suffering wife (I’ve been married for 8 months but I’ve been told that is plenty of time to suffer me!!) that I would be back after lunch, as I had 'no chance' of making the final. All that being said, I woke up feeling a bit better about the day ahead after a few cups of coffee and a rare sight of blue sky out of the window. The weather had warmed by a degree or two, the wind was a measly 18mph instead of the 25+ of the day before. I also actually warmed up my drives and approach game, unlike my usual routine of putting only. With the pressure off, and a lovely, supportive card with friends old and new, the third and final round begun.

MVP Neutron Photon, Fission Photon and Neutron Entropy, plus Kastaplast K3 Reko, K1 Lots and K1 Falk made up around 90% of my shots in round 3 📷Don't Shoot

To say it went well is an understatement. Starting with two consecutive pars on holes that I was a combined +8 on through two rounds calmed what little nerves existed and I began to play safe but agressive golf. Back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17, followed by pars on 18 and 1, usual bogey holes for me had me hopeful but weary of what was to come, but eight more holes later and with only one missed putt in the circle suddenly I was playing with confidence. Approaching the final hole, 11, a hole I knew my average on uDisc was over 6 and decided to play for the bogey five and in doing so solidified my first ever under par PDGA round!

In fact, my -1, 965-rated round was the hot round of not only my division but of the entire tournament across all 40 amateurs playing. I made 8 shots up on my entire division and moved from last to second in MA3. Not being an athlete or even remotely talented at any sport this was success like I had never experienced, and while I was unable to close the six further shots to win the division in the finals later in the afternoon, the fact that I had persevered and made it happen at all was a completely new feeling to me, and one that I can't wait to experience again!

My new best ever PDGA round. Ignore the conditions at the bottom, the round was entered after the fact!

What made it even better than winning a bag for most improved player, or for TD James Luton's kind words as the event drew to a close was turning my phone back on to see a deluge of messages from friends congratulating and supporting me from around the country who had been checking up on live scoring. We really do have an amazing community in our little sport!

Paul Stoddart's captured the moment that the MA3 card were called up to receive our prizes. Harry Messenger, Ash Woodrow and Adam Mackrory 📷BDGA

The overall winner of MA3 was Ash Woodrow. After taking down MA4 at Mendip Masters he made it 2/2 for his first 2 pdga events ever. The rest of the field, MPO included, should be looking over their shoulders!

MA2 was won by Ben Jeffrey who lit up the division with huge power and big putts to lead by more than 10 shots after one day. The rest of the division, lead by Erlingur who traveled from Iceland to compete, couldn't close the gap and Jeffrey is looking like another player who could be challenging for the Matchplay title in the coming years!

The ladies divisions, while still small, were at least joined by Nicky playing her first tournament, and were won by Kelly and Sian. The age-protected divisions were captured by Jack and Jayce while MA4 was won by Georgia, US native Douglas Morrison with a score which would have won MA3 and placed well in MA2!

With the tournament in the books, the next local tournament covered will be more matchplay, but this time I will be competing! See you all on Thursday for another article, and some of you in Dunbar for The Ides of Match, March 15th!