The RyDov Cup, where the Tour began all those years ago, has staked its claim as both the marquee event of the year and also the final event of the year.

It is revered by all who have played in it, and each year brings a new story line, greater intrigued and fantastic competition and camaraderie.

The 2024 edition is no different, yet in many ways it is, it is the 10th match played and with that comes a level of expectation never really felt before. The Tour have also marked this occasion by diverging from the traditional selection method and have created a team of Founding players to face off against a team of newcomers and have put two players that epitomize the Tour entirely, Andy Love and Paul Gowens, in charge of them.

We’ve heard the team announcement, we’ve witnessed the verbal sparring of the Captains, now we’ve unleashed EuroDov Reporter on 9 years’ worth of RyDov Cup records and thousands of sheets of data from Tour events to give us a blow by blow prediction from each match so sit back, enjoy and get ready to argue your case against EuroDov Reporter.

Match 8 in the morning singles features Kevin Brannan v Stuart Anderson.

This is another David v Goliath match. We’ve got 8-time RyDov Cupper Kevin Brannan playing against Stuart Anderson making his second appearance.

Brannan boasts a 50%-win rate in the singles format with his defeat in 2023 the first in 5 appearances.

Anderson on the other hand had a predictable debut in 2023 losing resoundingly 8&6 in the singles.

A year does make a difference, however. Brannan lifted the EuroDov Cup and Invitational in 2023 in a marquee season for him, Anderson made one appearance on Tour, finishing last in the Anstruther Medal.

However, 2024 has been a different story, Brannan hasn’t won and ends the season on the medical exemption list with a fractured wrist and Anderson stormed to a fairy tale win in the Anstruther Medal going from worst to first.

The story is written for another great win for Anderson, but assuming his wrist is ok and he plays on September 7th, I can’t look past the experience of Kevin Brannan to take the points for Team Love.

Team Love 4.5 – 3.5 Team Gowens