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Handicap Tournament 17/18 May

The revival of the May tournament was on a hot and sunny weekend, but the one person unable to enjoy it was the manager. Eric Audsley’s absence due to illness left us with nine players, but Tim Brewer, who had volunteered for catering duties, nobly offered to make up the numbers and had to dash home to change and collect his mallet. George Collin took over the management and ensured that, apart from one instance, the four visiting players never had to play each other.

The clear winner was Alan Clark, who won all his games. Although Tim lost his first game he won three others and a fourth courtesy of Rod Ashwell who stood in for him on Saturday evening and gained a narrow win over Nick Evans. Peter Aspinall, playing in his first tournament, had three wins, two by the maximum score, and won the prize for highest net points. John Bevington claimed the Specsavers prize when he tried to peel Geoff Johnson through rover and peg him out, failing to spot that Geoff’s clip was already on the peg. He managed to peg the ball out a little later and finally got home +1 on time.

The weekend was enlivened by action on the adjoining pitches: football and cricket matches on Saturday and cricket coaching on Sunday. We were also treated to views of a pair of red kites, taking advantage of the thermals. And many thanks to Tim, who doubled up as player and caterer to great effect.

L-R George Woolhouse, winner Alan Clark with Geoff Johnson behind him, Peter Aspinall, George Collin, Bryan Harral, David Woolley, Tim Brewer