GC Four Club Trophy 2019

This GC level play competition began in 2017 and is the brainchild of Ross Bagni who was looking for a tournament suitable for players between B class (3-8) and A class (2 or below). The four clubs are Leighton-Linslade, Northampton, Watford and Wrest Park. Each club has a team of three with a minimum aggregate handicap of four, and during the season each club plays host to the other three.

For each match the 12 players are divided into two blocks of six. There are five rounds in which each player plays everyone else in the block, giving a block order based on number of wins. The opposite numbers in each block then play each other. The results of these games give a finishing order with each player getting points from 12 to 1 according to their final position. The winner of the competition is the team with the highest number of points accrued over the four matches.

Wrest Park were the winners in 2019, and the players participating were Eric Audsley (1), Paul Gunn (1), Richard Keighley (3), Peter Aspinall (6) and Richard Skidmore (6). There is no trophy as such: each player pays £6 to take part in each match, of which £5 goes to the host club. The remaining £48 is given to a charity chosen by the winning club, which in 2019 was Macmillan Cancer Support.

Richard Keighley describes the final match played at Northampton on 19 August:

After 3 rounds, out team was in 2nd place with 58 points, just 2 points behind Watford and 2 points ahead of Leighton-Linslade. So it was all to play for at Northampton yesterday.

Eric Audsley (1) had an exceptional day winning all 5 of his block games which earned him the dubious pleasure of a cross-block play off with Lionel Tibble (-4) for 1st and 2nd places. Lionel won 7-4 but Eric gained 11 points. Paul Gunn (1) was runner up in Lionel's block and he contested 3rd and 4th places with Brian Havill(1) of Watford. He lost narrowly but still gained 9 points. I contributed 5 points, which gave our team victory on the day with a total of 25 points and an aggregate total of 83 points, and the "trophy".


Full results and scores can be found on the Watford club website.

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