On a glorious Thursday 20 members turned out for the first week of this year’s John Saxby competition. This week, it was Andrew Winns turn to come out top with a score of 83. Carol Steinberg and Lorna Frost came second and third with scores of 78 and 69 respectively.
Last year Andy Jackson was in pole position for most of the competition only to be pipped at the post by Cas Sinclair on the last week. Lets hope this years competition is as exciting!!
The full table will be published after a few weeks of play. The top five after week one is as follows:
The final of the 2025 Winter Thursday 14pt competition was played on a warm, sunny Thursday 20th March. The winner was Ken Cooper with runner-up Cas Sinclair.
Winner of 2025 Winter Thursday 14pt Competition – Ken CooperRunner-up of 2025 Winter Thursday 14pt Competition – Cas Sinclair
The final of the 2025 winter 1-ball was held on Saturday 15th Mar. In a well supported and fine day Alan Dix won in a close fought final with Ged Smolskas runner-up.
The lawns are set out with 3 FULL lawns and 2 SHORT lawns
Programme of regular roll-up sessions – please sign up on booking system Monday. 10am-1pm AC for beginners and high handicappers (2 short, 1 full lawn) Tuesday. 10am-4.30pm Solomon Grundy AC for lower handicappers (3 full lawns) Wednesday. Free Thursday. 10am-3pm John Saxby AC for all levels (2 short, 3 full lawns) Friday. 10am-1pm Freshers Friday AC for beginners (2 short lawns) Friday. 3.30pm-6.30pm GC for all levels (2 full lawns) Saturday. 1.30pm-4.30pm One-Ball for all levels (2 short, 3 full lawns) Sunday. Free
The League matches and Tournaments as on the club calendar (see website) take priority over regular sessions
Free play There will be plenty of availability for individual games and practice on all days. The only roll-ups using all lawns are the Thursday John Saxby 10-3pm, and the Saturday One-ball 1.30-4.30pm
Double banking is encouraged, but not mixing AC and GC on the same lawn. If you see that two AC games are using two separate lawns and you wish to play GC, it is correct to ask(in advance) one AC pair to move to double bank, so freeing up a lawn for your GC game. And vice versa.
There should be sufficient lawn availability for Summer competitions and Box games. If difficult to find a lawn outside of the roll-ups, it is acceptable to join and play your game as part of a roll-up as long as format and time limit is compatible.
We are planning to start a new box league playing the increasingly popular one-ball game. This is particularly aimed at higher handicappers and new players, but open to all.
The format will be a league with players of similar standard grouped into ‘boxes’ of three. Over a period of a month, the players will arrange to play each other in a best of 3 format. The player who wins most will move up the league for the next round. The league will run year round, and players can join and leave as they wish.
Well done to those who have won their games. And a reminder that the 1st round one ball games need to be played by 13 May, and 1st round A-D class, 14pt and Golf by 20 May. Good luck.
The finals of the winter 1-ball competitions were held on Saturday 16th March. Ed Cheetham, Garth Aspinall, John Bagnall and Robert Cutts-Watson qualified for the semi-finals having beaten Carol Steinberg, Janet Guthrie, David Beddy and Adrian Apps respectively. Ed and John went on to beat Garth and Robert to set up a thrilling final which was eventually won by Ed.
Winner of 2024 winter 1-ball finals – Ed Cheetham
The finals of the winter 14pt handicap finals were played on Thursday 21st March. Adrian Apps beat Mike Steer and Nigel Matthews beat Charles Fraser in the semi-finals. Nigel easily beat Adrian in the final with Mike gaining 3rd place.
Winner of 2024 winter 14pt finals – Nigel Matthews
A Reminder that entry for the Summer Club Competitions closes in a week (20th March).
ALSO, as per previous Messages, please ensure you have had your Handicap card checked and signed, otherwise you will not be able to enter theses competitions.
Winter Doubles Final 2024, from left, David Beddy, Ed Cheetham, Adrian Apps and Nigel Matthews
The final of the Winter Doubles proved to be a particularly exciting affair. Nigel Matthews and David Beddy faced Adrian Apps and Ed Cheetham. Both pairings played the ‘Alternative Shots’ version of doubles. Enthusiastic spectators braved the chilly temperatures but barely noticed the conditions as they were enthralled by the quality of the play.
The match started slowly with the advantage fluctuating between the pairings. Adrian and Ed (red and yellow) were slightly ahead after the early stages, but Nigel and David (blue and black) gradually ground out a small lead. With about 10 minutes to go Nigel and David had extended their lead. They were on 4 (black) and rover (blue), whilst Adrian and Ed were struggling on 2 (red) and 4 (yellow). As time was running out Nigel and David left Adrian an Ed’s balls well apart, but left their own balls about 4 yards apart on the north boundary near red’s hoop 2 . Surely they had the game sewn up!
The situation was that red would have to roquet yellow, and then somehow get to the hoop to level the scores. It was also clear that time was about to run out. An excellent long roquet on yellow was duly made. Now the real work began with Adrian and Ed carefully negotiating their way around and completing the turn to hoop with red. At the end of that turn they left blue and black well apart and needed to set up red and yellow at hoop 4 and hope that Nigel and David failed to hit in. However, in rolling red and yellow down to hoop 4 there was a problem. The player, who shall be nameless, but he really should know better, managed to send the yellow off the south boundary and leave red about 2 yards north of hoop 4. Nigel and David missed their very long roquet. Now Ed had to try and make an 8 yard roquet under extreme tension. He achieved this with casual aplomb, and Adrian placed yellow in front of hoop 2 for Ed to make the Golden Hoop victory. Loud applause was given by the multitude of lucky spectators.
A great final to this winter competition. Congratulations to Adrian and Ed.
