PENDLE AUGUST HANDICAP TOURNAMENT 26/27/28 August 2006 by Barbara Dutton

Short showers over the three day period didn’t mar play. The lawns had improved immensely since the Easter Tournament. Fourteen competitors battled it out for the honours, travelling from Horsham, Shrewsbury, Wrest Bank and more locally the Fylde and of course Pendle.

The Overall Winner was Peter Dowdall, the Pendle & Craven Club Treasurer. Alice Fleck won the prize for the fastest game and also took part in the longest at 5hr 30mins. Alice had such a good time she has decided to join Pendle & Craven as a Far Country member for the 2007 season. David Gillett from Horsham took the Low Handicap prize for the second year running and Robin Delves from Pendle the High Handicap cup. Robert Dodds from Shrewsbury played the most games (10). Handicap changes were: Peter Dowdall 11 to 10; Andrew Webb (Fylde) 8 to 7; Robin Delves 12 to 11.

The Manager Peter Wilson was thanked for his splendid efforts at keeping the game flowing, the caterers as ever were thanked for their best attempts at sending players home heavier than they came and also thanks to all those who made the lawns a pleasure to play on.

MIDWEEK 50+ HANDICAP EVENT AT PENDLE, 18-21 July 2006 by Barbara Dutton and John Filsak

Competitors came from all over the country to take part and enjoyed the weather and the catering, although the lawns proved a challenge having dried out considerably making conditions tricky. The normally reliable Pennine overhead sprinkler system functioned only briefly on Thursday morning. The lawns were hard, bumpy in places and rather two-paced; an inadvertant jump shot over the object ball in a dolly rush was achieved on numerous occasions. Nevertheless it was possible to play some good croquet; Andrew Webb (Pendle and Fylde) achieved his silver merit award, and Janet Davies (Chester) won the prize for the fastest pegged-out game with one hour and seven minutes.

Player of the week was Roger Staples (Middlesbrough). He topped the Egyptian leaderboard by a good margin, won the “B” class trophy after a three-way play-off, and received the prize for the most games played (12). Andrew Webb from Fylde was Overall runner up. Neil Kellett (Cheltenham) won his first ever tournament trophy with a clean sweep in the “C” class. Bryan Saddington (Hunstanton) won the “A” class, beating lower handicapped players on the way. John Filsak (Pendle, managing for the first time) and Andrew Webb retained their handicap doubles title.

Jim Penny from Shrewsbury had his 84th birthday on the Wednesday, the celebrations for which may have accounted for him winning the wooden spoon. The tournament catering was very much worth turning up for, and was done largely by some of Pendle’s golf croquet playing members.

Handicap changes – Roger Staples 11 to 10; Andrew Webb 10 to 9; Mike Bowser 4.5 to 5; Robin Delves 14 to 12.

Chairman Geoff Whittaker presents trophies to winning Over 50 tournament players (July 06): [photographs by Barbara Dutton] :