Ian Lines still Managing and Winning (07 June 09) by Barbara Dutton

The CA Advanced Tournament, 6th -7th June, held at Earby, brought 12 players of the highest standards from all over the country from Edgbaston and Shrewsbury to Crake and Middlesborough with players from closer to home from Southport, Bowdon, Fylde and Bury.

Ian Lines from Bowdon both managed the tournament and went on to retain the David Openshaw Trophy as overall winner.

Dave “Nick” Nicholson from Crake won the Chris Hudson Trophy for the fastest game in a blistering 35 minutes.

Lee Hartley from Fylde won the A class gaining the Chris Clarke Trophy

Liz Wilson also from Fylde won the B Class Jeremy Dyer Trophy.

Day one was miserable, cold and wet but in spite of this the lawns played well. Day two saw better weather for the final day.

Secretary’s Shield – Somewhere Under the Rainbow (19 May 09) by Barbara Dutton

Two teams competed at Earby for the opening round of the Secretary Shield.

The home team of David Pollitt, Robin Delves, Peter Dewhurst and Andrew Webb took on the all ladies team from Huddersfield Syngenta. The doubles in the morning were played in fair weather and Pendle came out 2 -1 winners. After lunch the rain was fairly persistent making the lawns very wet for accurate play, however the home team took a 3 -1 victory in the singles and so came out overall winners 5 – 2 and progress to the next round.

With the dark skies to the right and sunshine to the left we had a lovely low rainbow as distraction.

Advanced Pendle Trophy Goes West (17 May 09) by Barbara Dutton and Peter Wilson

The CA Advanced ‘B’ Level Tournament took place on the John Beech Lawns at Earby over the wekend of 16th/17th May. This tournament drew competitors from clubs in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Tyneside, Crake Valley, Fylde, Southport, Guildford, Newport, Tunbridge Wells, Edgbaston, Shrewsbury, Liverpool and Pendle. Heavy rain preceded the start of the tournament preventing a final mowing and conditions were heavy for the first game but improved throughout the tournament as spells of sunshine warmed them. Special mention must go to Roger Schofield for his efforts in preparing the five lawns needed with freshly set hoops. He would later go on to run 2-back from about 10 feet East of the peg. A beautiful shot that took some wire.

Managed by Liz Wilson, the tournament was run Flexible Swiss style with players playing as much or as little as they wished and the winner determined on the percentage of games won. Lee Hartley was able to defend his trophy despite a recent handicap reduction to scratch by virtue of the entry conditions. Mike Porter took the lead in the second round by beating Lee. This prompted Lee to set off like a Hare to play as many games as he could in an effort to reduce the percentage loss and he eventually reached 6/7 (85.7%) which would have been enough to win the tournament had Mike Porter from Newport not won his last game giving him 5/5 (100%) and the trophy in an Aesop’s Fable sort of way.

Despite having to don the wetsuits and then strip off to shirt sleeves every half an hour everybody did report they were enjoying the tournament, the venue, the bar and the hospitality of the catering teams who provided elevenses, lunch and tea on both days.

There were three handicap reductions: Mike Porter to 1, Andrew Webb to 4.5 and Mark Godfrey to 5. CA Gold Merit Award to Lee Hartley on Sunday for beating third place finisher Alan Mayne with his first Triple Peel.