After sterling efforts against nature’s wettest February & March by the club’s ground crew, all five Pendle’s courts were presented beautifully laid out, hoops set, boundaries white-lined and flags waving for the full entry field of twenty players, (from ten clubs), who duly arrived Good Friday lunchtime, in time for hot cross buns (of course).
The random starting draw kicked off the tournament with the manager (Riggey) leaving it up to each match pairing to decide between them whether to play AC Handicap rules or AC Advanced. From then on Egyptian indexes were utilised to sort further games.
Saturday & Sunday were (thankfully) both warm, sunny and dry to enable the bulk of this year’s 78 tournament games to be contested, however Monday brought back the clouds and after a morning of fine rain, courts 3 & 4 succumbed and necessitated in moving ‘deciding’ games onto 1 & 5 for the final round.
We were fortunate, this year to be joined by Andrew Stephenson MP to do the Trophy Presentation;
John Beech Handicap Trophy – Andrew Willis
Peter Dowdall Cup (adv) – Andrew Willis
Under 10 Handicap Trophy – Angharrad Walters
10 & Over Handicap Trophy – Andrew Gould
Fastest Game – Liz Wilson (48mins Vs Lee Hartley)
Most Games – Andrew Willis.
Photo (L-R); Andrew Stephenson MP, Liz Wilson, Andrew Willis, Angharrad Walters & Andrew Gould.
Having put in such an effort to ensure the club again hosted this year’s JB, the Ground Crew mentioned deserve name checking – Robert, Paul D, Vince, Libby, Karen, Mike & Sharon.