Crake Valley’s first tournament of the season saw 16 players compete the annual AC Alternate Stroke Doubles.  Starting reasonably warm and dry, the weather wasn’t kind with wind & rain making conditions very difficult.

Two blocks of 4 pairs played each other, top of each block competing to decide the overall winner.  In the final it was experience that took the lead, with some great shots made by Bowdon players Alan Mayne & Kay Martin. 

As the cold took hold and with time running out, one mistake was all that was needed for Richard & David Harding (from Nottingham & Llanfairfechan) to take a risk on hoop 6 that changed the game, giving them a 14:11 win.

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.