On Tuesday 9th June we hosted our annual C-Level tournament for players of handicap 7+. A field of 16 players, coming from as far away as Oxford, arrived on time, raring to get on the lawns in cold and windy weather. More than half of them had not taken part in these competitions before. Four groups of four played in the morning with the first two of each group going on to a “knockout” for a place in the National Final in September and the others doing the same for the “Plate”. The groups are selected over a range of ability using the National D Grade as the guide. Players appreciated the club’s top quality lawns and the day started well as the players “warmed” up on their dedicated lawn. Play had only just started when a fierce ice-cold shower, with a howling wind to go with it, prompted the players to rush in to put on their “wets”. However, it was the only bad weather that day and play continued at a reasonable rate. At the end of morning play, one player from each group had won 3 games, automatically taking them through to the knockout plus 4 of the runners up. As it happens, 3 of these players were CPCC members – did they have advantage knowing the lawns? After the first round they were still in the top four for the semi final so one of them had a good chance of winning the competition. The final was between 2 CPCC members, Phil Hendy and, a relatively new player, Jonathan Flatt. Phil had already beaten Jono, 7-5, in an earlier round so competition was fierce. The game started well for Phil and he was 3 up, but Jono kept his cool and pulled out some fantastic long shots to hit Phil’s balls away from scoring positions. The score reached 6 all (you need 7 to win), so the winner of the competition needed one more hoop. It was the end of the day and most of the players were watching the play. Jono won the 12th hoop so Phil had first shot up to Hoop 13, but he didn’t have a straight shot – he was impeded by a hoop. However, Jono did have an unimpeded shot and successfully sent his balls to fairly good positions to score the hoop, which he eventually did and the score was a win for Jono 7-6. CPCC took the first 3 places, 1st: Jonathan Flatt, 2nd: Phil Hendy and 3rd: Simon Munton Congratulations to all players. Jono will go on to the National Final in September.
