Double success for Bath at Budleigh

 

Peter Miles and Andrew Willis both entered the Spring Tournament at Budleigh Salterton searching for early season form but returned home with silverware.

The week-long tournament began on Tuesday with a relaxing and fun day of handicap doubles, where Dave Kibble and Linda Shaw from Bristol CC romped home as winners.

Both Bath players enjoyed some success in the handicap singles event over the next few days but their hopes were both eventually extinguished by Anthony Hicks who was relatively new to the game but demonstrated excellent straight shooting and hoop-running and all using a homemade mallet. However, even Anthony proved to be no match for Linda Shaw in the final, whose return to form continued and she was rewarded with another trophy and a reduction to her handicap.

The level play class events started after lunch on Friday with Peter competing in the B-class and Andrew in the A-class. Peter got off to a slightly disappointing start with a loss against Peter Nelson but this was to be his last defeat as he won his remaining six games and was the clear winner of his block. Peter returned home to Bath with the Woodlands Quaich trophy as winner of the B-class event and had earned a reduction in his handicap to two.

After his first four matches in the A-class, Andrew had won two and lost two and was not overly optimistic about his chances as he still had the two lowest handicap players to play. However some steady play and a smattering of good fortune brought wins against Dave Kibble and Chris Williams and Andrew was awarded the Godfrey Turner Challenge Cup as winner of the A-class event.