CHAIRMAN’S SHIELD
A good turnout of 28 players attended the Club on Sunday to compete in the third and final pairs competition of the season, The Chairman’s Shield.
Pairings for the Club’s doubles competitions are drawn at random and two of the strongly fancied pairs faced each other in the quarter-final, Margaret Langley and Ray Sutton eventually overcoming Bill Bloor and Tony Livesey 21-20. In the semi-final, Margaret and Ray went on to meet Eileen Curtis and Richard Rawcliffe, who had won two tricky games against Fred Mitchell and Joe Parker (21-17) and Jim Halsall and Eileen Rawcliffe (21-20). The semi-final was another tight affair with Margaret and Ray just winning 21-18 to reach the final.
The bottom half of the draw saw the very strong pair of Alan Bond and Jim Finnimore win through to the final with wins against Mark Eustace and Dorothy Mitchell, Janice Hobson and John Stennett and in the semi-final, one of last winners, Margaret Eustace and Chris Harding.
The final was expected to a close match and so it proved. Although Alan and Jim counted two at the first end, Ray and Margaret scored 3s at the 2nd and 8th ends and these turned out to be decisive. Holding a lead of 13-12, Ray and Margaret won five consecutive ends to lead 19-12 and although Alan and Jim fought back to close the gap to 18-19, Margaret and Ray were able to clinch victory with a couple of ones. Congratulations to Ray and Margaret, two of the longest serving members of the Club and deserving winners of the 2013 Chairman’s Shield.
The Plate competition was won by Sue Davies and Geoff Rimmer, who defeated Jayne Eustace and George Hitchmough 21-16 in another close final