There was a full house for the doubles handicap tournament on Saturday 28th May. It was a lovely sunny day and the lawns were fast. Competition was fierce and the added ‘extra turns’ made for some tight games.
At the end of the morning blocks there were two couples with three wins each, Andrew and Fiona Fall (Compton), from the yellow block and John Bryson and Iain Richardson (GGCC) from the Black. In the red block there were three pairs on two wins each. Steve and Debra Hayns (Ryde) and Jason Carley (Watford) and Des Taylor (Newport) went through to the knockout stage on net points. All 5 couples from GGCC made it through to the afternoon knockout phase.
At the semi-final stage Steve and Debra had a close match against Jan Honeysett and Ian Taylor (GGCC) beating them 7-6. The other semi-final was between Andrew and Fiona against Sarah Patton and Mike Huxley (GGCC) with the Falls winning through 7-4.
The final was a close and exciting event. Both teams competed for every ball and every hoop! Debra Hayns kept her team in the game with a tremendous jump shot at hoop 11 and unsurprisingly the game went to the golden hoop. The result, 7-6, a well-deserved win for the couple from Ryde.
The manager, Andrea Huxley, presented the winners with the Doubles Dish – known as the Bird Bath – to Steve and Debra and also bottles of wine for each of the finals couples. The whole group thanked the catering team for providing an excellent lunch and keeping everyone fed and watered for the whole day!
