Author: ianf

It was another nail-biting finish for the GGCC AC team comprising John Gosden, Andrew Fewster, Peter Adams and Julie Tremble in our last SECF U-league match of the season. In the morning John & Julie won the doubles but we lost the two singles matches making us 1-2 down at lunch. In the afternoon Julie completed her game by pegging out and Peter was comfortably ahead in his match. John was also ahead with both balls on rover but his opponent was steadily catching up. Unfortunately his opponent managed to make 3 hoops in the last 5 minutes to pip him by one on time, resulting in a 3-4 match loss for GGCC.

For the second year GGCC hosted a team of 5 players from the Watford club as part of their annual tour. The challenging conditions of ultra-fast lawns resulted in the 9 games having very low scores with often the identity of the player leading changing in the closing moments of a game. The notable exception was Robert who pegged out in the morning and also won his afternoon game. One game failed to finish so with both teams each having 4 wins the fixture was declared a draw.  GGCC was represented by Hilary, Peter A, Andrew F, Ian F and Robert B.

An AC Team comprising Stephen Stuart-Matthews, John Gosden, Andrew Fewster and Ian Fugeman played away against Purley Bury in the SECF U League on 28^th July and achieved a close and successful result by winning 4:3.  The dry weather had created challenging lawns which often took both our and the home team players by surprise. An enjoyable day with an excellent lunch and hospitality.

The 2^nd Round of the Longman Trophy, an AC national Handicap tournament, was played at home on Wednesday 13^th July against East Dorset but we lost 6:1.  Our opponents coped extremely well with the challenging conditions of the very fast lawns and the erratic movement of the ball when approaching the hoop. This resulted in low scoring games with only one pegged out. Despite the result of only one win, congratulations to Andrew Fewster, there were three games with close scores or where the lead was lost in the final moments. The GGCC team comprised Andrew Fewster, John Gosden , Robert Bateson and Ian Fugeman.

A GGCC AC Team had success in the first round of the National Longman Trophy beating the Bristol team 5:2 on Friday 13 May. This annual tournament in which 28 clubs from around the country compete on a knockout basis with the final held at Surbiton on 1st and 2nd October. The AC Handicap tournament is for teams of four with a gross handicap of not less than 24 for players with a handicap of at least 3.5, and our team comprised Andrew Fewster, Ian Fugeman, John Gosden and Robert Bateson.