News
Challenge & Gilbey
A good haul for the Club during the Challenge & Gilbey competitions which ran from Thursday until Sunday.
Paul Castell won the handicap Gilbey Goblet, beating David Gillett (also from SCCC) +5.
Liz Farrow won the Council Cup, beating Roger Mills +20.
Full report
The reduced entry this year allowed to tournament to be arranged as two two-day events as it was felt this would attract more weekend players than an event which started Friday lunchtime; this proved to be the case.
The SCCC lawns were a joy to play on, something Sussex members are getting perhaps too used to. Weather was generally warm and dry if windy the first day and with a sudden heavy lunchtime downpour on Sunday which had most (but not all) players running for cover.
The Gilbey Goblet had 16 entrants with handicaps ranging from -1 (four players) to 18 - quite a few forests of bisques seen around the edges of lawns. Four blocks of four players followed by semi- and finals and consolation games gave five games to all participants over Thursday and Friday.
The Goblet was won by Paul Castell (handicap 0.5) who won all the games he played, beating David Gillett (handicap 7) in the final.
With 16 players entering the Challenge Cup, only two were played for this year. The top eight played for the Roehampton Cup in a single block of seven games and this filled the Saturday and Sunday nicely. Eugene Chang pretty much overran the opposition, winning 6 out of 7 games and taking home what he said was his first A Class national win. Four players ended on 4 wins each in second place.
The Council Cup (B class) was played in two blocks of four with semi- and finals on the Sunday. The competition was won by Sussex member Liz Farrow in a determined final against Roger Mills, winning +20.
During the Gilbey Goblet Clive Grimley (SCCC, handicap 11) achieved his Bronze award. The fastest game prize was won by Eugene Chang and the peeling prize by Roger Mills (handicap 1.5) with a TP against John Reddish. Thanks to Roger for providing those prizes, so quite fitting he took one of them home himself.
SCCC provided a covid-19 secure environment for the competitions with most of the buildings closed and results being submitted and available to players digitally. Unfortunately no catering was possible but there was a fridge with self-service soft drinks and lager (and proper beer, thank you Clive for the Hophead).
John Low, Manager