Category: SECF Tournament

After a year’s gap because of the pandemic, the flagship tournament of the South East Federation returned albeit with slightly reduced numbers to allow for the restrictions that were still in place.

The tournament was divided into three divisions with Division 1 being played at Sussex County over the weekend of the 19th/20th June. On the same day Division 2 North was played at Surbiton and Division 2 South was played at Sussex County on 3rd/4th July.

For Division 1 there were some very close fought battles, but in the end the final was contested between Dulwich and Sussex County 2. With games standing at one all it came down to a singles game to win the match and the Tournament. Needless to say this game went to the 13th hoop with Dulwich coming out as the eventual winners. Ryde 1 was in third place and East Dorset in 4th.

Meanwhile up in Surbiton six teams were battling it out for the Division 2 North trophy. The final was contested between Surbiton and Cheam 1 with Surbiton coming out as the winners 2 games to 1. Reigate was in third place and Ryde 2 in fourth.

After a couple of weeks breather seven teams met to compete for the Division 2 South competition. This time, as there were seven teams, there was a different format with teams playing in blocks with no final. All teams had to play each other twice over the weekend. Eventually it came down to a tussle between Littlehampton and Rottingdean 1.
Rottingdean had to beat their fellow players from Rottingdean 2 to claim an outright win but they were beaten. So on 9 matches each the tie-break came down to games won, so Littlehampton triumphed by 25 games to 24 for Rottingdean. It could not have been closer. Sussex County 3 were third and West Worthing fourth.

Thanks to Jonathan Isaacs for organising the overall tournament which was a challenge in its own right, and to Andrew Stewart, Andy Dibben and Jonathan for running the events on the day.

Hopefully next year some normality will return and we will welcome more teams to compete in this popular event.

Andrew Stewart

The first Ladies AC Day since 2018 took place at Southwick on 7th July.

Eight teams were represented : Sussex 1, Sussex 2, Rother Valley, Rottingdean, Purley Berries, Queen Bees, Merton and a SECF team. The SECF team was assembled as in the end Surbiton couldn’t quite raise a team. Many thanks to those who played for the SECF team.

Each team consisted of two to four ladies of any handicap. There were 4 rounds drawn at random – two of 2 singles and two of doubles. Points were awarded for win, pegged out win and peels. All games were 14 point handicap matches with a time limit of 1.5 hours.

There were some extra singles available for teams who had more than 2 players – if they wanted more play! The results were then arranged in percentage order, if necessary.

A lot of the games did peg out, particularly the singles but the doubles tended to go to time!

Sussex 1 were clear winners with 21 points. The nearest challengers being Queen Bees, Rother Valley and Merton. Congratulations to Sussex 1 – Chrissie Merrington and Pam Gooders. Chrissie played brilliantly and won all her games and got a handicap reduction to 10!!

Well done everyone and the Federation is grateful for your support in this event.

Cliff Jones kindly presented the Trophy to the winners – he had arrived for an Academy course the next day!

Thanks as ever to Southwick for the wonderful lawns, to Chris Constable who was ROT (Referee of the Tournament), and to myself for sorting out socially distanced tea/coffee, biscuits and afternoon cake!

It was a lovely day and so pleasing to catch up with old friends and see familiar faces.

Please can more SECF teams enter next year. We cannot rely on the same players year after year. I am sure many more clubs could provide at least two AC lady players.

Ideas for next year: well maybe short court AC, full bisque singles games, alternate stroke doubles??

It is up to you to contact me if you have ideas, and please try to participate in 2022!

Frances Low (Manager)

frances.low@ntlworld.com

Five teams from Canterbury, Medway, Ramsgate, Surbiton and Tunbridge Wells gathered at 9.30am on Sunday 6^th June under a beautiful clear blue sky to contest the one ball extravaganza at Canterbury CC.

Having consumed the muffins and coffee on offer, play started in earnest. At lunchtime after three rounds Canterbury, Medway and Surbiton were leading with two wins apiece and the stage was set for a competitive afternoon.

The food was very well received by all, the wine flowed and such was the convivial conversation that it was with great difficulty that we managed to persuade the contestants to resume play!

The fourth round resulted in Canterbury nosing ahead of the others, but it was still possible for Medway or Surbiton to taste victory after the fifth round.

In this last round Canterbury beat Medway to maintain an unbeaten record and receive the trophy with “bubbly” and generous applause.

The longest break prize was presented to Charlie Martin from Ramsgate.

On behalf of the contestants Trevor Longman from Ramsgate thanked Canterbury for their organisation of the tournament and remarked how much everybody had enjoyed the day.

Eight clubs took part in this year’s SECF AC Teams Weekend at Sussex County on 8th/9th May, the first SECF competition since Covid-19 started. Normally this event has been run as a Swiss competition but this year, in order to provide a structure which would restrict unnecessary interaction between players, a pre-programmed order of play was developed in which over the two days each club would play all the other clubs.So it became more of a team event with the best final club score being the winner. Wins counted as one point with an additional point if both teams won in any round.

As it happened there was a very poor (and, as it turned out, somewhat inaccurate) weather forecast for the Saturday morning, and because of the very limited options for shelter it was decided on Friday afternoon to cancel the first game and postpone the start until lunchtime. Apologies to the two teams who did not get the message passed on to them.

With four rounds of play in the competition at the end Surbiton and Guildford & Godalming were equal on 8 wins, and had also both gained two additional points for round wins; but Guildford & Godalming took the prize by 6 net hoop points.

Reigate and Dulwich win on Golf Teams Day

Winchester win Southern Challenge Division 1 and
Rottingdean win Division 2