White-hot displays earn couple singles plaudits

Janice White started the collection with a dominant 21-3 win over Sandra Payne in the novice Sadler Cup.

Another win against Anna Molony (21-12) in the handicap soon followed and a hat-trick of singles wins was completed in the two-wood final.

Going into the 21st and final end against Donna Kerr the match was tied at 13 shots apiece.

A prolonged and tense measure by the umpire was then needed to determine that White had won 14-13 by a fraction of millimetre.

For Kerr, it was not all disappointment, though, as in a repeat of the 2015 final, she retained her club champion crown with a 21-16 victory over Sandra Payne.

In the men’s championship final, Ray White faced Malcolm Wickens having earlier in the day joined forces with him at Bidford to secure a place in the final of the South Warwickshire BA pairs competition with a comfortable 19-10 win over Kineton’s Robert Towsend.

Back on their home green for the afternoon, it was White who came out on top in the club’s blue ribbon event.

At 16-all, the match had looked finely balanced, but White showed his class to take shots on the next three ends to win 21-16.

Thirty minutes later, White returned to the green to face son Graham in the final of the two-wood competition and complete a pair of top trophy wins with a 14-11 victory.

It was also a good day for David Payne in singles competitions.

Runner-up in 2015 he went one better this year as he defeated Alan Taylor 21-16 to take the Jeffs Cup and then went on to take the trophy in the handicap competition with a 21-14 win over Chris Bearman.

In the two ladies’ pairs competitions, Cynthia Briggs was a double champion.

Playing with Bonny Claridge in the drawn pairs, the duo took the title with a 19-16 win over Enid Reece and Elizabeth Glynne-Jones.

Having won all the singles trophies between them, Janice White and Donna Kerr could not repeat the performance in the pairs as they lost 28-10 in the chosen pairs to give Briggs her second pairs trophy, this time playing with Dawn Horne.

The men’s pairs competitions were dominated by Wickens and Barry Dale.

Drawn together in both the three- and four-wood pairs competitions, they beat Colin Palmer and Rex Fox 32-2 in the former and John Murray and Dick Williams in the latter (27-15).

In a disappointing weekend for Williams, he and Donna Kerr also lost out by two sets to one to Dawn and Jerry Horne in the mixed pairs.

Meanwhile, Avenue claimed the local bragging rights after a 74-64 success in a four-rink derby against Royal Leamington Spa last Saturday.

As the match neared a conclusion, with three rinks lying all square and Avenue narrowly ahead on the other, it was still all to play for.

However, although Spa’s Keith Young, Malcolm Wickens, John Rheams and Ray White finished with ten unanswered shots over the last four ends against Adam Smith to win 23-13, it was Avenue who finished the stronger elsewhere.

Eleven shots without reply for Andy Smith saw him pull away to beat Dick Allibon 24-13, Andy Sparkes overcame Jerry Horne 18-11 and, after trailing for most of the match, two shots on the last end gave John Hughes a 19-17 win over Dick Williams.

Avenue’s ladies won their home triples against Wellesbourne 47-25 in a match curtailed at 15 ends due to bad light.

The highest winning rink went to Lisa Smith (skip), debutant Chris Weir and Hannah Smith who were in complete control throughout the game on their way to a 25-2 success.