David Widdison won the Pendle & Craven GC Tournament

[<<] [>>] by Andrea Widdison at Pendle & Craven CC
20 Jun 2016 (GC)

David Widdison (Pendle and Craven, Bishop Monkton) won the inaugural Pendle and Craven Open Golf Croquet Tournament, the most northerly outpost of the A level series of competitions.

Play was in two blocks and at the end of day one David Bell (Leicester, Ashby) was leading his block with Jane Pringle (Auckland, Ripon) Ted Flexman (Ripon) and Libby Dixon (Pendle and Craven) all in contention for second place.

In Widdison's block he led at close of the first day with Maggie Cowman (Ripon) and Freda Vitty (Auckland, Ripon ) looking favourites for the runners up spot. Special mention must be given to Will Drake (Pendle and Craven) who, at 93 next month, was the only player in day one to take a game from Widdison.

The final round of block play in day two gave us the four clear semi finalist contenders. Bell claimed victory over Cowman with Widdison overcoming a strong challenge from Flexman resulting in a final of 'The Battle of the Davids'.

The final was exciting, with the favourite Bell in a dominant position having won all his matches on the first day, however, in the Yorkshire Dales where Widdison lives there is a saying; 'Steady , away' and his calm, consistent, tactical play could certainly be described in this way as he overcame Bell's more aggressive style 7-4,7-5 to take his second tile of the A level series.