Edward & Samir Patel won the National Forest GC Doubles

[<<] [>>] by Ray Mounfield at Ashby
9th September (GC - Tournaments)

The fifth National Forest GC Doubles (subtitled "Total Zero Plus" to reflect minimum joint handicaps) was played on the last weekend of August at Moira. Eight pairs, including players from the North East, Wales, London and the Midlands, competed for the trophy.

Manager, Ray Mounfield used the same format as in recent years. On Saturday, using just two lawns, two blocks of four pairs played two games against the other teams in their block.

Block A : Mike O'Brian & Christine Wood, Arthur Rowe & Judith Rowe, Jane Pringle & Jane Bailey and Andrew Grant & John Palframan

Block B : Tom Grievson & Martyn Seal, Samir Patel & Edward Patel, Ross Bagni & Marilyn Robinson and Chris Jackson & Pauline Donner

The two Janes emerged as winners on five wins in Block A, with Arthur and Judith as runners-up. In block B, with four wins each, Ross & Marilyn and Samir & Edward qualified for the semi-finals.

On Sunday the semi-finals were both completed in two games and with Samir & Edward and Arthur & Judith winning their matches.

So the final was a two family tussle between the Patels and the Rowes. Samir and Edward took the first game with relative ease, but the second game became a tighter affair. At hoop twelve it looked to be going to the golden hoop until an uncharacteristic miss by Judith allowed the father and son partnership to take the game. So Edward, at 16, (the youngest player by far) and Samir were deserving winners of the unique trophy.

The losing semi-final pairs played a third place decider which was won by Jane Pringle and Jane Bailey.

In the plate Mike and Christine won 4 of their 6 games , but with 5 wins the plate went to Andrew and John.

The weather was somewhat unkind, with persistent rain throughout most of Saturday but not quite bad enough to hold up play on either day.

Full results (CroquetScores)