After a week of cold, wet autumnal weather, summer returned to Colchester for the Club Invitational day with temperatures reaching 29 degrees!
On beautiful green lawns (so the rain did have some uses…) players from Colchester, Maldon, Southchurch and Chelmsford battled to win the trophy.
The morning session consisted of a round robin tournament with the top 8 players going forward to a knockout in the afternoon.
With players from all four clubs advancing to the knockout, there was plenty to keep the spectators interested. In the final four, Paul Trumper of Colchester defeated John Ferguson of Maldon and John Skuse of Chelmsford defeated his club mate Julie Holmes.
The final between Paul and John was hard fought, with both players achieving long clearances, good hoop running and spectacular jump shots. Fittingly, the match ended at Hoop 13. Paul had a chance to win, but a tentative shot left his ball in the jaws of the hoop. John made no mistake in clearing it to the boundary and, when his chance came, he ran the hoop confidently to win 7-6.
This event is always eagerly anticipated, and the games were played in a friendly but competitive spirit. Many thanks to Pam Hopper for organising the day so efficiently and to Pam’s husband for making the beautiful wooden trophy.
