The Rother Valley Challenge is an invitational 14 point Association tournament played on half lawns over two days, for handicaps 10 and above. Teams are of four players who are seeded in handicap order, with ones and twos playing their opposite numbers from all other clubs (eight games in all), and threes and fours likewise. Rother Valley can muster 5 half lawns so the invitation is limited to five South East Clubs, although this year one club had to drop out at the last minute, so everybody had two non-playing sessions (usually filled with a friendly double against the other players in the same position).
We won this competition last year, with a little help from some friends, and this year had a familiar feel to it!
The Friday team (Doug, Simon, John K and Lorna) had a fairly successful day in dry weather, but with a cold wind making conditions rather unpleasant. John managed to win all three of his games with the rest of us taking two out of three. We were in second place to the host club at the end of the day.
On Saturday Doug and Simon returned but this time with Joyce and Frank Collins on loan from Caterham (not a participating club). Frank was our star with three wins, and the rest of us again managed two. At lunch time after six rounds we were level with the host club, with our last two matches being against them. In the afternoon the rain started – fortunately not too heavy but more than sufficient to get us very wet. We lost one-three in round seven, but managed a clean sweep in the last round giving us a clear lead of two matches at the end.
The Acorn Trophy was presented in their club house after very welcome tea and cake.