Competitions 2026 - seventh round-up

Graham Aldis has had his share of dramatic finishes in this season’s competitions – and he had to endure another tense ending before staggering into the final of the Sam Farmer Plate.

His semi-final against John Box was incredibly close throughout, each taking narrow leads in turn.

But as they approached the 26th end, John held a 20-19 lead - and four shots - as Graham bowled what looked like his final wood.

Somehow, he managed to disperse them all and land the winning shot, taking their match to effectively a one-end shootout – which he took to seal a dramatic win.

He will play Stephen Banks, who returned from the holiday of a lifetime to the fixture list from Hell.

After easing himself in by playing in Sunday’s friendly against Southwater, a matter of hours after his return from East Africa, Stephen defeated Tony Ashby in the quarter-finals of the Sam Farmer on the Monday afternoon.

Soundly beaten

An hour or two later, he was back on the green to partner Anne Bosman against Linda and Peter in their mixed-pairs semi-final.

That didn’t turn out quite so well for him, as he and Anne were soundly beaten by last year’s runners-up, who will meet Nicola and me in the final.

With an appearance in the Millennium Cup day in-between, Stephen was back again on Friday for yet another semi - his Sam Farmer clash with Nicola.

And this time he came out on top – in another tightly fought contest.

Nicola bounced back from 7-2 down to lead 19-16 after 19 ends. But Stephen clawed his way back to parity and clinched the match – and his place in the final – with a three on the 23rd end.

The finals make-up is now complete, after I beat Basil 19-10 to earn a place in the Veterans two-woods final against Linda.

Finals (August 29/30):

Men’s Championship: Clive Thomas v Tony Jarvis

Ladies’ Championship: Marge Breading v Anne Bosman

Handicap: Rowland Morris v Bill Mann

John Martin Shield: Bob Sutton v Mark Howell

Veterans’ two-wood: Neville Dalton v Linda Huntley

Sam Farmer Plate: Graham Aldis v Stephen Banks

Drawn Pairs: Marge Breading/Mark Gooch v Neville Dalton/Stephen Banks

Mixed Pairs: Linda Huntley/Peter Huntley v Nicola Coles/Neville Dalton

For details of all competition matches, select Club Competitions from the links at the top of the page.