The club’s final competition of the season was much-changed from previous years – but even the new format had to be given a hurried makeover after a couple of last-minute drop-outs.

The result was a set of one-match shootouts, which resulted in a win for Eileen Waddingham, Jill Hatfield and myself.

The Terry Gasson Trophy had in previous years been played over the course of the summer, as a knockout pairs competition, culminating in a grand finale on finals weekend.

But this year, with hard-working competitions secretary Maurice Benson despairing at slotting the finals-day jigsaw into place – not to mention fitting in the additional knockout matches throughout the summer – the competition was earmarked for a single September day after the other competitions had been played.

Captain Graham Brown had planned to organise an Australian Pairs format, but with a couple of players dropping out on the morning of the event, John Milsom, in Graham’s absence, was forced to have a last-minute rethink.

The result was three separate triples matches over 18 ends, with the trophy going to the highest-scoring trio.

That happened to be my team, who, despite an attritional opening – and a dreadful middle section, during which we failed to win a shot – scored a total of 22 points, thanks to an impressive late surge, spearheaded by Eileen and Jill.

It left us four points ahead of Nicola Coles, Paul Palmer and Gwen Croft, who had started even faster than the trains running around Beech Hurst, taking a 7-0 lead after just two ends before falling three points behind with four ends to play – and then also finishing with a flourish.

It left Nicola a runner-up in the Terry Gasson for the third time in four seasons.

Her team’s opponents – Dorothy Glasby, Chris Morley and Ted Prince – came third, despite their defeat, with Anne Bosman, Fiona Burman and Clive Thomas fourth.

Result:

Neville Dalton, Eileen Waddingham and Jill Hatfield beat David Leach, Wendy Alexander and Maurice Benson 22-13

Nicola Coles, Paul Palmer and Gwen Croft beat Dorothy Glasby, Chris Morley and Ted Prince 18-16

Anne Bosman, Fiona Burman and Clive Thomas beat John Box, Peter Burman and Phoom Saihom 15-13

1st: Neville Dalton – 22 points

2nd: Nicola Coles - 18

3rd: Dorothy Glasby - 16

4th: Anne Bosman - 15

5th: John Box - 13
David Leach - 13

Photos: Tara de Silva