Club stalwart Doreen Penfold is ending a heartachingly difficult year on a high after being made a life member of the club.

Doreen, who will be 86 in a couple of weeks, was stunned to hear the news, from chairman John Milsom, at the end of the club’s agm - only a few months after the death of her husband, Michael.

Doreen is having to leave the family home and looked to be heading to East Sussex to live near her family, but she is now planning to stay in Haywards Heath – and to carry on playing at the club that has been her second home for 35 years.

She said: “I’ve been Ladies’ captain twice, I captained us when we won the Top Club [competition] in Sussex and then when we played Top Club in Surrey.

“I plan to play as long as my limbs will let me.”

She said she was shocked when John announced her name as our newest life member, having missed out a few years back. She said: “I thought that had passed me by.”

And she added: “It’s been a stressful time. I’m so grateful to them [for the honour].”

She joins Ken Downs, Tony Ashby, Doreen Kingshott and Jill Saunders as life members.

Friendship Cup shared

There were awards, too, for John Box, who won the Skips Cup, awarded by president Jill Saunders, for the second year in a row, and for Jill herself, together with Angie Talman, whose work behind the bar – particularly implementing our new drinks-ordering procedure during matches – was widely praised, by Jill, John and captain Graham Brown, who decided that they should share the annual Friendship Cup.

David Leach has stood down as match secretary and has been replaced by Stephen Banks.

John Osborn has agreed to replace Tony Ashby as accounts examiner.

Other officers remain the same, and Anne Bosman, Maurice Benson and John Box are joined on the new committee by Mark Howell following a secret ballot at the agm.