21 Sep LONGWOOD BISTRO WINNERS – WITH FULL PHOTO GALLERY

But it was anything but a walk in the park and Brockholes pushed them all the way.

Division1 vs Division 3 – everyone thought Longwood were odds on favourites but Brockholes showed exactly why they’d overcome the odds in the earlier rounds of the competition.

The day was a bright and autumnal at Almondbury, a marked contrast to the constant rain of the previous days and and the stage was set for a David against Goliath contest. The Machin brothers can be seen brushing the morning dew from the green as the contestants arrived, and the spectators in what has become the most popular final day in our calendar.

This years final didn’t disappoint, Brockholes of Division 3 had a handicap of 19 whilst Division 1 Longwood had an handicap of 3, an advantage to Brockholes of 16. With the first pairs on the green it looked as though the minnows were going to be trounced especially as the first pair came off with Longwood winning 21-9 and almost wiping off the handicap. The other two pairs games looked to be going the same way but the Brockholes pairs showed lots of grit before finally going down 17 and 18 and leaving the tie finely poised with a 3 point advantage to Longwood.

In the early stages with the final two pairs on the green the contest certainly looked to be going Brockholes way and it was the turn of the Longwood pairs to show some grit and determination to get back into the game. Both games finished simultaneously with Tinker and Coates of Brockholes winning 21-17 and Tinker and Crawford of Longwood winning 21-15 just increasing the final lead to 5 points. A huge sigh of relief was heard from the Longwood captain Alan Crowther and a fine round of applause to the gallant losers.

In his presentation Frank Greenwood thanked the Almondbury club for stepping in at the last minute to host the event and proving an ideal venue for such events in the future. He thanked the referee Ray Tunnacliffe and the Machin brothers for measuring, Brockholes for their continued sponsorship of the competition and David Sykes for running the competition.