The Open (shortmat) 2025
January 11th and 12th saw the 23rd annual Boughton-Under-Blean Open Short Mat Competition, this year sponsored by award winning Faversham Estate Agents, Iliffe and Iliffe and held at the village hall. This year the competition was enjoyed by all those who attended, participants, helpers and visitors alike. Our volunteers put a huge amount of time and effort into this event, from the organising, administration, catering, setting up and breaking down, as well as all the work to do on site each day, raffles, cooking, washing up, scoring, cleaning, moving mats, umpiring and more. We thank everyone who gave up their time to assist with this year’s event.
This year we put a team into the pairs competition, and Brian May and Linda Prior won all their qualifiers to make it to the semi finals. They came up against eventual winners from Detling, Alan and Trish Ellis who beat runners up Karen Owen and Bob Moore from Canterbury.
On Sunday we put a team into the triples, and Karen Gentry, Bob Holliday and Peter Shead won all their qualifiers to get a place in the semi finals. They faced a team from...Boughton. Following the withdrawal of Harrietsham, the club put in a scratch team. Gwen Brown, Tim Prior and Brian May, having also won all their qualifiers, led all the way in the semi final and went into the last end one shot ahead, but dropped a two, leaving our A team to face last years winners from Detling. This was a tough match with Detling giving no ground as they fought on to win.
The triples winners were, Allan Ellis, Sheila Wicks and Tony Chawner. The runners up were our very own A team, Karen, Bob and Peter.
