Competitions 2026 - second round-up

Reigning Ladies champion Linda is out of this year’s singles after a comprehensive win for Anne Bosman – another former champion – in their first-round clash.

Anne, who won the title in 2017, 2018 and 2022, beat Linda 23-9 and will face Sheila Fletcher in the semi-final after Sheils opponent, Dorothy, withdrew.

The winner of that semi-final will play Marge in the final.

Marge makes her first Ladies’ Championship final since joining us after defeating debutant Annie McGee by just one point in their semi-final.

However, she will now have to wait more than two months to play.

It might be 12 years since Tony Ashby won the Men’s Championship but he’s made an admirable start to his attempt to regain the title.

He defeated club newcomer John Chapman 24-0 in this year’s first round.

With last year’s champion Mark Gooch and the winner of the previous two contests, Andrew Croft, not entering this time and Basil suffering a first-round exit this year, Tony is the only former men’s champion still in the competition.

Tony will play in-form Clive in one of the quarter-finals, and the winner will face me – the only other previous finalist – in the semi-final.

Tony Jarvis will meet another in-form player – Bob – and Peter Huntley plays Mark Howell.

Paul Palmer bounced back from his painful defeat by Basil in the Handicap last month to stage an impressive comeback of his own to defeat Fiona in the John Martin Shield.

After being on the wrong end of Basil’s impressive turnaround, Paul appeared to heed the lesson, keeping his cool after Fiona raced into a 7-0 lead from just three ends and eventually triumphing 24-11.

He said: “I just had to remind myself that it was about being consistent, as Basil has said to me, and stay focused. So that’s what I did, and started to win ends and built a score and managed to keep the otherwise excellent Fiona - who will become a future star of the club - when she did win, to just ones.”

Fiona did, in fact, go on to an impressive victory in the Handicap, where she defeated a fit-again Graham Aldis 21-15, having started with a two-point advantage.

Peter Huntley joins her in the quarter-finals after beating me 23-15 from a six-point start.

Some of the highest-ranked Handicap players face a tough challenge in the second round, facing quality players with much more generous handicaps.

Kevin McGee, who lost to Basil in the Veterans, took his revenge in the handicap, aided by a starting advantage of 12 points.

Bill Mann – who is having a fine season – will start with a five-shot advantage over Anne Bosman in their match, and John Box (0) plays Jennie, who starts on 10.

Back in the John Martin Shield, after his heroics against Fiona, Paul will play Bill.

Graham Aldis is also through to the next round after recovering from his foot injury to record a narrow victory over John Box, while Bob beat Peter Burman 21-8.

There’s a tasty encounter in the second round of the Veterans, where holder John Box plays Basil, who beat Kevin 18-8 in their first-round match.

Clive is already through to the quarter-finals, having beaten Bob 19-5.

Clive is with Nicola in the Drawn Pairs – and surely among the favourites. They will play Wendy and Dorothy after beating Mark Howell and Andrew Gibson in the first round.

There were a couple of nailbiting finishes in the Mixed Pairs, where John Box and Wendy pipped Jacquie Kelly and Ken Starnes 14-13 and Stephen and Anne beat Tony Jarvis and Marge 16-15.

John and Wendy will play Nicola and Neville, while Stephen and Anne face Judy and Rowland, who stepped in to replace the then-injured Graham.

Mark Howell and Cheryl will play another pair of partners – Linda and Peter – in the quarter-finals.

For details of all draws and results, select the Club Competitions section of the menu at the top of the page.