Double blow as Mark and Andrew give men’s championship a miss: competitions draw 2026

This year’s men’s singles will be without its two most recent champions after both Mark Gooch and his predecessor, Andrew Croft, chose not to take part.

Mark won the championship at the first attempt last year, defeating Basil Larkins in the final.

But he is not defending his title this summer, preferring to focus on team events.

Andrew, who won the trophy in each of the two previous years, is also absent as he recovers from the broken foot that affected his season last year.

It’s a double blow to the competition, which this year has only 14 entries and includes only one previous winner – Basil, who won in both 2021 and 2022, as well as being runner-up last year.

Two other former runners-up featured in Saturday’s draw: Tony Ashby and me.

LADIES’ SINGLES

Linda Huntley is defending her title but she faces a daunting challenge after being drawn against another former champion, Anne Bosman.

With only eight entries (one more than last year), the first round is the quarter-finals, and another of the four ties pits another ex-title holder, Nicola Coles, against Marge Breading, who was a multiple trophy winner two years ago.

The other two matches feature two newcomers to the competition: Annie McGee faces Judy Aldis while last year’s beaten finalist, Dorothy Glasby, is Sheila Fletcher’s first opponent in the competition.

HANDICAP

The highest number of entries is in the Handicap, with 28 participants.

There are first-round byes for Peter Huntley, Graham Aldis and new entrants Kevin McGee and Andrew Gibson.

Of the rest, two ties stand out: Linda, who won the Handicap in 2023, has yet another tough first-round opponent in reigning champion John Box. Both will play off scratch.

And two more former winners of the competition – Anne Bosman and Nicola Coles – face each other. Nicola also has no points and Anne starts with two. Other former winners face large starting deficits.

Basil concedes 10 to Paul Palmer, and Marge eight to Bob Sutton.

VETERANS

The Veterans’ two-woods competition is also well-subscribed, with 24 entries. Reigning champion John Box has a bye to the quarter-finals, where he will play Basil or Kevin McGee.

There are six other byes, leaving yet another tough challenge for Linda (against former runner-up Marge Breading) as arguably the pick of the first-round ties.

JOHN MARTIN SHIELD

The John Martin Shield is guaranteed a new winner each year as previous champions can no longer take part, and of the 16 challengers this year, only Peter Huntley has reached a previous final.

He plays Ted Prince, while Marge faces Stephen Banks and John Box takes on Graham Aldis.

MIXED PAIRS

The Mixed Pairs has a new look this season, with the traditional pairs format replaced by Australian Pairs.

This year there was the option to leave your partnership to the luck of the draw, but the majority of pairings are familiar and include an impressive number of real-life partners.

The first-round encounter between Marge and Tony Jarvis and Anne and Stephen features three players who have won the title previously.

DRAWN PAIRS

Would you believe it? Not only did Linda and Peter choose to be together in the Australian Pairs but they were also drawn with each other in this competition, where they will face Marge and Muriel Malins in the first round.

Veteran former winner Basil partners newcomer Sylvia Critchley - one of five pairs already in the quarter-finals without playing a game after being given a first-round bye. They will play Tony Jarvis and Doug Cowell, who also have a bye, in that second round.

John Box, who also has another new player for a partner (John Chapman) will play the winners of the Huntleys v Marge and Muriel game in the second round.

There are a number of strong pairings in this year’s competition: Stephen Banks and I have a tough game against Anne and Ted, while Nicola partners Clive Thomas for a first-round clash with Mark Howell (a winner with Anne last season) and Andrew Gibson, who is in the competition for the first time.

The full draw for all competitions is posted in the clubhouse and will appear on the website, where it will be updated regularly.