The 10 th running of the Penny Summers Handicap Trophy.

On Sunday 21 st August, the tournament organiser arrived at the Howard TT Centre bright and early at 8am in order to prepare for the 24 entries for our ever-popular event only to discover that there was no power to the centre and the place was in complete darkness.

As the contestants began to arrive, he made fruitless telephone calls to the centre manager who was apologetic but was unable to help. There was no caretaker on the site. It would seem that building contractors had switched off at the mains on Saturday in order to carry out some electrical work but had failed to switch back on when they left.

Apart from sending everyone home, there was only one solution – we would play the tournament in the open-air car park. Volunteers manhandled 6 tables that were strategically placed to avoid the slight breeze as much as possible and the games got underway.

So, the first round that was 6 groups of 4, with the winners and runners-up going into round 2 was completed. That also created 12 losers who were entered for our usual “Consolation”.

Suddenly, at approximately 1pm, power was restored (we don’t know by whom) and we were able to move back indoor for the rest of the competition.

The handicapping proved to be very accurate in that 2 of the top seeds met in the final. This was a great game between Dean Chipperfield and Shaun Gutridge. Each of the two legs were very tight and eventually Dean came out on top by 5 points. This was a repeat of his victory back in 2002.

The “Consolation” was also fiercely contested and was eventually won by last year’s Penny Summers Champion Evie Foster.

The Club President, Jeff Cooper, presented the trophies and all agreed that it had been a good (if not unusual) fun event.