Llanfairfechan hosted Chester at the first Snowdonia Cup golf handicap match on Friday, 16 June. The weather was lovely, sunny and warm with slight cloud at times but much more comfortable than in previous days during the heatwave of the last week!
Jim Hughes enjoyed his debut and was a great asset to the team along with Rick Davies, Kerry Dadson and Jude Wise (Captain). The Llanfairfechan lawns were rather challenging, undulating in parts with longer grass than Chester so slower, but all played well and Chester took the lead by 5-3 at lunch time.
Chester was in the lead 8-7 when everyone had completed their games except Kerry, so it was a nail biting wait for the final result, but Kerry excelled by winning all of his games resulting in the final score of Chester 9 and Llanfairfechan 7.
After beating Southport 4 – 3 in the first round of the national Longman Cup association croquet handicap competition on 19 May, Chester played away against Fylde in the second round on Saturday, 17 June. The Chester team for this match was David Boyd (captain), Helen Brophy, David Guyton and Brian Walton. Under a grey sky and adjusting to rather variable lawn conditions, they found themselves up against stiff competition from Fylde and by lunchtime were down 0 – 3 having lost the doubles game and two singles games in the morning. To retrieve the match, Chester needed to win all four of the singles games in the afternoon. However, it was not to be and Chester succeeded in winning only one when David Guyton beat Fylde’s lowest handicap player. The final result was a 6 – 1 win for Fylde. On losing matches at Chester Fylde have been known to question the handicaps of some Chester players and a reciprocal sentiment might have been felt on this occasion. Nevertheless, the games were played in good spirit and Fylde were generous in providing lunch with strawberries and ice cream followed by an iced lolly at the end of the afternoon.
On the following day, Sunday, 18 June, the club held one of its monthly social fundays for members and friends. After the blazing sun and high temperatures earlier in the week, the cloudier sky and gentle breeze provided ideal conditions for light refreshments and a few friendly rounds of croquet.
