Brooke Home - 17th July

Priory v Brooke - 17th July 2024

Following their defeat two days previously, the Priory team was looking to bounce back against Brooke who they had narrowly lost to by seven shots the previous month. The odds appeared to be in Priory’s favour as Brooke had only been able to muster nine players for the match. To enable all twelve of the Priory team to play, the club had called in an extra three players to loan to Brooke for the afternoon. Answering the call to play at short notice were Ivan Freedman, Pat Etheridge and John Saunders aka The Brooke Bunch.

Priory had won the toss and cast the first jacks under a bright sky providing much welcomed warm sunshine. Even the Club Captain was seen without coat or gilet although those looking closely may have noticed his hidden vest.

Unbeknown to the majority of the players, the match was unfolding against a backdrop of mystery and intrigue regarding the missing chocolate cake. Earlier in the day as pre-match preparations were underway, Di Gibbins, witnessed by the greenkeeper who had been busy decorating the green with fairly even diagonal lines as he reduced the height of the playing surface, had brought freshly baked cakes to the clubhouse ready to provide post-match sustenance for the players later that afternoon. Further delicacies prepared by Sandy Harding would arrive later as planned. One of the two cakes prepared by Di, chocolate with double chocolate topping had been neatly cut into squares ready for serving but when uncovered as the after-match spread was laid out it had been found that one square was missing. After Di had left in the morning the greenkeeper had been the last person to see the missing square before locking the clubhouse and leaving for lunch.  All squares of the chocolate cake should have been safe inside the clubhouse until the Club Captain arrived to unlock in the afternoon. Who had managed to scoff the missing cake may remain a mystery. If you were to ask the greenkeeper and the Club Captain, I’m sure they would both point a sticky finger at the other.

While the mystery of the cake unravelled in the clubhouse, outside the early ends of the match were fairly evenly matched on all four rinks but as the visitors started to read the green they increased their leads and ran out winners on all but one of the rinks with only Melvyn Barker, Ken Vann and Pat Goody managing to achieve a hard earned draw. Any thoughts that the Brooke Bunch may have helped Priory to a win were dashed. They had approached their play on rink four as the true gentlemen they are and beaten their counterparts by 21 shots to 11 shots, running up eight shots on one end!! The Club Captain tried to reverse the rink four score but this would still have left the Priory team two shots short of a win. Overall the Priory team lost the match by 45 shots to 66 shots.

After the match both teams retired to the clubhouse to share banter and the delicious spread provided by Sandy and Di before the Captains gave short speeches of appreciation to the opposing teams for a match played in a true friendly spirit and both looked forward to similar fixtures both home and away next season. As the Brooke team left they were wished a safe journey home.

Before leaving, Rosemary, one of Brooke’s long standing members mentioned that in all the years that she had been coming to play at the Priory the gardens and areas surrounding the green were the best she had ever seen. This was due recognition for the efforts put in by those who tend the gardens and edges, especially John Moore, Jann Flatinger and Di Gibbins.