Skittles Night

This event has become an annual feature of AQSC’s social programme. It first came about when Lyn Baker’s Embercourt Badminton Club (EBC), who had been playing for a number of years, challenged AQSC to a match. That match proved so successful that it was AQSC that issued the challenge the next year and so it has continued.

We usually have to ‘lend’ the EBC a few players to balance the teams but this is good natured and over the years has helped to strengthen the camaraderie that has grown up between the two clubs. Don’t get me wrong, each club plays to win and healthy bit of rivalry adds a little piquancy to the evening.

The food at The Grantley Arms is not bad although it helps if you read the small print before ordering. I’ll remember that next year before embarrassing myself again and having to phone people to get their orders changed; my sincere apologies for that.

The evening started at about 18:30 with early arrivals gathering in the bar for a livener and then drifting into the skittles alley for some practice.

The first game finally got underway at 19:00. Allison couldn’t make it this year so Lyn took over the scoring. The four games were quite noisy but by contrast the whole place went very quiet during supper.

The results frankly aren’t that important. The key thing is that everybody had a good time. However for the statisticians amongst you Aquarius were the winning team this year. Highest male scorer was Embercourt’s John Florea and highest female scorer was Aquarius’s Anne Bond. My personal thanks go to Lyn who organised the games and kept the scores. See you all again for next years game.

And finally … During the evening the manager told us that the pub was only open that night because of our function. Apparently at 5:30 that morning a group of teenagers in a van had failed to negotiate the bend outside the pub, which is a listed building, had careered across the road and hit the entrance porch. This had skewed the porch, dislodging a large amount of brickwork and cracking the front wall. This crack had extended down into the beer cellar and the owners had contemplated closing the place.

Lyn and I actually went back to Wonersh the next day to have lunch at a friend’s house and as we passed The Grantley we noted that it was still open for business but I dread to think what the value of the insurance claim will be.

Mike (Not the lowest scorer this year) Baker