The End. The Start.

The Rabbits Three Counties Summer League for the Tenby team came to the twelfth and final match last Saturday for the re-arranged game at Haverfordwest and Warren Hacker, our Links Reporter, managed to find a sheltered spot to stay out of the cooling northerly breeze and hail showers to glean the important information for half of this report. Would Captain Paul’s reign end with a treat, or a trick?

With the B&H Shield being played at Tenby on Sunday it became a ’double-header’ weekend and some Rabbits couldn’t venture from their burrows twice in two days so the selection options were rather limited but a dozen of Tenby’s finest (!?) set out in the hope of final glory.

The ’hitting-off’ order received a shuffle and two generations of the Watkins clan (Steve and Grant) led off, John S and Bill D were second away, followed by Rees and Robin in third. The fourth pair were Wyndham and John B, then Mark and Chris and finally Captain Paul and Steve C.

On the course there were ’signals’ of the score updates with some (The ’R’s) down, some (The Buggiers) up and others (The Ex-Captains) level. How would it all pan out?

The final Tenby pair teed off down the 17th ’dormie up’ with a 2 hole lead and saw the 5th group climb the 18th hill back to the clubhouse with a victorious 2/1 wave. Tension was mounting but the Skipper slotted a putt to halve the hole and claim a 2/1 success. When the last group returned to the club the Vice informed the Captain that the 3rd pair had been beaten but the ’Family’ had won, the ’Second Offs’ had come out on top and the ’Wheelers’ had also been triumphant.

Spookily enough all Tenby wins had been on the 17th hole by the same score- 2 and 1. The 9 points (4 for the away win plus 5 ’bonus’ from games won) helped Tenby finish in 4th place on 68 points behind winners Garnant on 76.5, runners-up Carmarthen on 73 and Milford on 70.

Through the season 21 players played and all won at least 1 game with five remaining unbeaten throughout- Bill Davies (played & won 1), Ian Williams (won 1, drew 1), John Ball (won all 4), Tom Watkins (won all 5) and Captain Paul Crawford who won all 7 games he selected himself for. The winner (he actually retained it from last season) of the ’Mick Gillet Trophy’ for the most summer league points was Grant with an excellent 34 points from all 12 games (only losing at South Pembs by 2/1), Chris Smith was second on 26 from all 12, Paul 3rd on 24 from 7 and Steve Watkins (the only other player to play all 12) next with 23 points. Captain Paul did thank ALL the players who played during the summer as it was a great ’squad’ effort.

The B&H Shield contested on Sunday was first presented back in 1982 (donated by Messrs Brown and Hughes- not cigarette related!) and 4 previous winners were amongst the 15 Rabbits gathered to await the draw, none of which had been confused by the changing of the clocks overnight. Chris was out in the first group alongside Shaun and ex-winner Dave B (he won it way back in 2000- before the Provisional Licence holders of today were even born!), Defending Champion Wyndham was next off with Captain Paul and Adrian, third away were the ’previous winner-less’ group of Mike W, Gareth and Steve C, drawn fourth were Rees, Mark and Steve W (who won in 2008 and 2009) with the final group consisting of John B, Peter and Grant (who was winner in 2016). The strong north/ north-easterly two-and-a-half club ’zephyr’ made conditions rather testing with some Rabbits coping better than others with 6 matching or bettering 18 ’out’ but only 3 doing so on the back 9.

The Top 12 were all within 10 points of the winner (the middle group obviously had the worst of the weather!) with Rees’ ’top back 9’ of 19 helping him up to 5th place, one behind Vice-Captain Steve W (19 out) in 4th on 34. Bronze place (and his money back) went to Shaun (a ’boringly steady’ 18+18) with Vice-to-the-Vice Mark’s ’top out’ of 23 in a total of 37 getting him a money prize and runner-up spot.

The best score of 38 points came from Treasurer Wyndham who rewarded himself handsomely financially and he stands alongside Steve W as the only two Rabbits to successfully defend the B&H Shield- well played, Sir!

The contest for the ’Captain versus Vice-Captain Shield’ was also part of the day with ’team selection’ kept secret and by a total of 221 points to 213 Steve W managed to gain a win as Vice-Captain (only the 7th time the Vice has won since 1983).

Two birdie twos were slotted on the day and it seems to be appropriate that the two ’team leaders’ were the ’slotters’ as Captain Paul had a 2 on the 6th and Vice-Captain Steve W had his on the 17th to share the ’twos pot’- well done, Chaps!

The 55th Annual Rabbits AGM followed the prize-giving and healthy discussion ensued.

The out-going Captain summed up his year by thanking everyone who had helped, advised and assisted him throughout the 12 months then handed over the reigns to the new Captain, who donned the traditional Rabbit regalia (thankfully no cameras were allowed to be used!) and announced his April Tour would be to Ireland (post-Brexit border controls permitting!) and encouraged those wishing to attend to sign up. There will be many interesting Rabbit times ahead!

CAPTION.