For the 60th time in 80 years, Lyme hosted the Lyme Regis Tournament week and while the first five days may have been a little too warm for some people, by Thursday the conditions were near perfect. There were 136 people competing with some coming from as far as Basingstoke, Wolverhampton, Winchester, Bristol and Hemel Hampstead although there were also plenty of people from closer to home. The event is always a big one in the town’s calendar because it brings a lot of trade and there are many people who take part in the planning for such a week.
There was Sue Rowe who was serving as the tournament secretary and she was assisted by Lesley Broom. Pat Cole had the role of head of publicity and she also had the difficult job of collecting the various markers for the many singles competitions. Considering the heat during the day, this couldn’t have been easy. Of course, the week only turned out as well as it did thanks to the well-tended green and it took a lot of work to get the green looking as well as it did.
Barry Rattenbury, Philip Stephens and Roger Legg were the people in charge of the green and they woke up bright and early each day to ensure the green was in the right shape and they were also the last to leave after watering the green.
The role of tournament Umpire was held by Billy Burton who was assisted by Chris Bell. The tournament had its fair share of contentious issues and it was good to have someone who could quickly provide an interpretation of the rules.
Catering was also a major part of the tournament and Pauline Knight and Sue Wood were in charge of that job which included finding volunteers to assist in the kitchen from morning until the time for afternoon tea. As for the bar, this was left to Barry Rattenbury who ran it with the help of a few helpers. Because of how hot it was during the day, the bar was quite busy during the day.
The ladies captain, Angela Rattenbury, was also running a number of social events during the week to raise money for her breast cancer charity. She managed to raise £618 over the week bringing her season total to just over £928. AJ Wakeley and Sons were among those sponsoring the event.