Club members taking part in yesterday’s Christmas Melee Competition were surprised to find that Santa had taken time out of his busy pre-Christmas schedule to visit the Club. They were even more surprised when Santa said he wanted to play – he started well but in the final round he was let down by his little helper. He did, however, manage to avoid the wooden spoon.
At the end of Round 1, Vickie Adshead and Mike Wigg had taken an early lead with a win and +11.
Round 2 got underway with the weather till holding out and no sign of the promised rain. At the end of the round there were 6 players on 2 wins with Tony Smith in the lead with +19 followed by Phil Roberts on +14
Before the final round started Santa unveiled the cakes, doughnuts and mince pies he had brought along to sustain the players. These went down very nicely with a 
cup of tea or coffee – no sherry from Santa. Some players were lurking around the table with all the goodies hoping no-one was counting how many cakes they had.
As the final round got underway there was everything to play for – a slip up by either of the leaders could let in any of the other 4 players who were on 2 wins. When the scores came in, 5 of the players on 2 wins had converted that into 3 wins – only Mike Jones fell at the last hurdle.
The scores were checked, double-checked and scrutinised as they were very close indeed. Eventually the final results were declared.
| 1 | Tony Smith | +23 |
| 2 | Roger Green | +22 |
| 3 | Michelle Spencer | +21 |
As Santa had to leave to get back and make sure his elves were hard at work in the toy factory, it fell to President Mike Jones to present Tony with the trophy.
Santa had said before he left that he had a special prize for the least successful player and, with 3 losses and -23 , that went to John Chichester who had very sensibly left before it was announced.
A big thank-you to Roger Green for organising the melee and a special thanks to Santa for his unexpected visit.
