Yes, a decent weekend where everyone got round dry-shod. A few casualties on the way (as always) but some decent scoring was done over the weekend and some old friendships were revisited.

Fraser Seve MacKinnon retained his trophy, holding off a decent field, and Dods MacLean won the handicap trophy with a little to spare. Honourable mention must go to Paul Brown who was second in both handicap and scratch categories.

CHAMPIONS
Dods MacLean	Fraser MacKinnon
Seen here with the Willie McAllister (handicap) Trophy and MacBrayne Cup (scratch)
Meanwhile some are just dreaming about it....

This was won by Gordon "I'm only 50, I'm not OVER 50" Chalmers, who ticked the box marked "No publicity" Olive Brown and Jenny Smith tied on second spot.

The penultimate medal of the year saw a number of players with  various reasons for wanting to do well. A batch of the big hitters had yet to qualify for either the President's Cup or the Tobermory Trophy, so the pressure was building on them to have something to do on the second Sunday in September. At the same time those with an interest in the order of merit were keen to maintain their challenge.

Unfortunately Peter MacCrone and John Weir were unable to play (work and injury respectively) leaving Paul Brown the most realistic contender to Gordon Chalmers. A strong northerly breeze led to difficult conditions for the field, but Donald Brown kept a decent card with 36 out and 35 in to head Gordon and playing partner Ewan MacCrone, who in turn pipped Graham Davidson into 4th on countback.

Chalmers now has an 11 point lead with 1 competition to play in the OoM, while Donald gains a place in the President's and Ewan and Graham enter the Tobermory Trophy as things stand.

The annual fun day was enjoyed as always by those who made the effort to turn out. It was hard to find anyone who didn't win a prize for something or other, but in the end it was Graham Davidson who returned the best score of the day in the gents section. Catherine-Anne MacCrone was best-scoring lady, and Douglas Swinbanks lifted the juniors prize.  

Tobermory went into this match defending a 5-2 lead from the home leg, and Captain Gordon Chalmers had some work to do to ensure he wouldn't be the first Tob Captain to lose this trophy. He selected a number of "natural" partnerships rather than just stick with the traditional High-Low format of making pairs. He and John Weir had a relatively comfortable win against Oban Skip Sandy Galbraith and David Devine.

Graham Davidson faced old adversary David Fraser in his fourball, and along with regular buddy Phil Higson saw the match out with room to spare. Credit goes to long handicappers John Wilshire and Mike Campbell who made the most of their strokes to halve their match.

Tobermory lost each of the other matches, but the result of the competition was in no doubt long before the last match finished.