12 March saw 23 members of Burpham BC embark on a Wightlink ferry from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight for the annual pilgrimage to Warners, Bembridge. This was the eighth trip and at the time of writing anyway, one if the most successful.
We entered five teams into the mixed team competition and three got though the group stage into the quarter finals. Those were:
Jeff Davies, Vince and Barbara Hopkinson and Gillian Wheeler,
Geoff and Wendy Sheldon with Colin Colbrook and Cheryl Mesenger,
Graham Liley, Margaret Baigent plus Barry and Linda Macbeth.
A record! But better to come as both Graham’s and Geoff's teams also made it to the semi finals. This represented record for Burpham. Unlike this year's Champions' League draw the Burpham teams were not drawn against each other in the semis. However Geoff’s team lost to a strong team from Maidstone, who to that point were unbeaten in the competition.
Graham's team were successful in their semi final and so another Burpham team took on the men from Maidstone who were appearing in their first final.
Unfortunately Graham's team had no better luck in the final than Geoff's team had had in the semis against them.