Marley was dead to begin with, that must be clearly understood before anything wonderful can come from the tale I'm about to relate.
A bright and warm Westbury Village Hall easily took on the persona of Fezziwig's warehouse as the players tumbled in wearing every possible type of yuletide attire. The ladies in cheery sparkling tops, men in outrageous Christmas jumpers and even a sleigh bell hat.
The festivities got underway with a jovial encounter between Yorkley and Longhope with lively scoring on both sides before Longhope took the spoils 6 to 3.
On the other mat, FOD and Westbury engaged in a more sombre affair and the ledger of account registered the the totals FOD 3 Westbury 7.
In the second round, Longhope, positively glowing from their early success, ran into the ghost of Christmas past in the guise of FOD who dampened their festive cheer with a 9-4 setback.
On the other mat, miserly Westbury were encouraged to cast aside their grasping ways by the positively bonhomous Yorkley, both teams handing out gifts in equal measure to share the jolliest of draws at 4 shots each.
In our refreshments break we had a visit from Santa, who, although not bearing gifts, kindly made the draw for the end of season play offs.
The finals will be held at FOD and the plate at Westbury, date to be arranged.
In the first match of the final round, the scoreboard seemed to bring us back to the narrative of our tale. For FOD it accounted the number of cash-boxes in Jacob Marley’s chain of remorse, 9. For Yorkley, the nuggets of coal on poor Bob Catchit’s meagre fire,1.
To finish the evening we had a truly festive affair with Longhope and Westbury sharing the feast to the last bowl of the evening, Longhope taking the trifle, 6-4.
Thank you so much to everyone for joining in the spirit of the evening.
And as the voices of the revellers melt away into the foggy night, one is left with the words of Tiny Tim himself, “God bless us everyone“.
Merry Christmas,
Mike E
With apologies to Dickens.
