Club competitions are free to enter for all members of the club. Sign-up sheets are posted early in the season (September/October) before the knockout structure is randomly drawn.

Club competitions are a great way to test yourself against other members, whether individually or in a team, or just to give yourself the experience of playing in a more structured format than the weekly league matches or roll-ups.

Each competition usually entails at most five or six extra matches throughout the season, assuming progression to the final.

Finals are played in mid April each year, just before the club closes for the summer. The Club Singles is always on the final night of the week and other finals are scheduled according to whether players have reached multiple events.

Current competition formats are:

Singles (Men’s and Ladies)

One against one, four woods each, and the first to reach twenty-one points progresses to the next round. There is one competition for men and one for ladies. The winner of the men’s singles represents the club in the Champion of Champions national competition for the following season.

Consolation Singles

Don’t be fooled by the name: the consolation singles is a very competitive tournament. Entry is open to any club member who has not previously won a club singles or pairs competition. With a club of over 300 members, and with only a few new winners (at most) each year, the standard of play in this tournament can be as high as the Club Singles.

The format is the same as the Club Singles: four woods, and the first to twenty-one points wins.

Fixed Jack

Another head-to-head contest, open to all, with scoring that should be familiar to anyone who’s played in a fixed jack competition previously. For those who may be wondering what the “fixed jack” means: each end the jack is placed on a fixed point on the green, at pre-determined lengths (i.e. not chosen by the players). Unlike other competitions, if the jack is displaced it is replaced on the spot.

Scoring also differs from the standard game in that the closest four woods score four, three, two or one point depending on distance order. Therefore, unlike the regular game, it’s possible (albeit unlikely) to win a match by getting only second, third and fourth woods – which scores six points in total each end.

The different scoring creates a surprisingly different dynamic, and also removes options around firing the jack into the ditch.

Pairs (Men’s and Ladies)

Find a partner and pair up. The matches are played with four woods each but played to twenty-one ends. There is currently one pairs competition for men and one for ladies

These are generally some of the longest matches and the winners of the Men’s and Ladies Pairs represent Ilford in the county Champion of Champions competitions the following year.

Open Pairs

A new competition for 2023/24, the Open Pairs competition is open to any pairing who have not previous won a club singles or pairs competition. Expect strong competition but with previous winners of the pairs competition unable to enter there’s a much better chance to progress to the later stages, and a chance to get a new pair of names on the honours board.

Triples

Triples is played over eighteen ends with three woods each. As each team needs three players there are fewer matches to play to reach the final, with usually only three or four knock-out rounds.

The winners of all the above competitions not only receive trophies at the end of the season but get their names on the club honours board.