Even before this year's famous event started, a Series of Unfortunate Events jeopardised our tournament: 1) The glut of TV sports coverage (Wimbledon, Euro 2004, Olympics) forced a leading satellite broadcaster to withdraw the Dudley Open 2004 from its schedule, with the loss of lucrative sponsorship money. 2) Angus Hardie, the Hammer of the Duds, withdrew because of a clash in his social calendar (Hello, Sailor) and Ken Happy Gilmour Maxwell, after weeks of tough training to condition his ailing knee joints, had to pull out, also due to a prior commitment (Little Drummer Boy). And finally 3) Torrential rain right across the country threatened to spoil our weekend…but failed on all counts!!

The tournament had already been blown wide open by the sad news that Simon "The Hook" Bridges was about to be father and had decided (wisely, as it turned out) not to risk turning up for the Dudley. Since then he has had his baby Liam (?CONGRATULATIONS SIMON & BREDA!) and has still found time to get his handicap into single figures - how does he do it???!

The good news was that this gap was filled by two exciting new entrants to the Dudley Open: Richard "Slow Hand" Erdal and Willy Clarke - two unknown talents whose skills around a golf course - as we were to find out later - left no one in doubt of their ability to mount a serious challenge. And, female visitors to our site will also be delighted to hear of the return of that No. 1 heart throb El Niño Chris Maclean, who as a local boy was an extra crowd-puller and received a warm welcome back from his fellow contestants, impressed (and relieved) that his handicap was now a good 6 strokes lower than in previous years.