CAPTAIN’S Day at the local golf club goes from bad to worse in Stagelights drama group’s production of the Peter Gordon comedy, Par for the Course.

Badly-cooked sausages, stolen golf clubs and gardening accidents are among the disasters faced by the golfers in the tale coming to the stage of the Old Mill Hall at Grove later this month.

The day at the Seven Lakes Golf Club gets off to a bad start when the men’s captain is indisposed. Club secretary, Simon Weaver, played by Ian Dews, relishes the chance to take over but is soon thwarted by the arrival of vice-captain, Nick (Martin Dalton), and his girlfriend Tiffany Jennings (Monique Pattison).

And ladies’ captain, Fran Jefferies (Jayne Henderson), and the enthusiastic but hopeless Barry West (Richard Browning) only add to the confusion when they turn up.

With the toll of disasters mounting to now include plumbing emergencies, sick mothers and tree-felling and lawnmower accidents, you might not think things could get any worse, but they do.

The unexpected arrival of Simon’s wife, Laura (Lizzie Suffling) sees tensions build and things go from bad to worse as skeletons emerge from cupboards. Will old relationships survive and/or will new ones blossom?

Stagelights is hoping their choice of play will prove a hit with audiences, having begun the selection as far back as August. They judged possible choices against two key criteria: the audience must be entertained and the staging of the production in Old Mill Hall had to make technical sense.

The group believes Par for the Course is the ideal production for the village. The group looked at half a dozen promising scripts before selecting Par for the Course, by Gordon, a well-established contemporary playwright whose Murdered to Death was a recent success for Uffington Players.

Actor-director Dews said: “A happy audience is the final step in a journey that starts several months earlier with careful choice of the right play.”

He said: “Many plays written in recent years have very small casts (to keep down the costs for commercial theatres) and storylines that are deeply hidden beneath layers of artistic experimentation — perhaps a winning formula for the Edinburgh Festival but not likely to lead to an entertaining night out for a family audience in Grove.

“Other scripts call for resources such as lavish costumes or complicated sets that are not realistic in the context of amateur drama. All of these no-hope candidates were eliminated at an early stage.”

Dews said although the play was set on the terrace of a golf club, it was about human relationships and not golf.

“With no West End sets or breath-taking special effects to fall back on, the challenge has been to get the most out of this excellent play through good old-fashioned acting,” he said.

“Casting was therefore a crucial step and the society has called on the experience of stalwart members Richard Browning, Martin Dalton and Lizzie Suffling complemented by promising new talent in the form of Jayne Henderson and Monique Pattison.”

Par for the Course is being performed from Thursday to Saturday, January 29 to 31, at 7.30pm. Tickets £8 full price and £6 concessions are available from the Vale and Downland Museum, Church Street, Wantage; Bretts Pharmacy, Grove, or by calling 01235 765562.

For further information, see the website: www.stagelightsgroup.org