We arrived to set-up the Association Croquet 7+tournament just before 9 o’clock in pouring rain. Fortunately it eased-off, and by 9:30 it was dry and the sun was starting to come out. Ten players assembled with handicaps ranging from 7 to 12, representing six different clubs. The manager, Tim Dutton, had threatened to play four rounds of shortened games, which was unlikely to see a finish before 8pm. This gave Bernie Phillips a problem as he was travelling to Wales that evening! Tim decided to change the tournament format to three knock-out rounds with a progressive Swiss for him and Bernie and those knocked out of the main event. Adam Newbold, Robin Morrison, Sean Doherty and Peter Adams won their first round matches and progressed to the semi-finals. Fortified by an excellent lunch provided by Jan Honeysett the tournament continued in bright sunshine.
There were several very close games. In the first round Bernie beat Tim by 2, making those two hoops after time was called. In round 2 Tim lost by 1; Karen Newbold beat Bernie by 1; and Julie Tremble beat Simon Ling by 1. In that game, in the turn where time was called Simon took his ball round all the way from hoop 6 to peg it out, leveling the scores. Julie hit in from over 5 yards and took off from near hoop 3 to rover leaving a 3 yard angled hoop, which she managed to run to secure the victory.
In the final, Adam set off like a train and completed an all-round break with one ball with the other ball on hoop 6. Sean managed to get in and took his first ball round to four-back but stooped there to avoid giving contact, but eschewing the chance to go to the peg and peg out Adam’s forward ball. Adam took his lift shot and made the 10 yard roquet. With Sean’s two balls near hoop 2, Adam was able to take his backward ball from hoop 6 to the peg but missed a relatively short peg-out, ending up pegging out only one ball, giving Sean another chance. That only delayed the inevitable by one turn with Adam pegging out his second ball from 14 yards. As well as winning the day, Adam had a well-deserved handicap reduction to 6, which will give others a chance to win next year!
Tim presenting Adam with the spoils