Sunday 3rd August saw 16 players gathered to play in the C level GC tournament. We had three players from GGCC in the group, Dominic Webb, Andrew Jackson and Lynn Edge. Other players came from nearby clubs such as Woking and Surbiton while our furthest travelled visitor came fro Belsay Hall near Newcastle ( though he did admit to staying for a few days with his daughter who live in Guildford!)
The format for the morning was that players were in four seeded groups of four players with each playing the other three. At lunch time the top two from each group were to go into the main knockout while the lower two played in the plate knockout. Dominic and Andrew both qualified for the main knock out while Lynn just missed out and played in the plate.
After a great lunch prepared by Andrew and Wendy Lockwood the players were off again. All games were fiercely contested so that none of the players left having won no games at all.
In the Plate competition Peter Martell (Cheltenham) played against Jill Shaw (Camerton and Peasedown) with Peter winning 7-3.
Dominic Webb (GGCC) played against Steve Morton (Phyllis Court) place with Dominic winning 7-5 to take third place.
The final was between Andrew Maclay (High Wycombe) and Carol Huntington (Phyllis Court) It was a closely fought game with many changes in fortune as it progressed. As many of the other games had finished by the time the final was played there was a good audience to watch – including Andrew’s mother who lives locally and had never seen a croquet game before! However there was no fairy tale ending for Andrew. Carol persevered and with some amazing long hoops managed to win over the opposition taking the game 7-5 to win the MaD cup.
Many thanks to all the competitions and to the members of GGCC ‘background staff’ who prepared the lawns, fed and watered the competitors, acted as referees and scorers and most importantly, cleared up afterwards. We couldn’t do it without you!
Andrea Huxley, manager