Club Champions Tournament
by year:
Association CroquetThe tournament, organised and managed by Terrey Sparks, attracted a good response with entries from Letchworth, Wrest Park, Ipswich, St Albans, Hunstanton, Norwich, Watford, Colchester and Downham Market. On a warm autumn day the lawns were in good condition having recovered from the prolonged summer drought and played well, speeding up as the day went on.
The croquet was organised into three groups. 1). Advanced, 2). B-level advanced and 3). Handicap, groups 1 and 2 having 6 entrants and group 3 with 4. The first two groups were run as a loose Swiss and the handicap as a round robin.
In group 1 Duncan Hector of Letchworth was in rampant form and with 3 wins out of three all within the specified time ran out the overall winner of that group. Likewise in group 2 Simon Hathrell of Watford was playing well to his new handicap of 2.5 although he did come under pressure from Geoff Strutt of Wrest Park in their last game. However, Simon managed to pull through in the end and win his group with 3 wins out of 3.
In the third group, remarkably for handicap, all the games finished within the specified time limits. This if nothing else makes for a very happy manager who always has his eye on the clock in case play slips behind. Dan Neale of Norwich, playing off a temporary handicap of 11 carried on his first season form in some very close games to run out the winner of this group with 3 wins out of 3.
An enjoyable day's croquet at an event that has been running for only about 5 years but attracts a good bedrock of support from the clubs. Many thanks to Wrest Park for allowing the Federation the use of their facilities. It is hoped that next year we can increase the entry, particularly at the handicap level.
Report by Terrey SparksSee also:
