“You really shouldn’t need a degree in jurisprudence and combinatorial maths in order to be able to decide who has won a croquet tournament” were my thoughts around 6pm on Sunday afternoon. But I am getting a head of myself.
On 26 & 27 August 2023, Blewbury hosted the annual super-B advanced AC tournament. Eight players had signed up, but unfortunately Richard Peperell came down with a bad cold so we were down to seven. I will claim that half of the original eight were international players. We have played in Corfu – surely that counts!
An odd number is always unfortunate since it means that one player has to sit out in each round. Robert Upton opted for the lie-in on the Saturday morning and Beatrice McGlen for the early bath on Sunday evening. The rest of us took pot luck. One lucky player would avoid the sit-out and get their fully money’s worth. By the luck of the draw, this turned out to be David Warhurst.
The weather on Saturday was showery with sunny spells and fortunately the showers never stopped play. I got off to a good start by beating Mike Hedge (0) and after an excellent lunch provided by Sandy and Philippa, I beat David Warhurst (-1) and followed this up by beating Ian Draper (1.5). No one was more surprised than me to find that I was in the lead at the end of the first day with three wins out of three games, although I did note that Robert Upton was also undefeated on two wins from two games. Dare I hope that this was “my weekend”?
I had the sit-out slot on Sunday morning, so I spent the time watching my next two opponents looking for any tactical weaknesses on their part. Sadly I found none.
Fortified by a scrumptious lunch from Minty, I beat Andrew Dutton (1). Was the dream really on?
In the last round I played against Robert Upton (2), who I have played several times before. I think we are about 50-50 on wins, but surely I am on form and I would be able to beat him. As the game progressed things were not looking so rosy. I made a good start, but then made a hash of hoop 3, letting Robert in, who took full advantage. For the next two hours, it was mostly Robert making good progress with me making a few hoops here and there. This is where the jurisprudence and maths comes in. It was looking like Robert would beat me and if David won his last game there would be three players with only one loss, but different number of wins, and each of us would have beaten the other. The tournament regulations do cover this situation, but in language that I can only describe as something that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike English. To help the aspiring tournament director, there is a worked example. This is where the maths comes in and it is best not attempt to follow this on your mobile phone in the middle of a tournament when you are desperately trying to win your last game!
As I walked on to the lawn with about ten minutes of play left on the clock I was ten hoops behind. Things looked dire, but I had a reasonably easy hit-in and I decided to just do the best I could in the remaining time. If I could go from hoop 3 round to peg with red and peg out I would be one point ahead. A fiendish leave would give me a win – and no headache on deciding the winner. So that is what I did. A carefully crafted split shot after hoop 3 gave me a crucial rush to bring the pivot into play and after that it was just careful play to keep the four-ball break tidy. Simples! Plus one on time, for a 100% record over the weekend.
It was very gratifying to win my first advanced AC tournament. I will be putting the trophy (an engraved glass) to good use by adding a smidgen of single malt and studying those tournament regulations in the peace of my own home.
