That was the general comment from all of the players who arrived at Blewbury on the morning of Saturday 23rd August to take part in the AC Super-B tournament. I am used to players commenting favourably on the high quality of our lawns, but this year the bar was lower. Having played in tournaments recently where patches of green were few and far between, the players were happy simply to see green lawns.
The original nine players had been reduced to a field of seven due to a combination of injuries and one late addition. My plan of running the tournament as a flexible Swiss was still valid, and gave some chance of players managing to play against all the other players. In the end, three players managed that. The handicaps of the players ranged from 0 to 3.5, so there were no easy games.
Saturday started a bit on the cool side, but the temperature quickly rose to a pleasant, warm day. Battle commenced. The three hour time limit per game was only reached once due to solid breaks on the part of all the players. At the end of the day, we had a clear leader. Adam Swinton from Surbiton was on four out of four wins. Could someone catch him on the Sunday? No we could not, Adam was a worthy winner with five out of five games. The second closest player was Neil Kingston from Bristol on four out of six.
The play had been of a consistently high standard. Everyone seemed to feel that they had played well and that if they had lost, they had simply been outplayed. Several triple peels were attempted, but none were finished. At a somewhat less exotic level, in my final game. I peeled my opponent’s ball through rover and pegged him out, demonstrating that stopping at rover does not always make you safe!
We all enjoyed the excellent lunches provided by Susan, Minty, and Sandy.
After some good croquet, good food and good company, I am expecting several return visitors next year.
Peter Allan
