2025 – Page 6 – Blewbury Croquet Club

Prebendal Manor Cup 2025

Winner: Andy Evason

The Prebendal is our Club’s annual, internal AC Handicap competition. For 2025 it was played initially as a Flexible Swiss format event, leading to semi-finals and final.

Full competition results are as detailed below. Congratulations to Andy Evason for recording his first club trophy, after his 26-14 defeat of Peter Allan in the final. Andy had been first to qualify through the knock-out round, and remained undefeated throughout the competition.

Game Format

All matches except the Final were played as 18pt games (1 and 3-back variation – as per AC rule 51.2.3) with a 2.5 hour time-limit. The Final was contested as a 26pt game with a longer limit (e.g 3 or 3.5 hrs, dependent on the playing conditions on the day).

All games were played as handicap, set against a base of 9:

in games involving at least one player of handicap less than 9, normal bisque allocations apply, subject to the standard reduction for 18pt games. e.g. player A (handicap = 4) vs player B (handicap = 16): B is allocated 12 bisques, reduced to 8.5.

if both players have handicaps of 9 or more, each player gets a number of bisques equal to the difference between their handicap and 9, reduced according to the schedule for 18pt games. eg player C (10) vs player D (11): C is allocated 1 bisque, reduced to 0.5; D is allocated 2 bisques, reduced to 1.5.

Games cannot end in a draw: the standard extra turns procedure (AC rule 61) should be followed if scores are level when the time-limit is reached.

Competition format

This year’s Prebendal was run initially as a Flexible Swiss-format tournament of 4 rounds, one round to be played by the end of each month April-July. The first round was drawn randomly. After 4 rounds, anyone on 4 wins progresses directly to the semi-finals, with those on 3 wins progressing to the quarter-finals, and an elimination round deciding which of the contenders on 2 wins would join them. With Joe tied up in the autumn’s World Championships in Florida, his semi-final and the final were both held over to April 2026.

FULL RESULTS

Round 1

Joe beat Brian, 17-15
Andy E beat John, 18-11
Deirdre beat Avril, 18-16
David beat Paul, 18-10
Peter beat Edmund, 18-3
Andrew P beat Andy R, 14-11
NIgel beat Minty, 17-11

Round 2

Joe beat Nigel, 18-16
Andy E beat David, 18-10
Deirdre beat Andrew P, 15-12
Paul beat Peter, 18-1
Edmund beat Minty, 18-10
Brian beat Avril, 18-6
Andy R beat John, 18-6

Round 3

Joe beat Peter, 16-13
Andy E beat Deirdre, 18-16
Edmund beat Brian, 12-11
David beat Andrew P, 18-2
Nigel beat Andy R, 18-0
Avril beat Minty, 11-7
Paul beat John, 18-3

Round 4

Brian beat Minty, 18-4
Peter beat Avril 18-0 (walkover)
Paul beat Edmund, 18-2
David beat Deirdre, 18-3
Andrew beat Nigel, 18-12
Andy beat Joe, 18-1

Round 5 (eliminators)

Brian beat Deirdre, 18-15
Peter beat Nigel, 18-16
Andrew beat Edmund, 15-11

Quarter-Finals

Peter beat David, 18-15
Joe beat Andrew, 16-15
Brian beat Paul, 18-3

Semi-Finals

Andy beat Brian, 18-11
Peter beat Joe, 18-5

Final

Andy beat Peter, 26-14

David Long
Tournament Manager

secretary@blewburycroquetclub.org.uk

3 Feb 25

Here comes the sun!

I have been suffering from croquet withdrawal symptoms for the last seven weeks, so I was keen to get back on the lawns to see if I could still play. It was drizzling a little when I got to the lawns around 1.40 pm on Monday, but then the Sun came out and it proved to be a pleasant afternoon. (Yes, the Sun. You know, that big white ball in the sky. I am sure you remember it really.)

But the question was, could I still play, or had my croquet muscles forgotten what to do? I was definitely rusty to start with, but after a decent warm up, it all came flooding back. Admittedly, it wasn’t pretty – more ‘agricultural’ than precision croquet – but it was still effective.

So, it’s definitely time to plan this year’s campaign of practice and tournaments. I hope to see plenty of you on the lawns soon.

Peter Allan

22 Jan 2522 Jan 25

Happy New Year

Blewbury Croquet Club opened for business, 2025 style, with a very successful Midwinter Social at the Red Lion last night. 19 members and nine guests gathered for supper – coq au vin or vegetarian – as beer and red wine flowed. David Long and Bruce Gibson surpassed themselves with an outstanding quiz, the questions or answers cunningly related to primary and secondary colours or pieces of equipment – mallets, hoops, balls.

The flag round proved crucial, with the winning team, the Doctors, nailing 12 out of 12 to set up an unassailable lead. Well named though non medical, the great brains comprised Peter Allan, Steve Fisher and Brian Jamieson, though I’m sure they’d never have collected the Quality Street trophy without help from Anne Allan and Carol Jamieson. Second No eyed Deer, third Triple Peel, master-minded by our newest member, Alastair Laidlaw, and his wife Zilla. Thank you David and Bruce for high quality hosting, Annabel and John for cooking and joie de vivre.

Barely two weeks to wait until the re-opening of the courts on Monday, February 3rd. Kick off is elite GC practice on the first morning. Book now to avoid disappointment. And play well….

1 Jan 2530 Jan 25

AC Ladder 2025

This is similar to the GC ladder of 2023 but one game in any form of AC: level, handicap, advanced etc. may be played. One ball is not permitted, nor is SC. It uses an Egyptian ladder format where beating someone higher up the ladder brings you more points than beating someone nearby.

Please avoid 26 point games but use 14, 18 or 22 point games.

Games may be played whether or not jumping is allowed.
If jumping is allowed then these are qualifying games so both players must enter them on their handicap cards – otherwise they must not go on handicap cards.
You may challenge any club member with an AC handicap to a game, regardless of whether they are on the ladder already or are yet to play their first game. If you cannot agree on the format of the game then the game cannot be played.
To join in please send an email to dr.s.m.fisher@gmail.com to have your name entered, issue a challenge, play the game and one of you enters the result below. Results should be entered promptly for it all to work properly.

There is some more information on the Egyptian ladder below.

Enter scores below

Sorry, you must be logged in to enter a result.

Results so far

Name	Points	Wins	Games
Andrew Petit	109	6	8
Andy Evason	99	2	5
Peter Allan	97	0	1
Nigel Cox	95	0	2

Your games

Date	Winner	points	to	Loser	Points	to

Details of the format

Each player is initially assigned 100 ranking points. If a player beats a player of the same ranking then three points are transferred from the loser to the winner. However beating a higher ranked player results in more points being transferred and vice versa. Winning or losing a game may change your handicap but this change has no impact on the ranking points

You may challenge any club member to a game, regardless of whether they are on the ladder already or are yet to play their first game. Failure to accept the challenge without good reason and to play the game within two weeks results in a maximum score being recorded for the challenger and 0 for the person who failed to play. Such results do not go on handicap cards as regular results would.

You must play a minimum number of games to win.

A player's position is determined by ranking points, then wins, then net wins (#wins – #losses).

The number of points transferred is given in the table below.

Difference in ranking points before the game	If player with higher ranking points wins	If player with lower ranking points wins
0-6	3	3
7-11	2	4
12+	1	5

The competition will be closed at midnight on the 31st August. Those in the lowest quartile of number of games played will be ineligible to win, otherwise the winner is the person at the top of the ladder.

Queries to Steve Fisher please.