Peter’s triumph in the Bank Holiday weekend AC Super-B tournament, his biggest win to date, triggered an unstoppable surge. First up, the level play GC Championship. On a damp day, he beat John Garnett in the semis and Dave Grinstead in the final, both without losing a game.
The Indian summer had arrived in force by the time he took on Founders Cup holder, Joe King, in the 2023 renewal. Back in April, Paul Wolff was Joe’s only challenger in the 2022 fixture, held over from last year. On that occasion, Joe came out on top in the AC level play contest. Would he prevail again?
Not if Peter could help it – and he could. After two examples of flawless break building, his trademark calm deserted him at the final hoop. Twice he fluffed it, once Joe hit in, but the mountain was too high and Peter duly claimed his reward. A bigger trophy cabinet? He’s working on it ahead of the AGM presentations on Tuesday, October 17th.
No cause for concern. Peter watches Dave lining up his shot
When the only sign ups for the CA one ball tournament on the last Monday bank holiday of the year were from Blewbury, BCC decided to cancel the fixture, abolish the entry fee and hold an internal tournament instead.
Balancing AC and GC players with handicaps ranging from 1 to 24 in two blocks, Carol Jamieson masterminded an intense morning of All play All.. Jeff Drummond Hay, a GC specialist who had never played AC, grasped the one ball variant after a 15 minute introduction and came third in his block. Bravo Jeff.
Andy and Sandy negotiate triple banking.
With the first two in each block qualifying for the afternoon round robin finale, quality rose to the top. In the showdown, David Long, unbeaten all morning, recorded a further two victories to claim the engraved glass, with Brian second, Duncan third and a jaded Peter Allan, his handicap reduced to 1 by his first Super-B Advanced win over the previous two days, fourth.
A lovely social crossover mixing AC and GC that deserves to become an annual fixture. Thank you, Carol.
There are trophies and trophies, but the Claret Jug, awarded to the winner of the Open Championship, Britain’s golf major, since 1882 is among the most prestigious. The Blewbury version, the Kay Memorial Trophy (KMT), commemorating club founder, Jolyon Kay, has a way to go as it makes its debut in 2023.
On Monday afternoons throughout the summer, Short Croquet players, many of them new to the discipline, challenged each other on the half size courts. On finals day, the four top players on the ladder who’d played the six matches needed to qualify assembled for the shootout. First up, Joe King versus Steve Fisher, Andrew Petit versus Brian Jamieson.
As ladder leader, Joe’s win over Steve took him straight to the final. Steve and Andrew, the victor over Brian, played for the right to challenge him.. With three peels to Andrew’s five bisques in the final, Joe needed a fast start. At the first hoop, an uncharacteristically short roquet led to an awkward hoop approach – and a jawed ball. Andrew pounced flawlessly and remorselessly, taking his first ball round without using a bisque. To the mournful strains of a bagpiper practising on Tickers Folly Field, Joe accepted his fate as Andrew powered on to a handsome win.
To the winner, the spoils – Brian presents Andrew with the Claret Jug.
“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.
That describes both the weather at the Short Croquet tournament that we hosted on Saturday 5 August, and sadly, my play. The vagaries of the weather are best illustrated by two pictures of Linda Shaw (courtesy of Carol Jamieson, who helped with innumerable tasks during the day).
Ten players contented the tournament over five rounds and everyone enjoyed themselves, playing the games in a friendly, but competitive, spirit. The field was quite strong, with four out of the ten having a handicap of one or more peels. If that means nothing to you, think ‘minus handicap’.
At the lunch break, an excellent salad prepared by Minty, there was little to separate the players, but as we began the final round, three players were still in contention.
Once the final scores were in, the winner was Dave Kibble, with five wins from five games. Paul Wolff was second with four wins.
I am sure that many of the players have already ‘pencilled in’ next year’s fixture in their croquet calendar.
We completed a very successful AC Advanced B-league programme even before July was out this year, not only with time to spare, but also by winning our every match.
We followed our opening win against Oxford University on 10th June by beating Winchester 3-0 on 30th June (Blewbury team Peter Allan, Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli, Paul Wolff), High Wycombe 2-1 on 5th July (our winners Peter Allan and Deirdre Cochrane, loser Paul Wolff) and finally Aldermaston 2-1 on 25th July (winners Peter and Avril again, loser Paul again).
Twelve years – that’s the unbroken chain of friendly AC matches between the Blewbury and Watford Cassiobury croquet clubs, the Watfordians on their annual summer tour. Today’s was a pretty fair result, with all games played to handicap rules: two games won by each club in the morning, a shared Sunday roast at the Red Lion at lunchtime, and two games won by each in the afternoon. Result: a draw for Watford on their final tour match of 2023 after their defeat last year, and a call for the resumption of this pleasurable match next year too.
In the morning doubles, Deirdre Cochrane (8) and David Long (16) beat Simon Hathrell (-1) and David Robinson (9) +1 on time, with our David securing the win by way of an audacious last-turn roquet through the hoop on Simon’s ball; and Steve Fisher beat Jonathan Lambton +4(t), for two Blewbury wins on Court 1. Meanwhile, on the other court, Mark Homan (5) beat Andy Robertson (10) +5(t) and Eddie Chung (9) beat Minty Clinch (18) +1(t), to equalise.
After-lunch smiles at the Red Lion
Back from the pub lunch, the drizzly rain driven by strong winds was not being kind to anybody. David Long beat David Robinson +19 in less than 90 minutes, and Steve beat Mark +25 soon after. Blewbury 4-2 up! But Deirdre couldn’t quite manage to hold off Jonathan in a very tight finish, losing -4 with one ball still on 4-back, and finally the doubles was going to time…and Andy and Minty couldn’t hold off Simon and Eddie, who won +8(t).
So if you were playing for Blewbury and your name was David or Steve, you won both your games: well done!
And as we were all saying our final farewells, a watery sun could be detected behind those still swirling grey clouds.
There were eight players at Phyllis Court Croquet Club and eight at Blewbury Croquet Club on July 22-23 for the annual shared GC B-level (+3) tournament.. The Saturday split was seeded and drawn to divide the competitors evenly between the two venues for the all play all format.
In blustery wind and rain on Saturday, all players dug in to complete their seven games. For those at Blewbury, the highlight was Philippa’s fantastic lunch. When the top four from each venue gathered at Phyllis Court to compete for The Cup on Sunday, compliments were flying. You’re a hero, Philippa.
Paul waits while Brian lines up
Congratulations to Paul Wolff for making the Phyllis Court cut for Sunday and for finishing 4th.. Meanwhile, Brian Jamieson and Steve Fisher regrouped on home courts to contest The Plate. By the afternoon, intermittent showers had given way to sunshine, inviting a shift to shorts and shirt sleeves.
When the hoops were counted after 14 games, it was business as usual.. Peter Adams (Guildford & Godalming Croquet Club) retained The Cup he won in 2022. Likewise Beryl Hughes (Cheam Croquet Club) held onto The Plate
As a first time Tournament Manager for Blewbury, I was greatly impressed by the camaraderie between the players. I appreciated Chris Roberts’s seamless paperwork and the regular updates that kept Blewbury in the loop. Sorting out two carelessly abandoned mallets that were required at Phyllis Court on Sunday was more of a chore. Once I’d identified their owners with numerous photos and phone calls, Paul stepped up to return them before play the next morning. One of the culprits was Peter Adams; as he said himself, no mallet no Cup.
I was watching the AC World Championship on YouTube yesterday and I was struck by a comment that Harry Fisher made while commentating on Reg Bamford’s play in his second game against Aston Wade. Harry said “when things are going well, the roll shot does not exist”.
What he meant by this is that if you can place the balls so that your striker’s ball does not need to move a long way, then this helps to increase the accuracy of your shots, which makes your play much easier.
Of course, sometimes you need to play a roll shot, but things are so much easier if you can do without them. It is worth aspiring to achieve that.
