This area of the website is designed to provide easy access to information suitable for news pieces and features in the newspapers or other media. We hope the information you are looking for is here, and you are free to copy and use any information or pictures in this section of the website unless stated otherwise, except that there are restrictions on the use of photographs in the photo library - please see the copyright statements in that section.
If you need any further information, or would like a suitable quote, please contact the CA Office.
An alternative contact is Jeff Dawson, Chairman of Marketing, who can be reached on 01483 761971, email sales#croquet.org.uk, or our chairman Jonathan Isaacs who can be reached on 01798 812028, email jonathanisaacs#btinternet.com.
Click on any of the buttons on the left-hand bar to view appropriate sections.
Given the mayhem of tempest and flooding at the invitation eights earlier in the month, and the dire forecasts on the Wednesday before the weekend, the weather omens were distinctly pessimistic and players arriving on a rather dreary Friday morning could easily be forgiven for expecting more of the same. However, skies brightened by lunchtime and, apart from a chilly spell on Saturday afternoon, warmth returned and Sunday actually witnessed the application of sun cream. Even though the hoops were freshly moved, they were moderately forgiving in the damp ground and peeling finishes (and attempts thereat) were plentiful. Aspects of the recent Nottingham board discussion on how to make hoop running a greater challenge by fixing hoops more firmly in the ground were given practical substance when Rutger Beijderwellen produced a number of metal contrivances which looked to the casual observer like a disassembled mantrap or instrument of torture! They proved to be his experimental devices for preventing hoop movement and were duly installed just outside the boundary of lawn 3 for tests. After a number of trials running straight and angled hoops the general consensus was that they were somewhat more demanding to run, but not sufficiently so to justify the cost or the potential damage to the lawn in inserting and removing them. Perhaps a mark 2 version will prove more testing?
On the field of play the top two seeds each produced a sextuple peel to win his first match, with newcomer Jonathan Hills taking the second game off David Maugham. Kristian Chambers was an early casualty falling in straight games to a determined Jerry Guest; while Roger Tribe, having dispatched Tim Wilkins in the first round, came back from one game down to beat fifth seed Chris Farthing in the second. Keith Aiton's run of five consecutive wins with triples was notable for the unusual score line +26 +26 +1 +26 +26! In the third game between Keith and Chris Patmore, Chris TPOd and pegged out both balls leaving Keith for H2 and himself for 2-back. Each made cautious progress with Chris emerging victorious when Keith was still for 4-back. In the absence of time limits the eventual semi-finalists got there at rather difference paces. David Maugham had already booked his place by Friday evening; but opponent Ed Duckworth had to wait for the outcome of the Farthing/Tribe match and then contest three hard-fought games with Roger Tribe to claim his place over 24 hours later! Meanwhile the other semi-final between Chris Patmore and Rutger Beijderwellen had begun at 4 o'clock and was completed in just over two hours. The first game saw Rutger lay a supershot, Chris trickle and miss, Rutger hit and go to 4-back. Chris hit the lift, TPOd leaving one ball in C2 and the other east of H4. Rutger took contact from the ball at H4, scooped to H1 and ran it well to bounce off H2 from where he hit the C2 ball and went out on a 3-ball break to win in the fifth turn.
Much to the manager's relief the Maugham/Duckworth semi-final finished by lunchtime on Sunday and the final itself was then resolved in Rutger's favour by tea-time. In the first game David laid a supershot, Rutger replied just south of peg high on the east boundary. Shooting from B-baulk David missed to about 5 yards south of Rutger's ball whereupon Rutger hit the double and went to 4-back with an NSL. David lifted to B-baulk and hit the boundary ball, made H1 but missed the return roquet. Rutger hit the ball at
H2 from the east boundary and finished +25(TP). In the second game David missed Rutger's supershot opening but Rutger hit and went to 4-back leaving black at the maximum length position on the east boundary with a rush on yellow to his blue ball at the maximum length position on the west boundary. David missed from C3 to C4 allowing Rutger to embark on his triple. All went well until both balls were for rover when Rutger broke down leaving David all four balls and a break to 4-back with a reverse MSL. Rutger missed into C2 but unaccountably David bounced off H1 to end up near H5. Rutger then hit from H1 to H3, laid a cross-wire at rover and retired to the north boundary. David narrowly missed and Rutger finished to win his first South on England title and his second regional championship (West of England 2006), having lost only one game over the weekend.
On Sunday morning there were six contenders for the Swiss with Kristian Chambers and Chris Farthing leading the field. They each won their first game thereby ensuring that the winner of a game between them could not be caught by any of the others. In a close match Kristian proved the stronger ending up as the only player not to have lost any of his Swiss games. However a late afternoon win by Phil Cordingley just enabled him to outscore Chris Farthing as runner up.
This is the 24th year of the championship in its present format during which time 125 separate players have competed producing 12 different winners. Chris Patmore has been the most frequent visitor with 14 appearances followed by Keith Aiton and Dennis Shaw with
12 each. In this year's field of 23 only Jonathan Hills has not played before and the remainder can claim 165 appearances between them, an average of more than 7 each. The four previous winners playing this year have 8 South of England titles in total.
| 6/10 | 60% | Phil Cordingley |
| 4/7 | 57% | Chris Farthing |
| 5/10 | 50% | Paul Castell, Martin French, Jerry Guest, Roger Tribe |
| 4/8 | 50% | Peter Trimmer |
| 3/7 | 43% | David Kibble |
| 4/10 | 40% | Jonathan Hills, David Trimmer |
| 3/8 | 37% | Louise Bradforth, Debbie Cornelius, Andrew Gregory |
| 1/3 | 33% | Jack Davies |
| 2/8 | 25% | Tim Wilkins |
| 1/6 | 17% | Mark Hamilton |
| 0/7 | John Walters |
Peeling prize: David Maugham;
Runner Up: Rutger Beijderwellen
The AGM of the Croquet Association is to be held at the Hurlingham Club at 11am next Saturday, 11th October. Note that the meeting will be in the Terrace Room, not the Theatre where it has been for the last few years.
The Agenda and Council's Annual Report are available to be downloaded. The accounts were published in the June Gazette and the proposed changes to the Constitution were in the August edition. It is now too late to vote by post on these, but there will be an opportunity for individual members and clubs who have not already voted to do so at the meeting. The election of Council Members has closed and the result will be announced at the meeting.
Canterbury Croquet Club won the Secretary's Shield by beating High Wycombe 6-1, which is the Kent Club's first national trophy victory.
The scoreline suggests that Canterbury had an easy ride but the opposite was the case. Each of 3.5 hour time-limited games was hard fought and several of them could have gone either way. Said Canterbury's non-playing captain Frank Hughes: "This was a momentous victory."
Canterbury established a commanding lead by winning their three morning games but knew winning the one further game they needed for victory would be hard.
In the morning session Michael Poole was the first to finish by defeating Chris Donovan +11. Paul Hill raced away against the furniture men's David Bourne but then faltered. Fortunately for him each mistake he made was echoed by Bourne. After a painfully long time Hill finally issued the coup de grace to the tune of +9.
In the doubles Ted Salisbury and Jean Byers used their bisques against Reeve and Wycombe captain Geoff Youd to establish a lead but then saw it begin to evaporate. With his last turn Youd scored a difficult hoop to put his side needing one point to draw level but his long shot at the next hoop failed and Canterbury scraped home +1T.
After lunch Wycombe showed they were still full of fight when their leading player Duncan Reeve, handicap 1.5, looked likely to annihilate Canterbury's Michael Poole (6) in quick time. Poole had used one of his 4.5 bisques to reach the penultimate hoop with one ball. Reeve then hit in and peeled Poole's ball through penultimate on his way to rover, where he again peeled it, and then pegged it out.
This left Poole needing ten hoops with his other ball. Reeve's other ball had still to make the first hoop. Undaunted, Poole hit in from long distance and used Reeve's balls to reach penultimate with the aid of three bisques. Poole's hands shot up with disbelief when his simple shot at penultimate bounced back at him after hitting a wire.
Reeve's other ball was still on hoop one but a break was possible. Luckily for Poole he did not hit in. Poole had another straightforward shot at penultimate from two feet but again missed and this time Reeve's balls were only four yards apart.
Somehow Reeve missed that roquet and Poole made penultimate with enough power to put him within reasonable distance of roqueting one of Reeve's balls. He did so, made rover, and pegged out for a +14 victory to give Canterbury the match.
In the other afternoon games Youd never looked comfortable against Byers and went down -15 but a revitalised Bourne gave Wycombe their only victory, beating Salisbury +11. Hill fought a tough battle against the ebullient Donovan to come out on top +5.
High Wycombe had reached the final by beating last year's shield winners, Kington Langley, and fielded a strong team. Canterbury had been battle-hardened by beating first Kenilworth and then Nottingham.
This was Canterbury's second appearance in the Shield competition. Two years ago they were knocked out by Yorkshire side Beverley in the semi-finals.
The shield competition is open only to clubs that have won their area Unlimited Handicap leagues the previous year.
Ted Salisbury (10) & Jean Byers (12) beat Duncan Reeve (1.5) & Geoff Youd (10) +1T
Michael Poole (6) beat Chris Donovan (4) +11
Paul Hill (6) beat David Bourne (4.5) +9
Poole beat Reeve +14
Hill beat Donovan +5
Byers beat Youd +15
Salisbury lost to Bourne -11
There was something of a feeling of deja vu at the table in Howie's Restaurant as five members of the GB team that played in the Solomon Trophy enjoyed a pre-match meal. The first question from one of first time visitors was what are the lawns like, to which the unbelievably harsh answer was basically like Heaton Park (the scene of our victory over the US) except a bit slower, not quite as flat and with easier hoops. Although a statement of fact the truth is that The Meadows although not quite in the league of one of the best clubs in the country is certainly in the next division and worthy of mention in the same breath. If you take overall location into account too, set in a busy suburb with plenty of restaurants, pubs, hotels and within walking distance of the city centre, such that you can arrive park your car and not have to contemplate driving it again until the end of the event it really represents a superb venue for a croquet event. Anyway after a brief sojourn on to great motorway landmarks and champagne bottle sizes (Keith seemed to be an expert on both) it didn't take us long to all live up to our on-line persona's in reality, discussing the relative merits of camels, hoop bases and trying (and failing) to come up with better ideas. The ground hog day was eventually broken when Samir (replacing Ian Lines from the Solomon) arrived in time to order a starter to accompany our desserts, which the slightly puzzled waiter coped with admirably.
The SCA who since being awarded the match had put a lot of effort into making sure the event was a success, including securing sponsorship from the Clydesdale Bank, had arranged accommodation for the players in a nearby University Hall of Residence, following some debate it was proved that this was within a minute of the lawns (running) and could be walked casually in about two and a half. The match started with doubles and the return of ground hog day as GB won all three matches before lunch winning all their games with TPs. Top pair Maugham and Patel were taken to three by Williams and Fitzgerald the main talking point being the end of the first game when Williams peeled rover but failed it into the jaws himself. Patel's 4 back ball was the side ball a foot from rover not rushable to one and Maugham's hoop one ball was the deep ball with a 6 yarder at peelee. After much discussion, which included David putting his glove on, Patel took his one footer only to see Williams hit the subsequent 35 yarder to win the game.
The singles in the afternoon saw many quick matches and something of a peeling fest including the first ever sextuple in Scotland, fittingly by Scottish number one Keith Aiton. He seemed to think it was rather a good one but as he chose to do it whilst the biggest critics were all in play we will never be sure! A few of us were watching by the time Maugham laid for a Ladies in the second against Cunningham but with the six peels done before 4 back we had lost interest and didn't see him misapproach penult so badly that he wasn't even able to attempt the hoop. The not inconsiderable crowd seemed to be loving every minute of it. The Irish got themselves on the board when Williams beat Patel finishing from the contact after a TPO in the decider. After rover Samir had failed to rush partner off the E boundary (due to the lack of a boundary board in my opinion) but elected to still only peg Simon off when most onlookers thought pegging his ball off too would have been more prudent. Nonetheless despite this setback as the local hoopgod put it by the end of the day's play Ireland needed to win all the remaining matches to still lose.
After a couple of camel trials we were taken to an excellent French restaurant barely a couple of hundred yards from the club and fed and watered for the evening, again at our host's expense.
The following day with the match over and the weather worse things were predictably slightly lower key, but still attracted a sizeable crowd which was a real who's who of Scottish croquet. Hopefully all those who attended over the course of the two days, contributing significantly to the event simply by being there, thought it was worth the time they invested in attending. At the very least it must have been value for money! Burridge completed the second sextuple of the event (rewarded with no bottle (normal size) of champagne unlike Aiton's earlier), making a straight quad finish look relatively straight forward. Fitzgerald who had spent the previous evening whinging about how Kirby hadn't missed against him dished out the same medicine to Aiton, his 2-1 victory might have been 2-0 had he not tried to make hoop 1 with the wrong ball on his second break in game 2.
It began to look like what was almost certain to be an all time first was unfolding as the matches finished in reverse order (i.e. from the bottom up). With Patel having TPO'd Cunningham in game 3 (this time with 2 off) of the second match and Maugham and Williams still only just starting the third game of their truly "top" match it looked a certainty. Sadly the record was not forthcoming with neither player setting the world alight in the two ball ending and an impasse had more or less been reached when Maugham completed a TP to win and end the match, with the Irish plane awaiting and the impasse unresolved, making the final score GB 12 Ireland 2.
The Maugham Salver (donated by David) was presented for the first time to Keith, the winning captain, along with miniature bottles of whisky and commemorative glasses for all the players (which have ably assisted with the writing of this report!)
From a player's perspective the event was a great experience and undoubtedly the best renewal of the event on home soil. Just as earlier in the year at Heaton Park a lot of local (and not so local) members had put a great deal of effort into ensuring that the event was a success and we are all very grateful to them. I hope that they feel their overall goals were achieved, certainly they surpassed the players expectations and I hope they will see fit to bid for this or a similar event again in the future.
(Just realised I haven't mentioned Tony Le Moignan, he's the one with a baseball cap and sunglasses who's GB record this summer reads doubles played 4, won 4 singles played 5 won 5. He is the anchor!)
|
| Ryan Cabble |
Ryan Cabble won the All England Golf Croquet Handicap Competition Finals, beating James Goodbun to take the trophy.
The final was best-of-three 13 point games between Ryan and James, both just 15 years old. The games were played in excellent spirit and at a good pace. The spectators, who included all of the other contestants, family, friends and some local players, were treated to a display of spectacular clearances, accurate hoop running and attacking play. The difference between the players came down to James's slightly higher error rate and although Ryan did not use his extra turn in either game, James was always aware of the threat and was perhaps forced into taking more risks. The final result was 7-5 , 7-5 to Ryan, whose handicap is now three as a result of his success.
The first day's play left all to play for on the Sunday morning with several vital games between the front runners and with Colin Davies (4) coming through to contest fourth place. By the end of the block games, all nine players had won at least two of their eight games. Block results saw Ryan, James, Richard and Colin through to the semi-finals. Ryan Cabble (4) beat Colin Davies (5) 10-5 and James Goodbun (3) beat Richard Harris (5) 10-4
In full sunshine and comfortable temperatures and on beautifully presented lawns, there were many close games, validating the handicap system. By Saturday evening, last year's winner, Richard Harris (5) was on four out of five wins, as was 15 year old Ryan Cabble (4). Close behind was another 15 year old, James Goodbun (3) from Ramsgate with three out of six wins and Brian Roynon (8), from the same Bristol club as Ryan, was on three out of five wins
After club heats and regional finals, 12 players with entry handicaps from four to eight went through to the finals at East Dorset club. Three players dropped out leaving nine who played in an all- play- all block one 19-point game.
The weather, lawns, hospitality and the friendliness of all players contributed to an excellent weekend, which saw the culmination of a season-long competition. My thanks go to all the players who made it a pleasure to manage the finals and to all of the people who ran and played in the earlier heats.
There are a number of names on this trophy that continue to appear on the National and International scene. We can now add Ryan and James to the growing list of young players, who are having an impact on the National scene. We need to encourage and nurture this talent, which should ensure the future of the game.
 |
| A determined Rob Fulford battles through to win the Ascot Cup (Photo: Tim King [Hurlingham, 2008-09-21]) |
Robert Fulford beat Reg Bamford on the thirteenth hoop of the third game of the final to win the Ascot Cup for the second time.
Send news and reports to news#croquet.org.uk. Send results to results#croquet.org.uk.
Report problems with this page to webmaster#croquet.org.uk.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this news web page are those of the Editor and contributors. The Croquet Association is not responsible for statements other than those clearly defined as being made on behalf of the Croquet Association. The full editorial policy is available on-line. The Web News Editor is Dave Kibble.
Corrections: Club and personal details on this page come direct from the CA Database, if any detail is found to be incorrect please contact the CA Office.