Stephen Mulliner retains the Golf Croquet Open Championship title for the second year

[<<] [>>] by Bill Arliss
19th June 2001 (GC)

In the second staging of this competition at Budleigh Salterton 14-17 June, Stephen Mulliner retained his title beating Derek Old in the final 7-2, 4-7, 7-2. Derek had the distinction of being the only player to take a game from Stephen in the whole competition.

The Singles Championship started as three American blocks of eight with the top two in each block through to the final knockout plus the next two players with the highest hoop score average per game. The eight through to the final knockout were Derek Old, Trevor Bassett (Aus), John Moore, Tony Hall (Aus), Chris Sheen, Ivor Brand, James Hawkins and Stephen Mulliner. In the semi finals Derek Old beat John Moore and Stephen Mulliner beat Chris Sheen. The concept of highest hoop score to separate players with equal number of wins was introduced by Manager Bill Arliss to stimulate aggressive play.

In the final of the consolation singles event for the Hobbs Mallets Champagne, David Hopkins beat Jeremy Hackett.

The doubles event was played as a six round Swiss with each match being a single 19 point game. The tournament arrangement stipulated that if there were two pairs with an equal number of wins, there would be a play-off and this was the case. In the final playoff for the Barlow and Woodlands trophies, Tony Hall and Trevor Bassett beat David Hopkins and Samantha Curry

It was pleasing to note that the entries for this event had risen considerably from last year, 14 to 24 in the singles and 6 to 10 pairs in the doubles.