Colin Hemming won the Colchester B-Level Tournament

[<<] [>>] by David Haslam at Colchester Croquet Club
9 May 2010 (AC)

Colin Hemming won the Colchester B-Level tournament, with Mark Homan as the runner up.

From the off the 2008 winner, Mark Homan, was clearly determined to force the pace with two narrow wins against lower handicapped players. Terry Mahoney, the pocket battleship from St Albans was also in good form seeing off the strong challenge of Mike Huxley but later coming up against the inform kid, Colin Hemming. That match was over so quickly that most spectators missed it with Colin 26-ing his opponent who didn't take croquet.
At the end of the first day Mark had a comfortable lead which he carried forward to the final round when the anticipated decider between Colin and Mark could only be challenged by the emergence of the back in-form Neil Chalmers who had come quietly on the rails to be a real challenger for the trophy. However, it was not to be for Neil who succumbed to Jonathan Wolfe by a whisker in his final match leaving Mark and Colin to fight it out.
Both players showed good skills but it was Colin who prevailed by +11 leaving Mark as runner-up by a single point on the Egyptian scale.

David Haslam who claimed a back injury swapped duties with the designated manager, Colin Hemming. David was happy to be inside the pavilion in the relative warmth and Colin was happy to add another trophy to his bulging cabinet.