Open Championships move to Cheltenham in 2003

[<<] [>>] by D W Trotman
3rd September 2002 (CqE Official News)

The possible problems associated with the extensive building operations taking place during 2003 at the Hurlingham Club has necessitated the Open Championships moving to another venue. The CA Tournament committee have been in contact with both the Cheltenham and Sussex Croquet Clubs to determine how a change of venue could be accomplished without a major effect on either the CA or the Clubs' tournament programmes and have now come to the decision to accept Cheltenham's offer to host the event. The published dates of the 2003 Opens (7 -13 July) will remain unaltered.

Following the 2002 Opens, a questionnaire was circulated to the competitors and other high ranking players seeking opinions on the format used which consisted of a block system leading to a knock out event (best of 3 or 5 games) for the top players from each block. The results indicated a considerable majority in favour of the format used in the 2002 event and it will therefore be retained in the 2003 championship. Final details will be published in the next Fixtures Calendar.

Another interesting result from the questionnaire was the fact that a small majority of the returns favoured a move to Cheltenham if Hurlingham became unavailable for the 2003 Opens. This result was the main reason for the Tournament Committees decision to go to Cheltenham, there being little to chose between them and Sussex based on lawns and facilities.

D W Trotman
Chairman Tournament Committee.

Dave Foulser, Cheltenham Opens Committee, comments:

Cheltenham Croquet Club is delighted that the Opens are to be held there in 2003 and will naturally do all it can to make the championships as successful as they were on the only other occasion the Opens were held there - in 1983. The winner that year (and many others!), Nigel Aspinall, presumably won't be playing but the runner-up that year, Keith Aiton, hopefully will be competing.

Cheltenham has already set up a sub-committee to plan everything needed and looks forward to seeing those plans come to fruition.