Ross Bagni won the Lancashire GC Open

[<<] [>>] by Libby Dixon at Pendle
28th April (GC - Tournaments)

Twelve individuals competed for the 25th Lancashire Open GC Tournament managed by Paul Rigge. It was an international affair with 2 from Lithuania, 1 from Ireland and 1 from Malta.

The start on Saturday saw a dry but cool windy day. The contestants were from Leighton-Linslade through to Penrith despite many other GC events taking place on the same weekend. For two it was their first ever GC event. A good number of observers were partners of players and Pendle and Craven Club members who supported and cheered on good plays.

The first days play was slow with the players coming to grips with fast running lawns and tight hoops. One game took 1hr 40mins to complete which saw Paul Rigge adding a few more grey hairs to his head. The manager had predicted the cross blocks and the quarter finals started by the end of the first day. The cross blocks finished at 6.08pm.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny with elevated temperatures expected. The days play started at 9.10am after a warmup. The manager decided the quarter finals would be a single game of 19 points to enable the final to start hopefully in the late afternoon.

The quarter finals began between Sarah C and Ged S (10/6), Chris H and Ted F (10/3), Ross B and Mike B (10/4) and the last one Howard B and John Armer (10/6)

The Semi final saw Ross B and Chris H winning through to the final. Meanwhile the Plate games were ongoing and saw many close games. With the warm temperatures taking the toll on players and exhaustion from the number of games played some players decided to sit out and watch the games for the Shield Semi final.

One exciting game was the Playoff between Sarah C and Howard B for 3rd and 4th place. Sarah had been 5 /3 up but Howard fought back and took the game to the golden hoop. Sarah was the first ball up with black but her second ball ended up giving her a hampered shot on the hoop. Going for the win Sarah hit the black only to see it deflect off the hoop upright. Howard stepped forward and won the game 7/6. Sarah was very philosophical by saying "she was fourth seed and ended 4th".

The final gave excellent watching for all the observers, who took up positions in front of the pavilion. The final was the best of three, 13-point games. Both players showed their skills in long range clearance shots and delicate placement shots. The players fiercely contested every hoop. The ultimate winner was Ross B who won through 7/4,7/4.

The presentation of prizes was held at 4.15pm. The Manager, Paul Rigge, began by thanking all those present for their support for the 25th Lancashire GC Open Tournament. He commented on the excellent standard of play and thanked the Pendle and Craven ground staff (Paul Dowdall and Team) for the superb standard of the lawns and the hoop setting. Players had complained to him that the hoops were tight and well secured in the ground from the first game on Saturday and on inspection on Sunday none required resetting.

Paul also thanked the management of the Club on the facilities provided and the excellent catering from a team of dedicated members. He also noted the helpful attitude of all players to the new GC players, where some even went so far to advise which shot to play. Gabby was happy to be the winner of the Wooden Spoon as she now has a D grade and can enter further tournaments. Gabby thanked everyone for their support.

Overall winner of the Tournament, Ross Bagni, received the Lancashire Trophy amongst applause and Andrew Gould the Plate. The Plate had to resort to a count back over all games played by David Beddy and Andrew Gould as the plate games had both with 3 wins each. The Chair of Pendle and Craven Croquet Club thanked the Manager, Paul Rigge for his excellent management of the Tournament and presented him with a bottle of wine