Albie Willett won the Hunstanton GC Open Series

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The prize winners

The sun might have shone over the weekend but regular visitors were not surprised that it may have been Sunny Hunny but were not that surprised that the flags were still being driven by that regular North Easterly off the North Sea. Still croquet players are a hardy bunch and a full complement of 16 of a various range of handicaps from far and wild were not going to be put off from enjoying the 5 superb lawns that was awaiting them

Using the standard C.E. format, for the first day the players were split into two groups of eight in an all play all in which the following day the top four proceeded into a straight knock-out. The lower group met in a subsidiary group of all play all for the Plate. In Group 'A', it was no surprise that Simon Carter and last year's winner Andrew Hobbs soon become the early favourites however, Mike Bilton and newcomer Colin Spencer were not far behind. In Group 'B' Albie Willett always set the pace but was always in the sights of Alex wood, Ross Bagni and Edwin Bone.

On the second day after proceeding through to the semi-finals of best of three games the final round ended up with Club President Simon Carter meeting Albie Willett in the final round. This game produced some very high class play, which not only entertained the audience through the whole length of the three games but, kept them glued to their seats in the mildly cold wind. Despite a strong start by Simon winning the first game 7 - 4, Albie raised the stakes by winning the second and third games both by 7 - 5 producing some very entertaining croquet.

Alex Wood beat Mike Bilton 10 -7 to run out the winner of The Shield and Ashley Deacon ended up the winner of the Plate.

Presentations were made by The Club President Roddy Willett