Pendle and Craven Advanced B/C-Class weekend

[<<] [>>] by Liz Wilson at Pendle and Craven
21st May (AC)

Wonderful weather and interesting lawns welcomed 12 players to Pendle & Craven Croquet Club. One of the original 12 entrants had to pull out with 24 hours notice due to injury, but Bowdon's Adrian Apps stepped up at short notice to avoid a Manager's nightmare. The tournament was run as a 5 round Swiss Amalfi by Brian Medley in his 2nd year of Tournament Management. With the sun beating down constantly for the whole weekend at times it felt like we were on the Amalfi Coast! Handicaps ranged from scratch to 10 - the C Level competitors being in the range 6+.

Surprising giant killer results started to appear in the first round with Peter Wilson (3.5) beating Brian Medley (0.5), Steve Skelton (3.5) beating Charles Harding (0), Andrew Gould (10) beating Stephen Pratt (3.5) and Phil Snowden (7) beating Stefan Colling (0.5). In the 2nd round Phil continued his onslaught beating Steve Skelton whilst the other matches went with handicaps. The final round was played in the evening sunshine where the only surprise was a very lucky win for Liz Wilson (4) vs Charles (0). In the time turn Liz needed to scoop off penult and rover and peg out in a 3 ball ending. Two hoops were negotiated but the roquet on reception ball was missed, only for the strike ball to trickle to corner one where Charles had "safely" left his ball - the fluke roquet of the year gave Liz the win!

Day 2 started with Adrian Apps and Peter on 3 wins each. Phil Snowden had to take on his coach and mentor Liz and was beaten on the golden hoop (age and experience wins over youth) who for once didn't want him to win! Scottish visitor Stefan contined to claw back 1 or 2 points per game after his 19 point loss in the first round and joined Liz and Peter Wilson on 3 wins with Adrian on 4. The Amalfi system is supposed to throw up an exciting final round and so it proved to be. 5 of the 6 games were going to affect the results. Liz had to play her husband Peter and Stefan played Adrian. If Stefan won then there would be a 3 way tie of 3 players on 4 wins all of whom had not played each other. Magnifying glasses were out to read the small print! Adrian had the upper hand and eventually all he had to do was rush to the peg and finish. Did you know in B Level hoops often get in the way! The rush to peg put the croqueted ball in rover. Adrian took croquet from the ball in the hoop which didn't quite make the distance to the peg but did stop his strike ball from shooting at it! A scatter shot sent the two balls in a wide split. Stefan hit in - just 4 hoops to make and a rover peel - unfortunately 4 back rejected his ball. Game over for Liz and Stefan and the Tournament winner was the unbeaten stand-in Adrian.

Much fun and B level hacker play made the whole atmosphere quite amusing. Many swear words as hoops were blobbed and some new terminology (which hoop are you on? 5 back was the reply) Congratulations to Adrian Apps (B Level winner) and Phil Snowdon (C Level winner and a handicap reduction to 6) and to Alan Dix playing in his first tournament