The national schools croquet championships

[<<] [>>] by Joel Taylor
28th May (Other News)

The national schools croquet championships were played at Surbiton with both the doubles and singles championships being contested by a total of 36 players from 6 schools. Both events were played simultaneously with the doubles played as a straight knockout and the singles a swiss event for players eliminated from the knockout (or players who elected to play only singles). All games were played level 14 point on half lawns, and a total of 76 games were played in the day. Many students were playing in their first ever tournament, and were surprised by how exhausting a full day of croquet can be, and how many rules there are. There were multiple debates among players over the length of a yard, which reinforces the need for croquet to modernise its units of measure.

The doubles championship was dominated by Radley College who had three of their four pairs reach the semi finals. The final was won by Patrick Hall & Jimmy Butterworth (Radley). Patrick is now undefeated in this tournament for two consecutive years, and it was great to see the improvement in his skills and knowledge of the game over that time.

With 36 players and two concurrent events, it was always going to be a challenge to complete the singles swiss, and so it proved. Two players who played the minimum four games finished undefeated with no time for a playoff, and if there was time for a playoff then at least one more player would have also won 4 out of 4. The singles championship was won by Rufus Howard-Sneyd (Eton), who won all six of his games, including a well contested final against Teddy de Putron (Eton). Both players completed several six-hoop breaks with recognisable leaves throughout the day. Honourable mention to August Deeming (Winchester), who won 4 out of 4, but did not have time to test his skills against Rufus.

Full results are on croquetscores.

This is the third year of the tournament, with the number of entries growing from 16 to 24 to 36. A two-day tournament will probably be necessary next year if that trend continues. Special thank you to Andy Dibben who did all the work setting the hoops for day. With 10 half lawns required, Surbiton were stretched to their limits for hoops and balls, but looking at it from the perspective of the future of croquet, it's not a bad problem to have.

Thank you also to the teachers who gave up their Sunday to bring their students to the event, and without whose support this tournament would not have been possible.