Reg Bamford wins the Roehampton GC Championship Open

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Ignacio Senior (Plate) & Reg Bamford (Champion)

Sixteen players gathered to play in the Roehampton GC Open, the first time of playing as a Championship series event. Saturday was an extremely hot day with Roehampton's green lawns proving very quick.

Block play largely went with the seedings except in Block A where Tim Russell, Tom Coles and Ignacio Ariza all beat each other but all lost to Reg Bamford. Tom went through by virtue of beating Ignacio 7-6,7-6. In Block B, Dom Aarvold played well to beat the in-form Chris Roberts 7-6, 7-6. He also took a game off Euan Burridge who won the block comfortably.

Block C and D saw the top two seeds progress relatively untroubled, although last years winner Tobi Savage, did win his match against top seed Jenny Clarke 2-1.

Sunday was much more overcast and although the lawns were a little slower, a strong westerly wind made conditions different from the previous day. Three of the quarter finals were won in straight games, with Reg beating Dom, Stephen beating Jenny and Euan beating Tom Coles. The last quarter saw Tobi being beaten in 3 games by Aston.
The semi finals saw Reg beat Stephen and Euan prevail in a tight three game contest against Aston winning 7-5 in the third.

The final was a high quality affair with both players showing the full range of golf croquet skills. Reg's clearing was a pretty high standard throughout the tournament and his positioning and snuggles kept hitting the mark. However, his biggest improvement in the tournament came with his hoop running, exemplified by a beautiful hoop 10 from about 12 yards and a 60 degree angle through a tight gap between the other balls. Even on Roehampton's soft lawns, Quadways frequently repel the hard hit hoop attempt. Reg ran out a deserved winner of the tournament, not losing a single game. On this form someone will have to play very well to stop him claiming another British Open title at Budleigh this week.

In the plate Ignacio Senior, who played well throughout, won a compelling final (10-9) against Chris Roberts who missed one critical shot at the end.

Many thanks to the groundstaff at Roehampton and to Frances Colman, the referee of the tournament