CArelessness and lack of interest marks the Men's and Women's Championship - Tournament Report

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Pete Trimmer and Gail Curry clutch their trophies

CArelessness and lack of interest marked the Men's and Women's Championship this year. However, the firmament was bright - with stars of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

There was a disappointingly small field for this year's Men's and Women's Championships at Cheltenham which leads to two blunt questions: Firstly, why did the CA allow the dates for the Surrey Championship to clash with the Men's and Women's? In the past the event at Surbiton has been held a week or a fortnight after the Championships and The CA can ill afford to allow a clash between two such important events. Indeed, I thought the whole idea of the long-term tournament programme was to avoid such a problem. Secondly, where were all the top-ranked female players? They certainly were not at Cheltenham. It seems incomprehensible that players turn down the opportunity to add their name to the Roll of Honour that lists many of the best players in the history of our game. I wonder if the absentees would be prepared to write to the Gazette and explain their reasons as, in fifty or a hundred years' time, there will be no footnote to say that someone might have won the event in a certain year, had they bothered to enter.

Anyway, to the Championships themselves. There was a decent field of eight pairs contesting the Mixed Doubles title and at least three of the pairings had a realistic chance of winning. It was agreed that the event would be played as a Block rather than a Draw and Process with a play-off if more than one pair had the same number of wins. Every game now had real meaning and the result was never clear-cut. On Monday, David Goacher and Rosemary Gugan beat one of their main rivals, David Openshaw and Kathleen Priestley who then beat Dave Kibble and Louise Bradforth. The situation became more opaque on Tuesday when David Goacher and Rosemary Gugan lost to Dave Kibble and Louise Bradforth. However on Wednesday Dave and Louise lost a tense game against Paul Smith and Heather Pritchard that dropped them from the running and led to a play off between the other two pairings. This time the result was reversed and so David Openshaw and Kathleen Priestley retained their Mixed Doubles title.

Thursday saw the start of the singles and the arrival of many previous champions as well as the re-emergence of some stars of yesteryear. Many members at Cheltenham hope that the welcome re-appearance of Paul Hands in a major competition marks his return to serious croquet. He had success as well, beating Lionel Tibble in two straight games but then fell to David Goacher. Martin Murray was another 'blast from the past' though he fared less well falling in the first round, also to David Goacher. By the end of the weekend the form of old was re-appearing and he completed a straight triple against Brian Wainman in the Du Pre. The first seed to fall was David Openshaw who lost a hefty tussle with Keith Aiton who also disposed of Marcus Evans to reach the quarterfinals. At the top of the draw Robert Fulford, hoping to erase the bitter memories of 2001, certainly set out his stall well with a sextuple in the first game to progress smoothly to the quarterfinals. At the other end Chris Clarke had a relatively easy win over David Foulser but it was not until late in the evening that Peter Trimmer completed a rather nervy win over Dave Kibble. Meanwhile, in the Women's Championship, Gail Curry and Frances Ransom gave early warning of their intention to rejoin battle in yet another final with relatively straightforward wins to progress through to their respective semi-final matches. Friday saw the late arrival of Stephen Mulliner who triumphed over both a tricky lawn and David Magee to set up a meeting with Keith Aiton in which he was successful. Robert Fulford and David Harrison-Wood had a repeat of their match in the Western Championships and, once again, Robert repeated his winning tactic of pegging out two balls in the third game to leave a one-ball finish. David Goacher had a surprisingly easy win over John Gibbons but the shock was at the bottom of the draw where Peter Trimmer beat Chris Clarke in 3 games. Two Cheltenham members were over-heard to say that 'there was a promising young boy playing on lawn 1 who looks as though he will be quite good when he grows up'. An astute observation on the standard of play if rather poor on the estimation of Peter's age! Meanwhile, Gail and Frances had indeed reached the final of the Women's and, even though the final was started on Saturday, they were under strict instructions not to repeat the epic 20-hour marathon of eight years' ago. With time in hand for the Men's event as well, the semi-finals were played as best-of-5 and Robert again looked majestic with a straight-games win over David Goacher which included a sextuple in the second game. Peter Trimmer was also well into his stride beating Stephen Mulliner, another member of the Test team in three straight games - no sextuples, just more high quality and seemingly effortless triples. Meanwhile, Gail and Frances were impervious to such drama as they battled away on lawn 7 with some good quality play that saw Gail record a win to take her sixth title. If your name was David you must have been able to get decent odds on success in the Du Pre. There were seven of us in the pot and, come Sunday morning, the quartet competing in the knockout stage were all called David. Harrison-Wood and Foulser fell at the first hurdle and, in the final round, Magee came second best to allow David Mundy to walk off with the handsome trophy. Sunday also saw the Men's final start at 10.30 and any fears I had that we would still be watching late into the evening were rapidly dispelled - the match was finished by 2.30. After a total of 19 turns and barely a stutter (though running hoop 1 from 5 yds and 30-odd degrees to escape from Robert's sextuple leave must have had the heart beating a bit), an ecstatic Peter Trimmer held his mallet and the peg aloft to celebrate some sublime play and his win in 3 straight games.