Mark Buckley won the Northern Stars - Ashby heat

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Mark Buckley receives his trophies from Judith Rowe (Photo: Alison Murray)

Ashby hosted the third heat of the new Northern Stars competition on Saturday 9th May and welcomed players from Wrest Park, Bowdon, Leicester, Nottingham and home players Mike O'Brian and John Picken on what turned out to be a lovely sunny day.

Two player and one reserve withdrawals in the previous few days provided a challenge to the Manager before the competition even started. Fortunately Paul Williams from Leicester was able to step in and the Manager filled the last place to avoid sit outs.

This was the first competitive croquet tournament Rachel Gee had played for almost two years following the birth of her second daughter last year. Although not on her best form she won all her games in the block. Mark Buckley who won all his games apart from the game against Rachel filled the other semi-final slot from Block A. In Block B Mike O'Brian and David Cornes both finished on 4 wins out of 5 and joined Rachel and Mark in the two 19pt semi-finals.

The semi-finals were won quickly by Rachel and Mark and they then embarked on what turned out to be a very close final. With three hoops left to play Rachel needed all 3 hoops to win. She ran hoops 17 and 18 but that left Mark as first to approach hoop 19 and he put a very good black ball in front of the hoop. Rachel did a wonderful long clearance from the south boundary to clear Mark to the North boundary from where he ran the long hoop. The spectators from Ashby, Nottingham and Wrest Park enjoyed the close final.

The Northern Stars heats have two winners, the overall winner and then also the player who has gained the most index points, called the Challenger. Mark Buckley won both competitions, having only lost one game in the block.

As this competition has replaced the Ashby one day competition, as well as the star badges for the winner there were two trophies too, made by Mike O'Brian.

Full results are on croquet scores https://croquetscores.com/2026/gc/northern-stars-one-day-ashby-heat