Thrills at Nottingham's Annual Tournament

[<<] [>>] by David Brydon at Nottingham
26th August (AC)

The annual tournament on Nottingham's recently relaid lawns attracted 42 players and generated twelve handicap changes, seven TPs, six trophy winners, one fierce downpour, the customary excellent catering, one championship referee sporting a hat resembling a fried egg, and a rare bombard peg-out.

The August Week at Nottingham is now the last remaining six-day AC event in the tournament calendar where all formats run throughout the week: four classes of singles, the main handicap singles, and handicap doubles. All other clubs seem to have divided their own weeks into adjoining but separate two day events.

The Lawns: Though slower than in the recent Worlds (Tiers 2 and 3), the nine lawns were reasonably paced until Thursday's heavy rain. Drainage took longer than usual following weeks of baking hot weather. The new squeegee machine put to work on Lawn 5 needed to pause every 70 yards to discharge a full tank of rainwater into the Tottle Brook. One visiting minus player claimed he wasn't strong enough to rush the length of the lawns before they'd fully dried out some time on Friday.

The Manager: Recent surgery following a case of interference by an outside agency on the public highway caused Alex McIntyre to switch to a one-handed grip on the managerial keyboard, ably assisted by deputies Ian Vincent and Peter Death. Having one arm in a sling means no more croquet or cycling for a month or two.

Sherwood wins the Robin Hood

Andy Sherwood (Nottingham) at AC4 didn't exactly have a forest of bisques but he may now need a bigger mantelpiece. Consistent and careful play led to victory over Tom Dewar in the final of the B class, before an exciting tussle for the Robin Hood Gold Cup against Adam Swinton (Surbiton). Receiving 4.5 bisques, Andy went to 2 back and rover with four still standing, whereupon Adam decided his chance of winning would be marginally less slim if he could go round, peel oppo through rover and peg two balls off. The resulting game of One Ball didn't go Adam's way. Andy carefully used his GC skills to run his next two hoops, evade some long shots from Adam, and use only two bisques to run his last three hoops and peg out.

Andy takes home the handsome and regilded Robin Hood Cup, with a handicap reduction to 3.5. Adam was presented with the Taylor Salver and moves to -1.

Ashes tested but win the Handicap Doubles

Fifteen pairs competed in this knockout over Tues/Weds/Thurs mornings, resulting in two pairs of high-handicappers reaching Saturday's final. Most years this is contested by two teams of expert-plus-rapid-improver.

Tim Ash (7) & Brenda Ash (20) used their bisques effectively on their way to the final, as did Damian Brownbill (18) & Christine Preston (20). The Ashes now had no bisques, whilst their oppos had just 5.5. Finalists' nerves would likely play a part.

Both sides played ASD. The fun started early on with spectators very properly suppressing their oohs and ahs whenever play constituting an error occurred. Brownbill & Preston picked up their clip after "running" Hoop 1 but Tim forestalled pointing out that it was a half-bisque turn. The strikers then played a full bisque - but set off northwards and "ran" Hoop 2; none of that "going back to score Hoop 1 first" nonsense. This second error however went unnoticed, as did a much later break containing an extra roquet/croquet/continuation. Ok, don't pretend you haven't at some point done this sort of thing.

When time was called the score was 10-10. No points were scored in either extra turn. So on to the golden hoop! Balls that some days might have run hoops either bounced off or blobbed or got cleared. And on (and on) it went for the longest extension period anyone could recall: 25 minutes of who-knows-how-many turns. Eventually Tim managed to jaws the red ball (again) some three millimetres short; oppo shot at it but missed; and on sprinted the fried egg ref. Brenda carefully nudged red a good four millimetres, the hoop was judged scored, arms were flung heavenwards, and every spectator could at last breathe out.

"A thrilling ending" said tournament referee Ian Vincent. Keith Aiton (England coach and commentator in the recent MacRobertson games) said: "That was more exciting than the Mac." And he should know.

Bombardastic

Your reporter's bombarded peg-out came after peeling partner not far enough through rover and failing to avoid it. He croqueted the peelee to 18" or so West of the peg, rushed a side ball pretty adjacent, and aimed the croquet stroke to canon the angled peelee onto the peg and score its final point. Frabjous joy. It was pointed out that a more competent player would have won without the need for any complicated line of play.

The Winners:

A class final: Omied Hallam beat Phil Eardley 26-0

B class final: Andy Sherwood beat Tom Dewar 26-14

C class: Mick Owens was undefeated in each of the two blocks.

D class final (base 10): Damian Brownbill beat Brenda Ash 24-15 (t)

Handicap Doubles: Tim & Brenda beat Christine Preston and Damian 11-10 (t)

Robin Hood Gold Cup: Andy Sherwood beat Adam Swinton 26-14

All results and scores on Croquet Scores.