Hurlingham Handicap One-Ball

[<<] [>>] by Tony Bingham at Hurlingham
14th October (AC - Handicap)

Close to the end of Hurlingham's main croquet lawns season, a record entry of 25 played for the Bingham Bowl. 7 were home players, 3 each from Blewbury and Compton, 2 each from Chester and Roehampton and 1 each from Bath, East Dorset, Hampstead Heath, Kington Langley, Norwich, South Ockendon, Surbiton and Woking. It was a beautiful autumn day, sunny with clouds, warm enough in the sun but chilly otherwise. One-Ball handicaps ranged from minus 6 to 4 players on 20 (all handicaps calculated using the recommended CE method that takes account of both AC and GC handicaps). As ever success depended on tactical nous, knowing when to attack and when to defend, how best to use bisques as well as the more obvious skills of roqueting the opponent, taking good positions and running hoops reliably. With matches of different duration, most finishing 7, others 8 or even 9, the flexible Swiss format meant that the leaders were judged on percentage of wins to matches played.

At lunch with either 4 or 5 games completed, on the winners plays winners and losers play losers principle, five players in particular vied for supremacy on 3 or 4 wins: Tim Gibbons (Hurlingham, handicap 16), Andy Meikle (East Dorset, 2), Sara Furnas (Hurlingham, 20), Michael George (Compton, 20) and 13-year old Hanna Laganowska Black (Bath, 20) who had just lost her first match but then found her form on the fast lawns. After lunch the manager ensured that they would as far as practicable play each other. Others were close and there was still all to play for. The last few rounds saw twists and turns as ever.

Tim beat Andy, Sara and Michael fell away, Hanna kept winning and crucially beat Tim. Former winners Mark Wellby (Hurlingham, 7.5) and Brian Jamieson (Blewbury, 10) made late runs. Annabel McDiarmid (Woking, - 6) and Richard Platt (Compton, 8) were not far off.

The final result was determined by the match between Hanna and Andy; had Andy won Tim, Hanna and Andy would all have been on 6 wins out of 7 with each having beaten one of the two others - the manager's nightmare because "who beat whom" would not have worked. Thankfully (for the manager at least) Hanna won, showing remarkable skill and maturity for her years. She benefited from 6 bisques but still had to use them wisely and execute her shots, which she did with aplomb.

The winner therefore was young Hanna Laganowska Black playing this event for the first time, with Tim Gibbons second, both on 6 from 7 but Hanna had beaten Tim earlier. Mark Wellby came 3rd (6 from 8), Andy Meikle 4th (5 from 7), Annabel McDiarmid, Brian Jamieson and Richard Platt were 5th equal on 5 from 8. Thanks go to Rod Ashwell for acting as RoT.

Richard Andrews, just finished as Hurlingham's Croquet Chair, presented the Bingham Bowl and Hurlingham whisky (!) tumblers to the winner; the runner-up also received glassware All matches were played in a very good spirit and Tony was thanked for making it a very well run and most enjoyable tournament. The international standard lawns played brilliantly as ever.