Reg Bamford won 13th Yorkshire Open GC Championship

[<<] [>>] by Reg Bamford at Ripon Spa Croquet Club
24 Aug 2008 (GC - Championships)

Reg Bamford won the 13th GC Yorkshire Open (GC) beating Khalid Younis 7-4, 7-5 in the final to retain the title.

Khalid Younis (one of Egypt's top four players) beat Evan Newell in a closely fought semi-final, with the first two games going to the 13th. The weekend's most memorable shot came from Evan in game two - he was already game down and playing the 13th hoop when Khalid jawsed a ball, leaving Evan a 4-yard sharply angled jump shot to save the match, which he made cleanly to take the match into the third. In the other semi, Reg Bamford beat Mike O'Brian to set up a repeat of last year's final.

The field of 20 players was split into two blocks, with single games (best of 13) deciding each match. A remarkable feature of the block results was Derek Old's eight wins accompanying a zero pointer in his ninth. The top four of each block progressed to the quarter finals, from which point each match was a best-of-three.

A feature of this event is that all the players are housed in the hotel, which overlooks the three lawns. Dinner is enjoyed by all the players, and the conviviality of surroundings makes for an enjoyable weekend of croquet. Thanks go to Evelyn Martin as manager and to Sam Curry for hosting the event, which was held over the long weekend. Well, not quite - it started on Friday and ended on Sunday, because the organisers wanted to go the races on the bank holiday Monday!).