The Last 10 Years

[<<] [>>] by Chris Williams
27th December 2009 (Other News)

Now that the 'Noughties' have finished croquet wise (the new croquet year starts on 26 December each year) I thought it may be interesting to look at who have been the leading players in the 10 years.

Chris Clarke ends the year at World number one for the second year in a row. Only three players have finished the year at number one in the 10 years; Bamford 5 times, Fulford 3 times and Clarke twice.

In fact only five players have finished the year in the top three in the last 10 years.

Fulford and Bamford have been in the top three on all 10 occasions. Clarke has managed 5 times and David Maugham 4 times. The only player from the traditional big 'four' who has broken into the top three and the only non UK based player is Bruce Fleming, who ended 2002 in third place.

The only other player to break into the top three end of year rankings since 1993 was Aaron Westerby in 1997.

Going back further Robert Fulford last ended the year out of the top 3 in 1989, when he was fourth.

Some Records for 2009

Most games: Stephen Mulliner 206
Most games (non UK based): Robert Fletcher 162

Most peeling breaks: David Maugham 79 (69 TPs, 7 TPOs, 3 OTPs, 14 SXPs)
Most peeling (non UK): Robert Fletcher 67 (57 TPs, 6 TPOs, 4 OTPs, 1 SXPs)

Most sextuples: David Maugham & Stephen Mulliner 14
Most sextuples (non UK): Danny Huneycutt, Paddy Chapman, Les Watson 2

Most TPOs: Stephen Mulliner 10
Most OTPs: Doug Grimsley 6

Most successful TPO'er: Robert Fulford 6 TPOs and 0 OTPs
Least successful TPO'er: Doug Grimsley 1 TPO and 6 OTPs

Most peels without a TPO: Ben Rothman 47 TPs, 0 TPOs, 0 OTPs

16259 games in 553 events have been included in the rankings for 2009. This is the most games since 2005 and the second most on record.

Ranking

19 players played more than 1000 games in the last 10 years, with David Maugham being the only player to play more than 1500. David was also the only player to have more than 1000 wins.

Interestingly of the top 10 who have played the most games, six are Australian.

2617 players played at least 1 game, with 2085 playing at least 10 and 799 playing at least 100.

		Games	Wins	%
1	David Maugham [E]	1545	1119	72.43
2	Jerry Guest [E]	1438	719	50.00
3	Creina Dawson [A]	1407	836	59.42
4	Trevor Bassett [A]	1367	989	72.35
5	Robert Fulford [E]	1240	971	78.31
6	Ian Bassett [A]	1240	839	67.66
7	Kevin Beard [A]	1238	846	68.34
8	Tony Hall [A]	1183	686	57.99
9	Dave Mundy [E]	1155	678	58.70
10	Margaret Melville [A]	1146	679	59.25
11	Ian Lines [E]	1130	793	70.18
12	Stephen Mulliner [E]	1120	768	68.57
13	Jenny Clarke [NZ]	1111	616	55.45
14	David Harrison-Wood [E]	1106	701	63.38
15	Rutger Beijderwellen [NL]	1095	675	61.64
16	Paul Castell [E]	1090	560	51.38
17	Chris Clarke [E]	1038	752	72.45
18	Dave Kibble [E]	1021	571	55.93
19	Anna Miller [A]	1020	523	51.27

The highest North American based player was Brian Cumming with 888 games and the most by a USA based player was Johnny Mitchell with 585 games. Bob Jackson was the leading NZ based player with 880 games.

Peeling

David Maugham leads the peeling figures with 778 peeling breaks. Robert Fulford did the most sextuples, 251, and Reg Bamford the most quadruples, 79.

Stephen Mulliner did the most TPOs (72) losing 19 of them, which then became OTPs.

Robert Fulford and David Maugham were the most successful when they were TPO'ed. Both won well over half the games when they were the single ball player. Mark Avery was the least successful for those players with more than 10 TPOs against with only 1 win in 16.

Nine players did more than 10 sextuples. Even Chris Clarke did four, though none in the last 4 years - 414 games.

The TP column includes QPs, QNPs, SXPs, etc., but not TPOs, OTPs, etc. Similarly the TPO column also includes QPOs, etc. In the for column an OTP means that the player did a TPO and lost. An OTP in the Against column means that the player was 'TPOed' and won with the single ball.

		For					Against
		TPs	QPs	SXP	TPO	OTP	TPs	TPO	OTP	Gms	Wins
1	Maugham DB	710	7	72	50	18	255	12	18	1545	1119
2	Fulford RI	684	11	251	53	9	183	7	15	1240	971
3	Bassett T [A]	607	2	13	14	6	145	12	6	1367	989
4	Clarke CD	536	2	4	41	14	168	11	7	1038	752
5	Bamford RL [SA]	458	79	201	7	1	119	8	2	773	596
6	Mulliner SN	357	10	51	53	19	186	12	7	1120	768
7	Lines IG	356	1	3	21	9	117	21	3	1130	793
8	Beijderwellen R [NL]	355	14	27	14	9	179	13	10	1095	675
9	Aiton KMH	345	4	23	46	15	198	9	8	935	576
10	Jackson RV [NZ]	328	2	2	31	7	45	3	2	880	723
11	McBride L [C]	289	3	2	9	4	87	9	4	804	597
12	Avery MN	289	1	3	10	3	136	15	1	724	459
13	Harrison-Wood D	281	5	3	6	1	138	21	7	1106	701
14	Fleming B [A]	269	0	0	1	0	82	8	3	747	531
15	Landrebe P [A]	252	0	1	28	7	76	2	5	997	698
16	Forster S [A]	220	2	0	7	5	75	4	1	759	491
17	Beard K [A]	218	0	0	7	4	128	8	4	1238	846
18	Cumming BW [C]	218	2	1	7	8	91	2	5	888	600
19	Dawson JP	216	1	0	18	7	121	11	9	739	493
20	Huneycutt DH [USA]	202	1	3	6	3	98	3	8	552	363
21	Kirby PJ [S]	198	1	0	15	6	131	11	5	718	468
22	Kibble DJ	191	3	4	17	5	130	11	3	1021	571
23	Death JF	189	10	24	41	14	133	7	8	673	422
24	Bald K [A]	181	0	0	0	0	112	1	0	963	636
25	Patel SR	179	9	3	16	6	122	13	5	857	496
26	Sutton J Ms [A]	177	4	1	12	3	33	2	2	597	434
27	Burrow MVM [Jer]	174	1	2	3	4	71	9	5	466	321
28	Stark JP [USA]	174	1	4	4	0	82	4	3	522	362
29	Chapman P [NZ]	174	0	2	23	4	50	4	5	475	338
30	Bassett I [A]	168	0	0	3	2	92	8	0	1240	839
31	Bryant G [NZ]	167	2	1	29	12	91	7	7	736	473
32	Evans MT	164	5	6	35	7	127	4	3	714	410
33	Clarke M [A]	162	0	1	16	8	62	7	3	672	507
34	Patmore CJ	162	0	0	6	1	120	8	5	787	461
35	Brown RJ	160	4	3	22	9	121	11	5	614	340
36	Dumergue I [A]	160	2	3	5	1	52	2	1	407	296
37	Williams S [I]	159	10	3	6	1	90	10	4	547	331
38	Goacher DJ	158	3	0	21	2	145	8	3	778	453
39	Irwin CJ	157	1	0	7	0	77	15	5	545	358
40	Farthing CN	154	0	3	2	4	96	4	3	603	358
41	Prater M [A]	151	1	0	6	0	56	3	2	677	443
42	McInerney MJ [I]	149	0	0	3	5	72	4	7	411	266
43	Skinley PJ [NZ]	148	3	0	3	2	74	7	3	647	427
44	Le Moignan AS [Jer]	146	0	3	19	3	77	4	2	552	368
45	Lowe R [NZ]	145	0	0	4	0	41	5	3	480	334
46	Soo J [USA]	143	0	0	14	9	78	7	1	496	308
47	Cunningham AE [I]	142	4	6	30	9	80	10	3	555	319
48	Duckworth ET	140	1	2	0	0	80	8	4	483	305
49	Hall AT [A]	135	0	0	1	0	93	3	2	1183	686
50	Watson L [A]	135	2	10	20	6	65	2	3	647	441
51	Watts H [A]	128	0	2	5	3	42	5	6	330	236
52	Wilkins TJD	127	1	0	4	0	100	14	1	737	413
53	Garrison TA [NZ]	126	0	3	5	1	68	4	0	471	314
54	Tudor GSJ [W]	124	2	1	11	6	91	6	5	550	324
55	Openshaw DK	113	0	0	13	0	102	11	2	446	256
56	Clarke JC Mrs [NZ]	113	1	0	1	3	166	16	7	1111	616
57	Trimmer PC	109	1	8	3	1	94	6	5	441	250
58	Sands A [A]	105	1	1	1	1	60	4	1	738	490
59	Westerby AJ [NZ]	105	4	1	8	3	40	4	6	355	254
60	Tibble LG	103	1	0	2	3	88	7	2	908	536
61	Parkinson P [NZ]	103	1	0	3	1	48	6	2	642	447
62	Williams CN [W]	102	1	0	1	0	125	7	4	865	478

Ken Bald did the most triples without a TPO or OTP (181). Bruce Fleming did 269 TPs and 1 TPO. Bruce also has the most triples without a sextuple.

David Openshaw did the most TPOs without an OTP - 13, ie when he did a TPO he always won.

Ian Bassett, Cliff Jones had the most TPOs against without an OTP - 8. Note this means they were TPO'ed 8 times and always lost.