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Tom Whiteley won the Student Championship

[<<] [>>] by Ian Plummer at Oxford University
23rd June 2010 (AC - Championships)

6 Triples, 6 Universities, 17 Players and the Student Championships.

Players from Cambridge, Gloucester, Nottingham, Trinity College Dublin and Warwick met at Oxford University to compete for the Student Individual and Team Championships. This year there was a wide span of ages as well as abilities; two mature students were amongst the pack and handicaps ranged from -1 to the undefined! All matches were played Level Advanced so there was no opportunity for banditry.

Oxford's Sports department claim not to have mowers available for croquet which would cut under 12mm! Consequently the lawns speeds were ~8 Plummers making long rolls arduous but control easy. (Donations of cash or suitable lawn mowers welcomed!)

The manager, Harry Fisher, ingeniously alternated doubles and singles for successive matches and despite short time limits the majority of games completed.

In the semi-finals of the team event Will Gee (Oxford) (-1) tripled his novice partner, Luke Valori, against the Trinity College Dublin pair. Tom Whitley (Oxford) also notched up a well-controlled triple in the other semi against Cambridge, with the assistance of his partner Harry Fisher. Not content with that triple Tom repeated the process to beat Will and Luke to win the Edmund Reeve Varsity Trophy for the team event ... again with Harry's assistance!

In the singles, Will Gee was knocked out in the semi-finals by some audacious play by Harry Fisher - unfortunately Will's shooting was not at its best. In the other semi Tom Whiteley beat Danny Johnston (TCD) this time without a triple! Danny had however managed one in an earlier round.

The singles final was another all-Oxford event: Tom versus Harry. Tom played controlled and precise croquet and won the Dudley Hamilton-Miller Student Championship Singles cup for the second year running ... with another triple!

Congratulations to Tom and Harry and our thanks to Andrew Hope who gave an excellent speech about the benefits of croquet and awarded the prizes on the behalf of the Croquet Association.

Singles Results

Blocks

Tom Whiteley +12(t) John Wells
Rob Thorman +6(t) Rachel Rowe
Danny Johnston +15 Joel Taylor
Will Gee +24 Fiachra Carroll
Tom Whiteley +26 Tony Williams
Harry Fisher +15 Rob Thorman
Joel Taylor +24 Neil Bacon
Rob E-W +16 Fiachra Carroll
Danny Johnston +26tp Neil Bacon
Will Gee +26tp Rob Edlin-White
John Wells +25 Tony Williams
Rachel Rowe +5 Harry Fisher

Knockout

Quarter-Finals

Harry Fisher +19 Rob Edlin-White
Will Gee +25 Rachel Rowe
Danny Johnston +26 John Wells
Tom Whiteley +7(t) Joel Taylor

Semi-Finals

Tom Whiteley +11 Danny Johnston
Harry Fisher +14 Will Gee

Final

Tom Whiteley +26tp Harry Fisher

Team Results

Quarter-Finals

Oxford "A" +24 Nottingham "B"
Oxford "B" +20 Cambridge "B"
Cambridge "A" +11(t) Nottingham "C"
Dublin +11(t) Nottingham "A"

Semi-Finals

Oxford "A" +26tp Cambridge "A"
Oxford "B" +26tp Dublin

Final

Oxford "A" +26tp Oxford "B"

Oxford "A" (Harry Fisher and Tom Whiteley) win team event



 

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