Roger Wood won the Centre Stage Competition

[<<] [>>] by Gill Brent at Northampton Croquet Club
12 Sep 2010 (GC)

Roger Wood from Broadwas won the Centre Stage Competition, beating Chris Roberts in the final.

This tournament, which is held every year, is a singles golf croquet tournament for players with a handicap of between 5 and 8. Groups play preliminary rounds at their own clubs and the winner (and runner up, depending on the number of players who have entered from the club) comes through to the final.

This year there were 10 finalists from around the country and, blessed with good weather, everyone enjoyed the day. The players were split into two groups and played each member of their group - one timed level play game of 13 points.

In the semi finals the winner of Group 1, Roger Wood from Broadwas who won all 4 of his games, played Eric Cole from Eynsham, the runner up in Group 2 who won 3 of his games. From Group 2 the winner was Nigel Haslam from Kenilworth who also won 3 games but gained the most net points and he played Chris Roberts from Phyllis Court who was second in Group 1 with 3 wins.

Both semi finals were nail bitingly close, Roger beating Eric 7 hoops to 6 and Chris beating Nigel 7 hoops to 5.

The final was an exciting game to watch and Roger Wood who had beaten Chris Roberts by 4 hoops to 3 in the first round repeated his success winning by 7 hoops to 4 to take the Egg Cup Trophy home to Broadwas Croquet Club.

The trophy and medals were presented by John Bowcott who directs the tournament on behalf of the Croquet Association. Our thanks go to him and to The Northampton Croquet Club for hosting the event once more.