Results from Winchester One Ball Charity Championship

[<<] [>>] by Kevin Carter at Winchester Croquet Club
9th May 2011 (AC - Championships)

This year's One-Ball Charity Championship saw £2678 raised for the Breast Cancer Campaign with the Monorchid won by Rutger Beijderwellen and the Cryptorchid won by Sara Anderson.

Saturday saw the final of the 'Cryptorchid' handicap event and Sunday the 'Monorchid' Advanced Level.

About 360 players participated in 27 heats across the country, from Durham to Devon, so naturally the quality of play from heat winners in the final was very high.

After three or four rounds of the Cryptorchid, there were three unbeaten players: Frances Colman (Phyllis Court), Steve Stuart-Mathews (Guildford & Godalming) and Tudor Jenkins (Southwick).

Tudor's very tactical play led to long games and therefore, for him, a short lunch break. Meanwhile, Frances lost to Steve, who was then beaten by a resurgent Howard Cheyne (Surbiton). So, then we had about eight players on one loss and the manager set about playing them off against one another.

Sara Anderson (Woking), Keith Mackenzie-Ross (Winchester), Colin Wall (Sidmouth), John Pearson (Roehampton), John Knight (Reigate) and Jonathan Lamb (Montevideo) were all contenders. Marcus Evans (Nailsea), playing off a punitive handicap of -10 kept his hopes alive with an all-round break and won a bottle of bubbly.

Sara eventually emerged as the winner, with seven wins out eight, sealing her victory with her own magnificent all-round break against Marcus, albeit with plenty of bisques from her 18 handicap. This was a convincing first tournament win and she thoroughly deserved her engraved crystal decanter.

A play-off for second and third saw Keith and Colin, respectively collect their engraved glasses.

A high quality field for the Monorchid included the last three winners of the Advanced Level event: Marcus Evans, Rutger Beijderwellen and Stephen Mulliner. Nick Butler was fourth seed. The format was a best-of-3 KO.

Marcus, a notoriously slow starter, struggled early on (as he did last year when eventually winning the final). He scraped through to the semis against Graham Gale but was then trounced by Rutger. Meanwhile, in the other half James Tuttiett played well to beat Nick and also took a game off Stephen before succumbing to Stephen's excellent break play.

In the first two games of the Rutger v Stephen final, complex tactical starts resulted in Stephen gaining the first break. In the first game he broke down and Rutger finished. The second looked like a repeat after Stephen lost the plot at 5 but Rutger unaccountably blobbed an easy 4-back and Stephen finished.

In the decider, Rutger had an unscheduled stop at hoop 2 but Stephen
missed and Rutger finished. It was a very high class final, with Rutger
especially demonstrating great touch and deserving his sixth (!) crystal decanter. What does he do with them all?

A new feature this year was a prize for the best 'B-class' player in the consolation swiss which was won by Tudor Jenkins.

Reports from the heats this year showed that everybody enjoyed themselves, not least because of the "wear something pink" imperative from the chosen charity, the Breast Cancer Campaign, which benefits to the tune of £2678.