Will Gee won the Ascot Cup

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Ascot Players with the Manager Freda Vitty (holding trophy) (Photo: Unknown)

When Will met Rachel!
Will Gee played clubmate and girlfriend Rachel Rowe in the final of the English National Singles Championship at Hurlingham on 22nd September 2013, winning 5-7, 7-4, 7-2.
Apart from the absence of holder, Stephen Mulliner and regular attender, Robert Fulford, this was the strongest field ever assembled for the final of this competition, with all players having handicaps of 0 or 1. There were 7 players in their teens or twenties and the oldest was reputedly over 80!
The lawns, including those on the cricket pitch, were excellent and there was not one complaint about the conditions; the weather man had promised sunshine and although it remained cloudy for both days, there was no rain - a blessing for a manager organising a tight schedule. The format was two seeded blocks of 8, all play all one 19 point games untimed. The hope had been to complete 6 of the seven rounds on the Saturday and this was almost achieved. In block B, Richard Thompson and William Ormerod battled in their 5th round match until dusk, Richard winning 10-5. In Block A, the vital game between Rachel Rowe and Howard Cheyne was pegged down at 6 all.
So on Sunday morning, all the games left in Block A could have an effect on the results, with Rachel guaranteed to qualify but hoping to finish top, to avoid meeting Will in a semi-final. Block B was standing with Will already qualified and the second place up for grabs between Lionel Tibble, Chris Sheen and Ryan Cabble. The final round match between Tibble and Sheen was won by Lionel 10 -3 and Ryan was beaten by the determined William Ormerod in a close match.
William Ormerod was the oldest player by a considerable margin and his deliberate and accurate play made for close and lengthy games; apart from losing 5-10 to Richard Thompson at the end of Saturday, all of his other games, including 2 wins, went to 10 -8 or 10 -9.
Chris Sheen who had come in as reserve at the last minute finished on Saturday with the possibility of qualifying, but his game on Sunday in his last 2 rounds was disappointing.
Harry Dodge, who was the in-form player and the pre-match favourite of many, lost to Richard Thompson, Chris Sheen and Lionel Tibble, but played a commanding game in the last round beating Will Gee in an exciting and quality match. This was not enough for him to make the semis.
Having lost only that game, Will was top of his block; Rachel's only loss was to John Spiers in the fourth round and so she avoided meeting Will in the semis. Her semi against Lionel Tibble was never in doubt and Rachel won 7 - 4, 7 -1. The other semi between Will and Howard Cheyne was closer, with the second game going to Will on hoop thirteen to win the match.
So we had the final set up between Rachel and Will; this was the first time a woman had been in the final of this competition. In a potentially nervy match between club mates, doubles partners and life partners, Rachel made the best start, continuing to play almost faultlessly, placements, clearances and hoop-running. She reported afterwards that she felt the spectators were on her side and this helped. She won the first game 7- 5, with Will beginning to play better but unable to catch Rachel's clear lead; in the second game, Will continued to pick up his game winning 7 -4. The decider was played to a smaller crowd, people, including myself, leaving to catch trains etc .
Final game report by Tim King.
In Game 3, Rachel started by putting her Blue ball short. Will badly missed his first hoop attempt but then ran Hoop 1 cleanly from the South boundary to beyond Hoop 2. With Red also onside in the vicinity of Hoop 2, Will looked in strong position but Rachel approached deep with Blue and then ran the hoop from that position. Will failed Hoop 3 twice but the second time into the jaws. This enabled him to go 2-1 up and run to within 8 feet of Hoop 4. However, Will missed an attempt at the hoop and then Rachel cleared his other ball to 25 yards (in the area between Hoops 3 and 6 and the North boundary), with her next ball to play one foot in front of the hoop. Will ran Hoop 4 from that position! He was then able to clear Rachel's ball in front of Hoop 5, which then missed the 8-yard return clearance; 4-1 to Will. Hoop 6 was a tough battle; several big clearances between the two of them but eventually Rachel prevailed to go 2-4. More battling at Hoop 7 included Will failing to get ball properly into the jaws and leaving Rachel with a path through to hoop and potential in-off. Her shot drifted off-line from 6 yards hitting Will's ball on the wrong side. She managed to recover with an 8-yard clearance but after Will failed another hoop attempt, he eventually gets too far through jaws for Rachel to prevent him leading 5-2. Another missed return clearance by Rachel at Hoop 8 (the 8 to 10-yard distance at which she rarely misses when she is playing her best) and Will is all but there at 6-2. His Red is also onside in the vicinity of Hoop 9, so although Rachel makes a clearance and then puts in a block, Will is able to make the jump shot to win the National Championship that he previously won two years ago.
The plate competition was won by Tobi Savage winning 3 out of 3 games in the Egyptian competition. Full results can be seen at www.croquetscores.com