Roy Tillcock won the Ryde Open Golf Croquet Tournament

[<<] [>>] by Richard Harris at Ryde LT&CC
20 Jul 2014 (GC - Championships)

The eighth playing of the Centenary Cup took place at Playstreet Lane last weekend 12th & 13th July in glorious weather. The original entries included eight visitors, including Cliff Jones from the Croquet Academy, Carole Jackson, David Hopkins and Graham Thompson from Compton, Keith and Maggie Webb from West Worthing, Richard Jenkins from Hamptworth and Chris Roberts from Phyllis Court. Unfortunately a couple were unable to attend but thanks to the strength in depth of Ryde members, two replacements were found at short notice.

Carole Jackson (0) was seeded 1 with Ryde's Roy Tillcock (1) as last year's winner being seeded 2. Under Cliff Jones'(1) management, the entries were divided into two blocks of eight with all playing all in 13 hoop games on Saturday. Not content with that, a full programme also included the first game in the quarter finals for the championship qualifiers.

Perhaps surprisingly, Carole lost her opening game to Nick Westmore (4) but was very decisive in the remainder winning 6 out of 7. Roy Tillcock managed the same, although losing 4-7 to Richard Harris (3) but making sure of his place in the qualifying draw. Stuart Peters (2) also managed six wins and the other qualifiers were Cliff Jones, with 5, Richard Harris, Dave Willett and John Sim with 4.

On Sunday morning the best of three quarter finals were completed with none of them going beyond two games. Going through to the semi finals, Carole met Cliff and won 7-5, 7-6, while the local pair of Stuart and Roy saw Roy through to the final 7-5, 6-7, 7-5. In the meantime in the playoffs, Dave Willet beat John Sim 7-6, 4-7, 7-5 and Keith Webb beat Richard Harris 1-7, 7-2, 7-5.

In a long hard fought final, Carole won the first game 7-3 and seemed to have put her stamp on the match but Roy clawed his way back and took the equaliser 7-5 and the decider by the same score, so as to retain his championship.

The tournament is a qualifying event for the National Golf Croquet Championships, the Ascot Cup, which will be played at Ryde on 20th and 21st September. Having decided not to compete in 2013, Roy has now booked his place for the grand final and we wish him every success.

In the playoff for third and fourth place, Stuart Peters continued his run of success beating Cliff Jones 7-5, 3-7, 7-6. For the fifth position Keith Webb beat Dave Willett 10-7 in a 19 point game and seventh place was taken by Richard Harris beating John Sim 10-9. The Plate, which was played as a random draw, was won by Jim O'Keeffe who was unbeaten.