Jamie Burch Won the President's Cup

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(Photo: Paddy Chapman)

Jamie Burch beat Robert Fulford +14 in a play-off after both had scored 9/14 to win his first President's Cup. He shot superbly well throughout the event and, despite some vicissitudes in Round 14 and one in the play-off, was a very worthy winner.

The Bowdon lawns were very well presented and the hoops were as well-set as possible. However, the ground had enough inherent moisture to suggest that players of this standard would be unlikely to make many hooping errors and so it proved. No fewer than 47 of the 56 games had peeling turns, including three sextuples (one a 4th turn sxpo by David Maugham) and 12 quadruples (seven QPs, three QPOs and two OQPs). Stopping at 3-back was regularly adopted as a strategy to avoid being pegged out, not always successfully, and some 3-back positions were converted into 4-back without a lift and then a TP.

Day 4 started with four players in contention. Burch (8/12) beat Patel (8/12) +24tp after Patel made two highly uncharacteristic hooping errors. Fulford (8/12) failed on a sxp against Mulliner and lost -6qpo and Chapman (7/12) kept his hopes alive by beating Trimmer +3. Round 14 pitched Burch, now the outright leader on 9/13, against Avery, the back-marker on 2/13. Burch reached 4-back and was TPOd but had the title in his grasp ("on his mallet" to quote Paddy Chapman's evocative phrase) when Mark left two balls near hoop 1 and Jamie hit. However, both this chance of a 3 ball break to win and a second (when Avery laid up below hoop 1 after running hoop 4!) were spurned and Avery won +2tpo.

Meanwhile, Fulford kept his hopes alive by beating Trimmer +11tpo to join Burch on 9/14 while both Chapman and Patel lost to Mulliner and Maugham by 26sxp and 1tp respectively.

The play-off between Burch and Fulford was quite short and worth describing as it epitomises the main features of Burchian croquet. Rob won the toss and put Jamie in (error?) who elected to gently bounce Y off hoop 5 to achieve the super-shot opening lawfully. Rob put B just outside C2 but Jamie hit with R and took a break to 3-b, leaving B in C4, Y in C2 and R in C3. Rob simply rolled B along the S yard-line and left a rush to hoop 1 for K just outside C1. Jamie now hit the 33 yarder with Y at K, made hoop 1 but failed to rush K close enough to R in C3 to get a rush to H2. Instead, he attempted to roll it off from C3 but failed an angled hoop. Rob now missed his first proper chance, namely K near H3 at Y near H2. Jamie now roqueted R with Y, rushed K south so that he could access B which had been left a few yards N of H1, and soon had a break and a QP under control. Two peels were achieved before 3-b where he misapproached and failed an impossibly angled hoop.

Rob now played a characteristically neat turn in which R was peeled from penult and out of the game and Y was peeled to 4-b to remove any squeeze potential. B was left in C2 and K on the S boundary due S of hoop 4 to prevent a roll up to 4-b.

Jamie now rose to the occasion, no doubt acutely aware that he had already squandered three chances to win the title. He took contact from B in C2 and rolled to 4-b, getting 4 yard reasonably straight position. He ran this with some wire and so fell short of B. This was rolled to 2 yards NE of the peg while Y gained 4 foot position. Y ran down to 4 yards SSW of the peg so Jamie gently roqueted B from 6 yards. The roll to rover was rather short of pace but his Solomon-grip swing remained smooth and Y ran rover to the boundary, leaving a 7 yard return roquet. This was hit and Jamie pegged out to deserved applause.

Colin Irwin changed jacket from chief hoop-setter to CA Vice-President and presented the trophies to the winner and runner-up. Jamie thanked all those involved with particular mention of the superb Bowdon catering.

Final positions
1: 9 wins - Jamie Burch (beat Fulford +14 in play-off)
2: 9 wins - Robert Fulford
3: 8 wins - Paddy Chapman, David Maugham, Samir Patel
6: 7 wins - Stephen Mulliner
7: 4 wins - Pete Trimmer
8: 3 wins - Mark Avery

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