Bamford and Chapman reach World Championship Final

[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent at Wellington, NZ
10th February 2018 (World Championship)

The semi-finals of the 2018 AC World Championship were played at the Wellington Club, which has three lawns cut into a steep hillside. The threatened rain mostly held off, but the mist rolled in sufficiently to close the airport. Reg Bamford beat Jose Riva 3-1, with a sextuple peel in the third which pleased the crowd. It might well have gone to a fifth game had not Jose's ball bounced off Rover back onto his mallet when trying to jump Rover after the peelee stuck in it.

The other semi-final went the distance. Stephen Mulliner won a tight first game +4 tpo in just under the three hour time-limit, but then things speeded up with Paddy Chapman winning games 2, 3 and 5.

England therefore no longer has a national representative left in main event, but on a more parochial level we retain an interest in that members of Surbiton and Nottingham will contest the final. It will be played back at Kelburn, along those of the consolation events, in which we do have representatives: Jonathan Powe in the bowl, James Death in the Shield and Alain Giraud in the Plate.

If you want to read more about the organisation of the event (and particularly the profiles of many of the players) go to http://www.sporty.co.nz/2018acworldchampionships.

If you want to follow the progress of the championship in near real-time go to https://croquetscores.com/2018/ac/wcf-world-championship/main-ko indeed if you click on the commentary button you can follow play of the some of key matches as they happen. A different commentator covered each of the two matches today and they plan to interleave their thoughts tomorrow. Hope you enjoy it, but aren't tempted to stay up too late: the start time tomorrow is again 9am (8pm GMT) and the matches will again be best of five.