Cheltenham Golf Croquet Championship (Ascot Cup Qualifier)

[<<] [>>] by Kevin Ham at Cheltenham
3 Jun 2018 (GC - Championships)

The Cheltenham round of the Ascot Cup was won by Harry Fisher in a final against Simon Carter 7-2, 5-7, 7-5.

Harry was a late entry, filling in for a late cancelation, taking the thirty second place with just three days to spare. There were eight blocks of four contesting the eight places in the knockout. The top seeds made it through as expected. The next four were not in line with the rankings with Jayne Stevens, Graham Good and Stuart Smith beating the odds.

There were no time limits, apart from a few games at the end of day in the in the consolation block. I had hoped the first game of the quarterfinals would be played on Saturday. It was not to be and they started at nine o'clock on Sunday. The semi finals started at noon with the top seeds playing. The final started at three. It was a managers delight going to three games but it was over in two hours. The lawns at Cheltenham are a delight to play on, flat and the hoops were firm. The weather was sunny with some dark and white clouds. On Saturday we were distracted by some loud jets on afterburn, there was also a black plane with a distinctive twin rudder, a Lancaster.

My thanks to Jay Dyer, who was a non playing ROT, and my particular thanks to Dawn Bentley, who acted as my scribe on both days.