John Reddish wins Hunstanton GC Singles Level Play Championship
13 Jun 2019 (GC)
John Reddish beat David Boxell 7-6 in the final to become this year's club singles champion and representative at next year's EACF GC Champions Day. John played consistently well throughout the day. He only lost one game in the block phase and that on the 13th hoop against David Boxell whom he peeled through the winning hoop!
The original entry of 20 was reduced to 14. This caused the manager to go through several iterations of block sizes and ceding combinations, before settling on two crossed blocks of 7 players each. After 7 rounds the Winners of each block played the runners up of the other blocks in two semi-finals leading to the final. Block A was clear cut with David Boxell on 5 wins and Colin McDonald on 4 wins. Block B was a much more tightly contested affair with three players on 6 wins each. David Thirtle-Watts (+13) missed out by a single hoop on net hoop difference to John Reddish (+20) and Trevor Whittaker (+14). In the semi-finals: John Reddish beat Colin McDonald 7-2 and David Boxell beat Trevor Whittaker 7-5.
Despite the almost constant rain, there was some fine play on display including: good positional play, effective clearances, long range hoop-running and some magnificent jump shots. There were also some good performances by higher handicap players against lower handicap players - beware there are scalp-hunters out there in a points rich environment!
The full results are available on croquet scores at: croquetscores.com/2019/gc/uk-hunstanton-club-champions-singles-level-play/14-players-cross-blocked
We are grateful to David Thirtle-Watts for setting the hoops and lawns; to Gwenda and her helpers for a fine tea; and to the 'lawn elves' for their very discrete clearance of the lawns as play progressed through the later stages of the day.