Nailsea Open Weekend report - fine wine, lawns, and company

Despite (or perhaps because of) this, a convivial atmosphere prevailed throughout, which was only enhanced by Dave Kibble serving glasses of bubbly at lunchtime in celebration of the 30th anniversary of his first croquet tournament, which was at the same venue. The fact that none of the first 8 games had actually finished by then didn't matter much, with no time limits imposed several of them continued well into the afternoon, with the longest one finishing at around 6.30pm. It has to be remembered though that both players were spending much of that time making progress in their other games.

I should mention at this point that the lawns (timed at 12 seconds mid-afternoon, and certainly quicker than that in several places) and typically firm hoops were the main cause of lengthy games, rather than any slow play - the lawns are comfortably in the best condition they have ever been thanks to thousands of hours of care and attention by club members, in particular John and Kathy Wallace. There are now very few imperfections, which means precise and careful play is paramount but rewarding.

It soon became clear that completing a full schedule of 36 games over the weekend would not be feasible, so on Sunday morning the manager decided to pretend it had been a flexible Swiss all along, though the practice of playing 2 games at once was continued.

Another delicious lunch on Sunday was accompanied by a 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape, I can't promise that again next year but the lawns and the company should still be spot on - do come and give it a try.

By mid-afternoon Marcus Evans had reached 5 wins from 5 games, and he was then joined on 5 wins (out of 6) by Dave Kibble. The manager declared percentages and who-beat-whom would not be used, instead the players agreed on a Super-Advanced One-Ball play-off, which was won by Dave after some excellent (and some indifferent) play by both sides. He therefore took home the trophy for the first time.

As is traditional for this tournament, a prize was also awarded to the best performance by a player of handicap scratch or above. This year it went to Taunton's Neil Fillery (3.5) who played very well to defeat one of the top seeds as well as 2 of his peers.

Despite the peeling prize being based on the number of peels (in the same turn in which peelee is pegged out) plus the peeler's handicap (rover peels and double peels also counting), this went to Marcus Evans with 2 points in total.

Full results:

Neil Fillery beat David Warhurst +6

Neil Fillery beat David Hunt +6

David Warhurst beat David Hunt +14

Dave Kibble beat Bob Whiffen +17

Dave Kibble beat John Henderson +17

Bob Whiffen beat John Henderson +2

Marcus Evans beat David Harrison-Wood +18

Marcus Evans beat Peter Balchin +20

Peter Balchin beat David Harrison-Wood +3

Neil Fillery beat Peter Balchin +9

David Hunt beat Bob Whiffen +8

David Harrison-Wood beat Bob Whiffen +9

David Warhurst beat John Henderson +22

Marcus Evans beat Dave Kibble +25tp

Dave Kibble beat Neil Fillery +7

David Hunt beat John Henderson +3

David Harrison-Wood beat John Henderson +20

Dave Kibble beat David Harrison-Wood +23

Marcus Evans beat Neil Fillery +25

Dave Kibble beat David Warhurst +14

Marcus Evans beat David Warhurst +17tp

Peter Balchin beat Bob Whiffen +18

John Henderson beat Neil Fillery +10t

David Harrison-Wood beat David Warhurst +5t

Appendix - schema for a 9-player block over 4 'double-header' rounds:

Round One

AvB BvC CvA DvE EvF FvD GvH HvJ JvG

Round Two

FvJ AvJ BvE EvH BvH CvF CvG GvD AvD

Round Three

AvE EvG AvG CvD DvJ CvH BvF FvH BvJ

Round Four

DvH AvH BvG BvD CvJ JvE CvE FvG AvF

Note: this has not been fully tested nor have I run it through a computer to check it definitely works, use at your own risk! I think in easy playing conditions with 9 minus-players, this could be feasible for a weekend tournament, otherwise 3 days are probably needed.