Samir Patel won the President's Cup

[<<] [>>] by Jamie Burch at Ryde
27th September 2022 (AC)

This year's President's Cup started with players with 60 previous appearances between them. An impressive 44 of which belonged to Stephen Mulliner. It also had 3 players, Gabrielle Higgins, Sam Murray and Mark van Loon, making their debuts.

Day one started with all players rushing off the lawns during the warm-up to fetch their waterproofs. As with much of the day, by the time they were found and put on, the downpour had stopped. Heavy rain leading up to the event meant that lawns were heavier than players were used to and many early croquet strokes were under hit. By the end of the day Burch, Patel and van Loon were leading the way with 3 wins. No one finished the day without a win.

Day 2 followed a similar pattern weather wise. Patel continued his fine form and picked up 3 more wins to top the table on 6/8 with Burch and Murray one behind on 5/8.

Burch vs Patel was first up on day 3 in a top of the table clash. Both players spurned good chances before Patel eventually won picking up his first of 4 wins for the day. By the end of day 3, Patel had 10 wins and Burch had 8. This meant that, going into the final day, only Patel and Burch had a chance of winning.

Burch beat Burridge and it looked like Patel would win his game against Mulliner to become champion only to come to grief rushing his peelee to rover. Mulliner hit his last lift and completed a tp to take the tournament into the final round. Burch had a swift tp vs Higgins leaving all eyes on Patel vs Mark van Loon. Van Loon had a ball round third turn and had a couple of chances to get a triple peel going but never quite had control and Patel eventually prevailed plus 12tp to win his second President's cup.

The tireless work of the ground staff and volunteers meant lawns were cut and hoops reset during the tournament. All players were very grateful for all the effort made both with this and the fantastic lunches.

Jamie Burch