Category: CA Competitions

The Croquet England ‘Eights’ are tournaments in which top players compete in groups of eight, according to ability. There are 4 groups of eight players. The President’s Cup is for the best eight.

Jack Good is playing in the second Eight, for the Chairman’s Salver, at Ramsgate. Andrew Winn and far country member Robert Essler are both in the third Eight, for the Spencer Ell Cup, at Pendle.

Places are allocated by the AC Selection Committee. Each competitor plays a single game against each of the other 7 competitors twice. Thus, there are 14 rounds of single games, the winner being the one with most wins. In the event of a tie in the number of wins the possession of the trophy for the year will be decided by a play-off if time permits. For a 2-way tie it will be a single game; in the event of a tie between three or more competitors, the names will be drawn at random and single games will be played in each round. Play is according to Advanced Rules, or if both players agree, Super-Advanced Rules .

We wish Jack, Andrew and Robert the best of luck and fine weather.

To keep up to date with the scores you can access the Croquet Scores website for the Eights at:

https://croquetscores.com/2024/ac/croquet-england-eights

Bowdon CC is proud that Brian Medley, Mike Sandler and far country member David Cornes were selected to play for Team England in the Challenge event against Croquet Scotland. Sadly, it did not turn out to be the successful performance that the England team, and our members, hoped for. Croquet Scotland won the match 18-6. Congratulations Scotland, and commiserations to England.

Photo above shows the teams before battle commenced.

The England team are in their splendid shirts provided by the sponsors, Ambassador Cruises. The England team are, from the left; Mike Sandler, Paul Rigge, Stephen Skelton, Brian Medley, David Cornes and Roger Staples. I am unable to identify the Croquet Scotland team. Sorry about that.

Brian won one of his three singles and lost both doubles. Mike lost all three singles and both doubles. David won two of his three singles and one of his two doubles. Thus David featured in half of Team England’s wins. Well done David. The full results are shown below, as taken from the Croquet Scores website.

The Mary Rose Inter-Club Trophy is a knockout competition for advanced play. Players must have handicaps of 0 and above. The total handicaps of the team must be at least 4. Bowdon beat Chester in the second round (both teams had byes for the first round) and Bury in the Quarter Finals. They faced Nottingham in the Semi-Final, at Bowdon, on Friday 30th August, and sadly lost 2 -5.

Nottingham won the morning doubles and both singles to take a 0 – 3 lead. Bowdon would have needed to win all of the 4 afternoon singles to win the match. As it was, we could only win 2 of them. Particular mention should be made of Mike Shelmerdine’s success against a 2 handicap player in the afternoon.

The Mary Rose competition began in 1983 and Bowdon have won it 7 times, the last time in 2019. Next year we will try again. Well done team, for getting to the semi-final this season.

Bowdon’s team was a strong one, as below, with their handicaps.

Nottingham Team was – Alex McIntyre 0.5, Sophie McGlen 0.5, Ian Draper 1.5 and Bob Thompson 2.5

Game results, provided by Charles, are shown below, Bowdon’s scores first.

AM – Charles & Mike Sandler lost to Alex & Sophie -17

           Adrian lost to Bob – 3

           Mike Shelmerdine lost to Ian – 23

PM – Charles lost to Alex – 13

         Adrian lost to Ian – 7

         Mike Sandler (joint star of the afternoon) beat Sophie + 5

          Mike Shelmerdine (other star) beat Bob + 12

This national Golf Croquet event under the auspices of Croquet England is Level Play, without handicap restrictions. Bowdon have been very successful in beating Chester in the first round, and High Wycombe in the second round.

Our team travelled to Edgbaston for the match on Thursday 29th August. The result was a great win, 5 – 2, for Bowdon. This match was the semi-final, and Bowdon now have to play Nottingham in the final. Well done team.

The game results are shown below, courtesy of the Croquet Scores website.

Bowdon’s experienced team is:

The Mary Rose Inter-Club Trophy is a knockout competition for advanced play. Players must have handicaps of 0 and above. The total handicaps of the team must be at least 4. Bowdon beat Chester in the second round (both teams had byes for the first round) and Bury in the Quarter Finals. They now face Nottingham in the Semi-Final, at Bowdon, on Friday 30th August. Should Bowdon win this match they will play against Surbiton in the final.

The Mary Rose competition began in 1983 and Bowdon have won it 7 times, the last time in 2019. Spectators will enjoy seeing some exciting advanced play.

As you would expect Bowdon’s team is a strong one, as below.

We wish them good luck and fine weather.

David Maugham won the North of England Championship, beating Aaron Webster (26tp-0, 26-11, 26tp-10) in the final. It was not surprising that the 2 lowest handicapped players, each on -2.5, contested the final. Both had played excellent quality croquet throughout the weekend. The lawns were in great condition and the weather was mostly kind. Mike Sandler, Bowdon Croquet Club Vice-President, presented the trophies.

Mike also presented Aaron Webster with the Bowdon Cup, and David Kibble with the Tollemache Plate.

The results from the main championship are shown below, up to the final.

Below is the Tollemache Plate knockout result.

The players, in action during the tournament, are shown below with their handicaps. Mike Sandler wishes it to be widely known that his handicap came down to 1 during the tournament. Simon Jenkins took the photographer’s award for the best style in his follow through!!

Jack Good won the Croquet England GC ‘First Eight’ title, ‘The Ricki Savage Memorial Trophy’. The ‘Eights’ are played by the country’s top players, by invitation. Jack and Euan were both put in the top ‘First Eight’. Jack and Euan Burridge won through to the semi-finals. Euan was beaten by Aston Wade 4-7, 4-7. Jack beat Stephen Mulliner in the other semi-final 7-4, 7-5. Jack then went on to beat Aston Wade in the final 7-6, 7-5. Photo shows Jack being presented with the trophy by Stephen Mulliner.

In the Block stage Jack had won all his 7 games, as shown in the grid below, taken from the Croquet Scores website. Jack accordingly won the Block, and Euan tied with Aston Wade for second place with 5 wins. Stephen Mulliner went through as fourth in the block with 4 wins. The top 4 players from the Block went into the knock-out.

Thus Jack won a total of 9 matches in the Block and knock-out stages, dropping only 3 games. That is amazingly dominant form. Very well done Jack!!

This national Golf Croquet event under the auspices of Croquet England is Level Play, without handicap restrictions. Bowdon have been very successful in beating Chester in the first round, and High Wycombe in the second round. Our team is again a strong one, and will travel to Edgbaston for the match on Thursday 29th August.

Bowdon’s experienced team is:

We wish them good luck and fine weather.

Jack Good and Euan Burridge are playing in Croquet England’s Golf Croquet ‘Eights’ tournaments. The ‘Eights’ involve top players competing in groups of eight, according to ability. There are 3 groups of eight in the GC Eights and Jack and Euan are competing in the First Eight, at Budleigh Salterton over the weekend of 24th-26th August.

The First Eight (The Ricki Savage Memorial) is, in alphabetical order: Richard Bilton, Euan Burridge, Ian Burridge, Jack Good, Callum Johnson, Stephen Mulliner, Stuart M Smith and Aston Wade.

We wish them good luck and fine weather.

Bowdon lost, 1 -6, at Southport in the Longman Cup Semi Final on Tuesday 20th August. Our team have had a remarkable run in this national knock-out competition. They began with a win away at Ashby, followed by another long journey to win at Nottingham. The quarter final match against Wrest Park was their only home match, which they won. Yet another away match, this time the semi-final at Southport, ended their run of victories. Southport were always going to be very tough opponents. In their previous 3 rounds Southport had only conceded a total of 4 games. We are very proud of this team, who have shown what it is to compete in handicap play.

The Bowdon team was, with their handicaps, once again:

The Southport team, with their handicaps, was; David Venables 11, Peter Williams 11, Eddie Green 11 and Eileen Rossiter 18.

The game results were as follows, with Bowdon’s scores first:

Andrew and Cas lost to Peter and Eileen 12-18

Liz beat Eddie 18-11, and lost to Peter 6-19

Ed lost to David 3-26, and Eddie 5-21

Andrew lost to David 12-19

Cas lost to Eileen 12-16