The allocation deadline for our CqE Tournament on May 2-4 is this Friday, 6th March. If you wish to enter the tournament you should do so by that date.
The sign-up sheet that was on the club notice board has now been taken down but please note that you can still enter the Tournament via the CqE website by clicking this link: CqE- Tournament Entry
Please note; if the tournament is oversubscribed on the allocation day, places will be allocated by lot.
The sign-up sheets for the CqE midweek B class tournament and the club mid-week Short and 14 point handicap tournaments will remain available.
There are sheets on the notice board in the clubhouse where you can now sign up for the May handicap, midweek B class, midweek short croquet and midweek 14 point tournaments. The first two of these can also be entered via the Croquet England website.
If signing up on the sheet please pay the relevant fee to the club via bank transfer and include the correct text in the reference as described on the signup sheet. Also please could you drop an email to Brian Medley and Gaynor Edwards to let us know you have entered.
The advanced June weekend and championship of the north of England should be entered via the croquet England website.
The dates are: 2nd – 4th May: May Handicap Tournament 30th – 31st May: June Advanced Weekend 30th June – 1st July: Midweek B Level 22nd – 23rd July: Short Croquet Tournament 5th – 6th August: 14 Point Handicap Tournament 29th – 31st August: Northern Championship
The World Croquet Federation World Championships are played every two years, with AC alternating with the GC every other year. This years its AC’s turn, where the Worlds best players make their way to Palm Beach in Florida.
Bowdon’s representatives were Angharrad Walters, Jack Good and Euan Burridge. All three of them did well in their blocks and made their way to the Championship knock out competition. Sadly they couldn’t capitalise on their successes in the blocks and were knocked out in the first round. As first round eliminations, they progressed to the Bowl. In the First Round, Angharrad was beaten by Stephen Mulliner whilst Jack and Euan won their games, Jack against David Fuller and Euan against Greg Hill. Euan lost his next game against Jenny Clarke, whereas Jack beat Samir Patel to face Edmund Fordyce in the semi final. Jack started out well wining the first game in the best of three match, however Edmund recovered well and won the next two. Edmund lost to Steven Mulliner in the final of the Bowl.
Reg Bamford won the Championship for the 6th time, beating Mark Avery in the final. Reg won in some style, winning all his matches in the Championship knockout, each with a triple peel., 15 in total. Impressive to say the least.
Reg only lost two matches throughout the whole tournament. One was to the Ben Rothman and the other to our very own Jack Good in the Block matches. Well done Jack.
Here’s Reg, congratulating Jack after his win in the block, current World Champion shaking hands with future World Champion perhaps!
Bowdon (Good, Walters, Winn and Matthews) lost 5-2 to Surbiton (Mulliner, Parish, Eardley and Wilkins) in the final of the National AC Interclub, held at Letchworth on Saturday 4th October. Such matches often rest on fine margins, and just a couple of errors perhaps separated that scoreline from a 4-3 victory to Bowdon.
Letchworth is a lovely club, with friendly volunteers, flat green lawns running at a reasonable pace, and benefits from modern facilities shared with a large tennis club. The conditions were windy but dry and mostly sunny, being far enough south to be away from the worst of Storm Amy.
Bowdon have found themselves in the final of the GC Inter-Club. They played Roehampton at Cheltenham. The Bowdon team, captained by Nigel Matthews was Nigel, Jack Good, Angharrad Walters and David Cornes. Roehampton’s team was Mark van Loon, Nick Yates, Harry Fisher, and Tim Russell.
A very close match with half of the individual games going to three games, however despite best efforts Roehampton just edged the final 4 matches to Bowdon’s 3. In games it was 9 all and hoops were also close Roehampton running 109 to Bowdon’s 105.
Commiserations Bowdon on a great run. Here’s a picture of the finalists.
Club member Jack Good continued his summer of playing in tournaments by taking part in the Ascot Cup. The Ascot Cup is awarded to the winner of English National Singles Championship for Golf Croquet. Jack won the same competition last year, so this year he was trying to retain the trophy.
Jack sailed through his Block winning all his games. In the Championship proper he beat Andrew Hobbs and progressed into the semi finals were he beat Dom Arrvold.
In the final Jack played Richard Bolton, whom he beat 6-7, 7-3 and took the final game 7-6. As the scores suggest the final was gripping. Richard won the 1st game 7-6, Jack replied with a 7-3. In the last game Jack was 6-5 up and had first shot at hoop 12 – he missed and Richard made it 6-6. A very nervy hoop 13 saw Jack win with a slightly angle shot from just inside the boundary. Well done Jack.
Brian Medley and Charles Harding are on their travels again this weekend. This time taking part in CqE Selectors weekend. You can follow their progress on Croquet Scores by clicking here
The AC Presidents Cup is being played this weekend, and Bowdon member Jack Good has been invited to take part. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Presidents Cup here’s a link to the Wikipedia page explaining the background and giving a list of previous winners, including Bowdons David Maugham.
The current holder is Stephen Mulliner. Jack won most of his matches in the eights as did Stephen.
You can follow today’s action on Croquet Scores by clicking here.
The Championship of the North of England, one of the four national regional championships, was held at Bowdon as usual over the August bank holiday weekend.
After the hot, dry, summer, the conditions were more difficult than usual with significant bare and brown patches, tight hoops set in firm unforgiving ground, and also new Invictus balls which behave differently to the familiar Dawsons. All this made for highly interactive games, with even the best players regularly failing hoops and turning down the opportunity to try a triple peel – and games going to time.
Despite some twists along the way, perhaps the most dramatic of which was Andrew Winn having a chance of knocking out David Maugham in the semifinals, the final was between the almost traditional pairing of David vs Ian Lines. This contest continued into the Tuesday morning as the tournament had run so far behind schedule. A live commentary was available on the Croquet Scores website, telling the story of David beating Ian 2-1 to retain the trophy, winning the championship for an impressive 15th time. Debbie Lines won the Plate.
All in all the event was a resounding success, played in great spirit and well prepared for by the grounds team, aided by Angharrad Walters organising and tidying the clubhouse and smoothly managed by Ian Lines.
David Maugham receives the Faulkner Cup from tournament secretary Angharrad WaltersIan Lines receives the runner up trophy, the Bowdon Cup.
Bowdon hosted Nottingham B in Croquet Englands Inter-Club Short Croquet Competition on Thursday 28th August in the Semi-final of the Inter-Club short competition.
The Bowdon team which was the same that won the quarter finals is: Nigel Matthews – Captain (4p), Ken Cooper (2p), Alan Dix (1.5), Robert Cutts-Watson (4). The Nottingham team was: Viv (3.5), Sarah (3.5), Roger (5) and Julianne (6). (Nottingham were a bit shy as such they didn’t share their surnames!!)
Nottingham shot into an early lead winning all three of the first session of games. A cup of tea at the break helped Bowdon who clawed back a few games by winning three of the next session. Lunch break seemed to go against Bowdon as Nottingham won three of the remaining games, running out 7 – 4 winners. Commiserations Bowdon.
