St Mary's Road, Bowdon, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 2PL
Jock Good won the Selector’s Weekend in fine style by winning all his games and performing triple peels in the quarter and semi-final games. We are almost becoming immune to astonishment at the success that Jack is enjoying. Suffice to say that we are incredibly proud of his achievements, and delighted for him.
Below are the knockout stage results of the Selector’s Weekend, as taken from the excellent Croquet Scores website.
If you have read the previous post regarding the President’s Cup competition you will be familiar with the principles of the ‘Eights’ competitions. If you have not read it then please do so in order to fully understand the competition. The Selectors’ Weekend is played at the same time as the Eights, and is by invitation.
The Selectors’ Weekend will be played for by 16 players. This is not regarded as the “bottom AC Eight”. Instead, it is for players who show promise but have not yet established a record sufficient to gain a place in an AC Eight. It provides an opportunity to play amongst themselves and with established players who are not excessively stronger than the non-established players.
The competition is four rounds of a Swiss competition, followed by a fifth round in which the 6 players on 2 wins are paired against each other. This means there are now 8 players on 3 or more wins, and these then play a three-round knockout to determine the winner. The Swiss continues so that everyone has the opportunity to play eight games over the weekend.
We are very pleased that Jack and Robert have been selected for this event. We wish them the best of luck and fine weather.
Bowdon CC is honoured to be hosting the President’s Cup Competition. This is part of the Croquet Association ‘Eights’ tournaments in which top players compete in groups of eight, according to ability. There are 4 groups of eight and the President’s Cup is for the best eight, so we will be able to watch some of the Croquet Association’s best players, including a recent, and a current, World AC Champion. All eight players have handicaps of -2 or -2.5.
Places will be 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 .
The eight players are:
Robin Brown -2; James Death -2.5 Nottingham; Harry Fisher -2.5 Roehampton; David Goacher -2 Bristol; Debbie Lines -2 Peterborough (Womens’ World Champion AC 2023); Ian Lines -2 Peterborough; Stephen Mulliner -2.5 Surbiton (World Champion AC 2016); and Samir Patel -2.5 Surbiton (winner of The President’s Cup 2022).
Spectators are very welcome. You can be assured of seeing play of the highest quality over 4 days. Obviously all our lawns are closed for general play by members for the 4 days, so come along and watch.
16 players gathered to contest the North of England Championship at Bowdon last weekend, 26th to 28th August. 16 is a good number, because it means that the knockout can begin with 8 singles matches and nobody gets a bye into the next round. All rounds before the final are played on a ‘best of three games’ basis. The final was on a ‘best of five games’ basis. As players are eliminated from the knockout rounds they can play in the ‘Plate’ competition, which involves playing other eliminated players. The top 8 ‘Plate’ players compete in a knockout quarter-final, semi-final and final.
The Championship final was between Ian Lines (-2), of Peterborough and Alain Giraud (-2) a far country member at Bowdon whose main club is Ealing. Ian Lines was a member of Bowdon CC for many years and returns regularly. We certainly still regard him as one of our own. Ian won by 3 games to 1. Alain took the first game 26 – 22 with a triple peel. Ian then took the next 3 games all by 26 – 0 with triple peels. Congratulations to Ian on winning the Faulkner Cup, after last winning it in 2009. Alain wins the Bowdon Cup as runner-up.
Jack Good (0) won the Tollemache Plate, beating Debbie Lines (-2) 26 – 9 in the Plate Final.
Ian Lines receives the Faulkner Cup from Bowdon CC Vice-President Michael Sandler
Photos above by Adrian Apps
All the results are available on the ‘croquet scores’ website at https://croquetscores.com/2023/ac/north-of-england-championship/north-of-england-championship
Alan Mayne had been responsible for preparing the lawns to a superb standard.
The other players in the tournament were:
Nigel Matthews has monopolised the North West Federation tournaments in 2023, by winning the Millennium Level Play GC Trophy at Crake, to add to the Millennium Open AC Trophy that he won at Pendle. A brilliant achievement. Nigel was not the only Bowdon member competing. Angharrad Walters was also participating, along with ‘far country’ member David Cornes (main club Crake).
Nigel and Angharrad each won their Blocks in dominating fashion, with 5 wins out of 5 games. David Cornes won 2 out of 5, in the same block as Angharrad. The top 2 from each Block went through to the knockout stage. In the knockouts, Angharrad lost to Roger Brooks 3 -7, but Nigel beat Dave Venables 7 – 4. In the final Nigel beat Roger Brooks 10 – 9.
Photo below by Angharrad Walters
This coming Bank Holiday Weekend, Saturday 26th to Monday 28th August, Bowdon CC plays host to the most prestigious tournament in our regular calendar. The North of England Championship always provides croquet of the highest standard, and is recommended for spectators who will be very welcome.
Bowdon members playing are:
Our visiting players are:
Nigel Matthews won the North West Federation Millennium Trophy at Pendle last weekend, 19th and 20th August. Angharrad Walters and Robert Essler were also playing in the event.
There wasn’t a knockout stage. Paul Rigge, the manager, organised it as an Egyptian with 5 games to qualify for prizes, but set the target of trying for all play all. Nigel and Angharrad both won 6 out of their 7 games to be joint leaders. However, the deciding factor then was the game between Nigel and Angharrad, which Nigel won 26 – 19. Thus Nigel won the trophy.
Robert won 2 out of his 7 games.
Many congratulations Nigel.
Photo by Angharrad Walters
Content for report, including photo, largely provided by Graham Good
Jack Good is certainly improving rapidly in AC and winning matches and tournaments. His latest win is the Tompkinson Shield open tournament, hosted by the Edgbaston Croquet Club. Congratulations Jack.
Bowdon members Charles Harding (2) and Jack Good (0.5) played at leafy Edgbaston over the weekend 19th and 20th August. Saturday was a 3 round Swiss, with the top eight players going into Sunday’s knockout. Anyone knocked out, dropped back into the Swiss.
Jack and Charles both got into the knockout quarter-final, where Charles lost to Gordon Mills (3.5), who was definitely performing better than his handicap. In his knockout, Jack beat Jonathon Wolfe (0) +24. The semi saw Jack beat Ian Draper (Nottingham) (1.5) +10. In the final Jack’s opponent was Clive Goode (Nottingham) (-0.5) who Jack had already beaten in the Swiss. Jack had a comfortable +21 to win the tournament.
Jack completed his 1st ranking triple in his last game on Saturday. He attempted tp’s in all Sunday’s games, narrowly missing out. Needless to say his handicap fell again. Everyone playing against Jack in a handicap competition will be delighted by that!
In winning the Shield Jack follows previous Bowdon winners, Brian Storey and Martin Granger-Brown.
Details of the Swiss and knockout results are available at https://croquetscores.com/2023/ac/tompkinson-shield-at-edgbaston
Angharrad Walters and Nigel Matthews will be representing Bowdon at the Millenium AC Advanced tournament at Pendle this weekend, 19th and 20th of August.
We wish them good luck and fine weather.
Jack crossed the Pennines to re-fight the ‘War of the Roses’ over the weekend. With minus players making up 2/3rds of the field in this AC Open tournament, it was a step up from his more usual AC ‘B’ level exploits. Apparently this was not an issue for Jack as he won 5 out of 5, playing a previously unbeaten Paul Rigge (-1) in the ‘final’. Paul made his own demonstration to remind the Yorkshire players and supporters that the event had been won by a Lancastrian, and another Lancastrian (himself) was runner-up. Annoying Tykes is always worthwhile!
Robert Essler from Bowdon also played in the event and won 2 out of 4 games to join a group of 4 players tying for fifth place.
To the delight of anyone still playing Jack in handicap events at Bowdon, his handicap was chopped to 0.5, though some thought it could have been chopped more. Well done Jack.
Scores below are from Croquet Scores website.
