Paul Rigge — Page 15 — Croquet in the North West

Lancs Survive Croquet Inter Counties

29 May 2013 by Paul Rigge

Southwick (Brighton) Croquet Club, May 25-28th, 2013 Inter-Counties.

Lancashire remain in division one (even though we were rubbish, our rubbish was still good enough).

Bury members Matt Holmes & Paul Rigge again turned out for our county over the bank holiday weekend.
On paper this year’s campaign down on the south coast should have been a strong one, but game after game went against us – time & again chances were dropped or missed by the full squad, so as is usual for your county side, our fate depended upon others to fail even worse than we did – and they duly obliged us, so by the last day we were deemed to be in seventh place and safe.
During the weekend, Yorkshire duffed us up, being back in the top flight for the first time in five years, but took the sting out of the loss by buying the wine over our joint *Roses* Dinner which followed that match.
We did however beat our other neighbours, Cheshire, the following day so we couldn’t have drunk that much, or maybe the Yorkshire team were too tight to supply us with enough booze to affect our play.

Walters and Essler succeed at Fed Croquet Premier Advanced event.

22 April 2013 by Paul Rigge

North West Federation’s Premier Seasonal Advanced Tournament – Neil Williams Millennium Cup at HeatonPark 20/21st April

Neil Williams Millennium Cup – David Walters (Bowdon)
Woodlands Trophy – Robert Essler (Pendle & Craven)

David Walters (Bowdon) again displayed total dominance in the top croquet event, retaining his title for the second year with a very clean sheet and Robert Essler (Pendle & Craven) winning the Trophy for the first time. So Bowdon and Pendle clubs both retain the Federation’s silverware for this year.

David Walters being presented with the Neil Williams Trophy by Bury Chairman Paul Kenworthy

The weather forecast for the weekend was wall to wall blue sky on Saturday, and after a bright start, light rain followed by sunshine to end on Sunday, and that’s what we got (if you re-define the word “light”). We had a full field of sixteen players in the contest this year but with some clubs unable to fill their two available slots and ot

hers requesting “flexibility” into how a place could be filled and two contestants both with colour blindness issues requesting Primes only, the manager was having ‘fun’ long before a ball had been struck to fill the field. This was further compounded with a late withdrawal Friday evening, necessitating an extra player being found and the entire draw being redone overnight.

Saturday dawned, and play started bang on time for only fifteen players, one had forgotten his entry. So after a quick “scramble” phone call to his home, we had all sixteen available by round two. After four rounds the overnight leaders with clean sheets were last year’s winners but into Sunday only David kept his control to retain the Cup. Robert Essler became stronger the deeper into the weekend he went, shaking of his winter rust and lack of practice time, claiming the trophy for the best “B” player at the event.

Robert Essler being presented with the Woodlands Trophy by Bury Chairman Paul Kenworthy

Thanks are due to Bury Croquet Club, who hosted the event and all the hard work undertaken by their volunteers. Bury CC Club Chairman Paul Kenworthy presented the Trophies to the winners David Walters and Robert Essler. The event was successfully managed by Federation Secretary Paul Rigge.

Matt Holmes Invited into International Squad

26 March 2013 by Paul Rigge

Matt’s success in last year’s Invitational Eights (Selectors) has brought him to the attention of the Secretary-General of the World Croquet Federation as well as the Chairman of the Croquet Association’s AC Selection Committee.

Matt has been invited to join the AC International Player Development Squad 2013/2014, whose intention it is to develop players with the ability and desire to play for Great Britain in the 2017 AC World Team Championships (MacRobertson Shield).

Starting this season the Squad will receive sessions encompassing individual goal setting and motivation, mentoring, tactical discussions as well as on-lawn coaching, all geared to enable Matt to break into the National Team by the start of the 2015;

Bury with an MacRob Player? Here’s hoping!