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Southport Win Mexico Trophy

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Southport Win Inaugural Croquet Trophy (31/05/08) by Tony Thomas

Southport_MexicoTrophy_08

The inaugural Mexico Trophy tournament took place at Southport and Birkdale Croquet Club last Saturday, 31 May, in Victoria Park, Southport. This new Croquet tournament will be played annually between Southport and Fylde Croquet clubs, in memory of the great lifeboat disaster of 1886, when the boats of both Southport and Lytham capsized with the loss of 27 crew, whilst going to the aid of the barque Mexico. The event will raise money for lifeboat charities.

In the heat of an early summer sun, experienced players as well as beginners, rose to the occasion, closely contesting matches in Advanced, Handicap and Short croquet formats. At lunchtime with Fylde leading 9-4, players retired, appropriately, to the Fishermans Rest for lunch, (this hostelry was used as a base by the Southport Lifeboat in 1886). Suitably fortified, Southport players made an exciting comeback in the afternoon, eventually emerging victorious 20-14.

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Over £500 was eventually raised for the new Southport Lifeboat House Appeal and Keith Broter, Senior Cox was presented with an interim cheque fior £300 by Southport club President Professor Alan Pidcock. The impressive Mexico Trophy (in the form of a mounted brass Anchor) was then presented to Southport captain Bob Burnett.

Pendle Win 2007 Mary Rose

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Pendle & Craven win the Mary Rose Inter Club Trophy by John Filsak (07/10/07)

Heroic effort by Rob Essler in the deepening Wrest Park gloom won the Mary Rose trophy for Pendle and Craven in the final against Surbiton. Rob’s opponent, David Mooney had started off well, and was way ahead, but Rob crept back into contention. With David losing his so-far-reliable long hitting ability the game was Rob’s and the trophy Pendle’s by 4 games to 2. This also saved the manager the problem of having to finish off the pegged-down doubles in the dark (Pendle were ahead in it, but Surbiton had the innings).

Pendle got off to a good start in the morning. The doubles made slow progress, but John Filsak made light work of his game against Bob Stephens after Bob broke down at 2-back, leaving John an easy finish, and Liz Wilson battled her way from a long way down to beat Ian Parkinson. So Pendle were 2-0 up at lunch time. Liz was first to finish in the afternoon, dispatching Bob fairly rapidly. Peter Wilson’s game with Mary Knapp was neck and neck until Mary got in with a long hit to finish. John got off to a good start against Ian, but an uncharacteristic clang gave Ian the innings, and John’s ability to hit anything above 2 yards deserted him. So it looked as though Surbiton were going to level at 3-all, until Rob got going. The rest, as they say, is history. (Nasty cliche, but, hey, we won!)

Teams:
Pendle and Craven: Rob Essler (2), Peter Wilson (2.5), John Filsak (2.5, captain), Liz Wilson (3)
Surbiton: David Mooney (1), Mary Knapp (2, captain), Ian Parkinson (2), Bob Stephens (3.5)

Bury Crash Out at Ashby

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Longman Cup- Ashby beat Bury 5-2 by Tim King (24/07/07)

Richard Sanville (11) & Geoff Ellott (16) beat Malcolm Hardman (14) & Graham Saunders (16) +13; Tim King (4.5) lost to Justin Brightmore (11) -14; Jeremy Staley (10) beat Paul Kenworthy +4(T); King beat Kenworthy +9; Staley lost to Brightmore +22; Sanville beat Hardman +3(T); Ellott beat Saunders +3.

The seven game format proved, as so often, to provide an exciting day of croquet and the Ashby courts once again demonstrated excellent drainage properties with having no ill effect from recent downpours, although slightly less grass would have been ideal. The weather co-operated and the participants only endured a very few spots of rain. During the day, Brightmore played the best croquet for Bury and when he won in the afternoon, this took Bury back to one behind at 2-3. All the attention turned to the matches of Sanville-Hardman and Ellott-Saunders both on the same court and with plenty of changes of innings. Saunders was in good shape, having built a strong lead of nine hoops with both balls on rover. Ellott, however, began finally to discover some form and claw back, although Saunders did manage the first of his rover hoops. Meanwhile, Sanville had established a lead but Hardman began his recovery. For twenty minutes or so, Bury began to look good for a victory from behind. Ellott though sealed the win for Ashby despite being pegged out and a little later time ran out for the Hardman recovery to give a slightly generous scoreline for Ashby. In the quarter final, Ashby will play Fylde.

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