Golf Croquet National Singles Championship (AKA the Ascot Cup)
19-20 September 2020 at Southport

This is the premier Golf Croquet tournament in England and the north west had three players involved in the battle for the title – Paul Rigge (Pendle), Lorna Dewar (Pendle) and rising star Jack Good (Bowdon).

The Southport club had managed to prepare excellent lawns and also invested in new Ball Guards in the form of flexible drainage pipes (which worked).

The UK number one GC female player took the title with some outstanding play. Colin Irwin representing The Croquet Association made the presentation:

You can read a full report written by Paul Rigge on the Pendle Croquet Club website – read more here

The gods smiled down upon their children this weekend (there were four Gods of the game in attendance all wearing their England Shirts) at Southport. The weather was perfect – clear blue skies and 20^oC. The courts were the best your correspondent has ever seen (V.fast – cut to 4mm) with ball stops surrounding each area of play – some hard clearances were clearly expected!
Because the Final was being hosted ‘oop north’, Riggey *had* to accept his offered place that he’d earned from the this year’s Lancashire Open and was seeded 7^th in the field of 16. 

No surprises were forthcoming from the Gods and day one closed with the top seven ranked players achieving their predicted form but, they were joined by the fourteen year old Bolton wunderkind at the expense of the twenty one year old one from York in the eighth spot for the qualifying finals on day two.

Rachel Gee (UK’s top female) told me at 10:20 on Saturday that she’s “remembered how to play” – A comment that was to prove prophetic (spoiler alert). Top four seeds brushed aside the mortals who’d dared to face them (only Rigge offered any resistance but succumbed in three rubbers). The minors went on to squabble for the inconsequential places.

In the final, teammate Vs teammate, man Vs woman or the two youngest (take your pick on how to describe the contest), was taken by Mrs Gee in imperious straight games against Richard Bilton.

Due to C-19 restrictions, the club had reduced spectator numbers, but we few enjoyed the show.

Full results can be found at Croquetscores.

You can read a very detailed report on the Croquet Association website – read more here

TREASURERS TANKARD (10-14 Sep Southport Croquet Club)

This event represents the third best eight Association Croquet players available and Southport Croquet Club was chosen as the venue. The north west flag was carried by Lorna Dewar from Pendle.

The eventual winner was CA Secretary Ian Vincent.

Chris O’Byrne (left in top image) has written the following report for the Croquet Association website (read more here):

For a beachfront location, Southport was eerily quiet due to Covid, which luckily made for easy parking for the 8 players involved. The lawns measured about 9.5 seconds throughout, and were in good condition, but a smattering of hills made gentle shots and long hit-ins a bit of a lottery. Hoops were reset each morning to 1/16, but the amount of recent rain meant they weren’t able to put up much resistance.

On the first day, the biggest surprise was to find out there was no rain forecast, despite the rumours we’d all heard about Southport’s record for wet tournaments. There were no major upsets on day one, but with one eye on future weather, another on the long distance we’d all travelled, and a third(?!) on potentially disruptive Covid-related restrictions coming into effect on the Monday, we managed to get ahead of the schedule by comfortably squeezing a fourth game in, and the world was a happy place! It was not a feat we managed to repeat, as some key games suddenly slowed right down, meaning we were resigned to 3 per day from that point on.

The surprise package came in Lorna Dewar, who was a world away from the old trope of a golfer trying their hand at AC, by combining the expected brilliant hitting and hoop-running with superb croquet strokes, and a really good tactical understanding of the game – the 2 AC Handicappers present had no power over her 2.5 handicap, but it’ll come racing down either way.

The competition came down to the last day, but Ian Vincent came through, having only dropped 2 games through the 5 days, confirming his top-spot with a 26TP.

Don and Diana Williamson and their team of volunteers ensured the most important aspects were dealt with, getting the lawns mown every morning, and providing a steady supply of ales for all present. They also arranged a fish and chip dinner hosted outside the club, and throughout were brilliant hosts.