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Nathan Baker Keeps Trophy in North West

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Nathan Baker and Eugene Chang Win Southport B Tournaments (30 July 2017)

Nathan Blake with the Hawkins B Level Cup and Southport Chairman Don Williamson

They came from all parts of the UK to contest the Southport B Tournaments from Edinburgh to Sheffield to Nottingham, Surbiton and Cheltenham, plus local players from Crake, Fylde, Chester, Bowdon and of course Southport.  The tournament involved two events of eight players each – Super B (handicap range 0 to 2.5) and a B Level (handicap range 3 to 6).

The Southport lawns were immaculate, winning high praise from many competitors.  The weather was kind, catering wonderful and everyone enjoyed their croquet in the summer sunshine.  Eugene Chang (Sheffield) was in excellent form, winning the Super B Manor House trophy in style.  The B Level went to the last minute as a titanic battle to clinch the trophy between Barbara Haslam (Southport) and Nathan Baker (Fylde), either of whom could have taken victory.  However, with his last turn Nathan came from 3 down to go to peg securing the trophy and a handicap reduction.

 

Bury Win 2017 Croquet Federation Festival

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Bury Win 2017 Federation Festival for Sixth Time

Bury – 2017 Federation Festival Champions

Fylde 2017 Advanced Winners
Westmorland 2017 Handicap Winners
Bowdon 2017 Short Croquet Winners
Bury 2017 Golf Croquet Winners


Another successful Federation Festival of Croquet at Southport on 24/25 June 2017. With weather from drizzle to glorious sunshine, players clad in a spectrum of team colours, Riggy and Hawkins dressed by Matalan, the play ranged from spectacular to crazy. What a great weekend celebrating not just Croquet in the north west but sheer enjoyment in the company of about 150 croquet players of all abilities, from beginners to experts, from clubs around our region.

If a team was short of a player – no problem – a quick free transfer from another club saved the day with only minimum confusion.

The south lawns were pristine and the north lawns continue to improve – a great tribute to Don Williamson and Terry Dunbar who manage these lawns.  The Southport club were not only great hosts but early risers, setting out 13 lawns each day plus all the accompanying bits and pieces like gazebos, tables, chairs, etc.  As always the catering team rose to the occasion par excellence!  

Ivan Wheatley thanked the club for making this Festival a wonderful occasion.  He also paid tribute to tournament manager James Hawkins whose efficient management ensured everyone were in their right places at the right time, (well almost everyone!).

Results:

Individual successes resulted in some handicap changes:
Betty Bates (Fylde) from 14 to 12; Mike Steer (Bowdon) from 4 to 3.5; Chris Alvey (Bury) from 18 to 16; Ivan Wheatley (Westmorland) from 7 to 6; Sue Pritchard (Westmorland) from 18 to 16.

Advanced Croquet event – Fylde won again for the third year in succession.
Short Croquet event – Bowdon won for the second year running.
Handicap Croquet event – Westmorland.
Golf Croquet event – Bury.

When all the points were aggregated, Bury Croquet Club emerged as 2017 Festival champions for the sixth time since the event was established in 1994.

Congratulations to all our worthy winners.

Same time (?), same place, next year – see you there?

Peruse the 2017 Festival photos below.  The top is simply an automatic slideshow – let your mouse hover on image to see titles.  Below the slideshow is a thumbnail gallery of all the slides – press on any thumbnail to start a manual slideshow (i.e. use navigation arrows to change slide) from that point in the gallery.

 

 

This is the Croquet Way

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What a Leave!

Carefully and with great skill one of the north wests best players (Mr J Hawkins) attempted a Sextuplet at the North West Federation Festival of Croquet last Sunday and produced a perfect cross wire as part of his leave.  Breathtaking in its beauty, accuracy and simplicity, which drew gasps from the watching crowd.

Just admire this cross wire of his opponents balls:

Now if we just pull back the camera, we realise why the crowd were left aghast:

 

“Collapse of stout party”.  Just goes to show, even experts can still amaze us.  

We recommend more practice and perhaps a read of the best selling Croquet book – Complete Croquet: A Guide to Skills, Tactics and Strategy – written by a certain Mr J Hawkins.

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Webmaster – Chris Alvey (webmaster@croquetnw.co.uk)