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Paddy Chapman Wins Bowdon Croquet Advanced Again

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Paddy Chapman won the Bowdon Advanced Weekend 1st June 2014

 

Paddy Chapman receiving the Peterson Cup from Bowdon President, Colin Irwin
Paddy Chapman receiving the Peterson Cup from Bowdon President, Colin Irwin

Sixteen keen players made their way to Bowdon for the June Advanced Weekend, which usually doesn’t generate too many surprises, with 8 players seeded – but things were rather different in 2014. Over dinner on the Friday night, Debbie raised a toast to her table, hoping that the four of them would be the semi-finalists. By tea time the next day David Maugham, James Hopgood and Ian Lines had all told her never to make such a toast again. The first to drop was Dave to an in form local Barry Keen, who very nearly finished his TP before Dave had made a hoop. A three ball ending gave the audience something to watch but Dave left Barry too many shots and he eventually hit the peg to win +15. Ian followed Dave out of the main event a few minutes later, losing to a faultless Barry McKenzie (handicap 6) who said it was his best game ever. James made it to round two before he fell to a TP from David Walters, whilst Debbie was trounced by Paddy Chapman in a short 40 minutes.

Paddy continued to crunch up his opponents and beat Brian Storey in the semi-final +26tp, +26tp. Ten month old baby Oliver watched on with approval. The other semi-final was a closely fought best of 3 between David Walters and Andrew Winn – Andrew eventually winning -26tp, +25tp +17, to reach his first final of a 16 player CA knockout tournament and so win his CA Silver Medal.

David Maugham with Plate event prize
David Maugham with Plate event prize

It was a shame that Andrew left his ten month old son at home – if he had brought little Benji along we could have had a simultaneous match of the babies on the practice lawn whilst their fathers battled in the final. Andrew hit in well but Paddy’s defensive leaves didn’t give Andrew much to play with and Paddy won in three straight games +25tp, +17tp, +20tp to retain the title for the 4th year in succession.

The Plate event, which was a little stronger than usual, was contested in the super-advanced final between James Hopgood and David Maugham. James got to 1 back early, but Dave got in and almost finished an sxp, before eventually winning +20.

Other games of interest in the Plate included Barry Keen’s error free 10th turn +17 win against Ian Lines, and Mark Ormerod completing his first tpo for 34? years – which unfortunately turned into an otp after a slight mishap at 4 back on a three ball break to win. Mark also almost beat Dave after starting on hoop 1 v 1 back in a 2 ball endgame, just losing -3tpo.

Our thanks to the Bowdon club for their terrific hosting of the event: good lawns, dry sunny weather and really superb catering.

Alan Farrell Wins Southport Croquet May Handicap

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Wet and Enjoyable Southport May Handicap – 24/25 May 2014

Victorious Alan Farrell
Victorious Alan Farrell

Croquet players in Victoria Park welcomed the better weather on Sunday with great relief.  On Saturday, the first day of the May Croquet Handicap, had been marred by extreme rain and the lawns were carrying sufficient surface water to attract a group of ducks! Players had come from Nailsea, Bowdon, Fylde and of course Southport, to take part in this traditional tournament.  The Saturday weather only enabled two rounds of Croquet to be played and two of these games were abandoned.  However, after a further squelchy round on Sunday morning, the Manager, John Haslam, was able to sort out two clear leaders, both from the home club – Barbara Haslam, (recently returned from play in America) and Alan Farrell, (stalwart Captain of Southport Midweek Handicap team).  The final was an interesting affair, with Alan was showing excellent form and was several hoops to the good, when an incautious mallet stroke wedged his shot and Barbara made some good progress after striking his colours away. But with both his clips on the peg there was only one realistic outcome. This is the third tournament Alan has entered and he received a loud burst of applause as he raised his mallet to celebrate this his first tournament victory.

 

Paul Kenworthy Wins Federation Millenium Handicap

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2014 Millennium Handicap players
2014 Millennium Handicap players

The winner of the handicap tournament was Paul Kenworthy from Bury.
12 competitors played five games over the two days.  At the end of the first day there were six players with two wins and Garry Wilson with three wins.

After the morning game Garry had four wins with Paul Kenworthy and Ian Hall from Keswick both with three wins.

Garry and Paul were drawn to play each other while Ian was drawn against Gareth Edwards from Chester.  After a very close game Paul beat Garry by 1 hoop on time.They now had four wins each with the prospect of a win for Ian making it three players with four wins and the organisers wondering what to do to resolve the final result. As it was Ian narrowly lost his last game. As Paul and Garry had four wins each Paul was declared the winner having beaten Garry in the last game,

Players were
Paul Kenworthy,Garry Wilson,Ian Hall,Gareth Edwards,David Boyd, Alan Farrell, Sue Pritchard, Ivan Wheatley, Patrick Cheyne, Louise Cheyne, Alan Morton and Graham Saunders.

 

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