David Maugham won the North Of England Championship

Despite a dreadful forecast predicting torrential rain, 18 brave croquet players turned up to contest this year’s North of England Championship at Bowdon. Fortunately, the rain largely confined itself to overnight and the lawns maintained an easy 10 seconds throughout. The first day saw some seeds fall – Ian Lines lost to an ever improving Robert Wilkinson, who then went on to beat Marcus Evansin the quarters. Meanwhile Chris Williams had a good run beating James Hopgoodin the quartersto make his first championship semi-final.
Unfortunately, the golden oldies beat the up and comers and Keith Aiton and David Maugham won through to set up the same final as seen for the last three years, with David triumphing +25tp, +11tpo, -26sxp, +10 to record his record eighth win at this event.
Meanwhile the plate was being enjoyed by many, with excellent form being shown by Gabrielle Higgins with 5 triples over the weekend. Sam Murray also did well, making the plate draw and dropping his handicap from 1.5 to 0.5 in one go. In an early game James Hopgood finished a sextuple despite it going sufficiently wrong in the middle that Ian Lines said he’d eat his hat if it finished – an edible hat was duly created and eaten to the delight on onlookers. The final of the plate saw James Hopgood beat David Goacher +26tp in quick time – James had a train to catch!
Martin Granger Brown presented the Faulkner Cup to David and the Tollemache Plate to James. He also thanked Christine Irwin and her team of helpers for the magnificent catering, Alan Mayne for the excellent lawns, and Barry Keen and Colin Irwin for setting the lawns and hoops.

It also emerged at the presentation that David and Keith had agreed that the first three games of the final would simultaneously constitute the completion of the final of the Eastern Championship, held over from Wrest Park where Keith was 2-0 up when rain stopped play, and so Keith won the Easterns+26sxpin the fifth (not sure how that will go into the rankings).

NORTHERN WEEK 14th-19th July 2012
 

Winner of the Open Singles: David Walters	Winner of the B Class: Mike Steer
Winner of the C Class: Barry McKenzie	Winner of the Cardwell Handicap Singles: Barry McKenzie
Winner of the Open Doubles: Phil Eardley & Mike Steer	Winner of the Pidcock Mallets Handicap Doubles: Barry McKenzie & Martin Granger Brown
Bronze Merit Award: Carol Steinberg

BOWDON ADVANCED WEEKEND, 26th-27th May

The 2012 Bowdon June Advanced Weekend was won by Paddy Chapman who beat David Maugham in the final (-16tp, +14, +13otp, -17tp, +19) to win the Peterson Cup, presented by club President Martin Granger Brown.   The consolation Egyptian Event was won by James Hopgood, who beat Ian Lines in the deciding game.

The Peterson Trophy was presented to Paddy by Martin Granger Brown, and thanks were recorded to Alan Mayne for the fantastic Bowdon lawns, Barry Keen for setting the hoops, and to John Saxby and his team of helpers who provided the magnificent catering.  There was unbroken sunshine all weekend and the lawns were pleasantly paced at about 11 Plummers, and with hoops set at about 1/32” there was a reasonable level of interactivity in most games.  Dave and Paddy were clearly in a league of their own and the final, played under Super Advanced rules, was one of the best quality best-of-fives seen in a while.  In game 2, Paddy was attempting a tpo, but failed to peg out David’s ball (missing from about 2 yards!), so was forced to peg out his own ball and give a contact.  Dave had a good leave, but Paddy then redeemed himself by hitting the 35 yard shot and finishing.  In game 3, Paddy finished off the contact with balls in corners 3 and 4 (he had been popped to hoop 2).  In the deciding final game, Paddy went round 3^rd turn after hitting the ball in corner 2, having put his first ball in hoop 5.  David got going off the contact but was hampered after 1 back having done 2 peels of the tpo, leaving Paddy a contact and an easy finish.