Paul Rigge won the Bury Advanced Weekend by Geoff Young (25/09/07)

Bury Croquet Club’s first two-day advanced tournament was run at Heaton Park on the 22-23 September 2007. In very pleasant weather twelve contestants took part in a knockout with subsidiary weighted Egyptian. Time limits were imposed only on the latter. The winner was Paul Rigge, of Bury, who beat Southport’s Bob Burnett in a best-of-three final +3 +17. In the first game he went for a TP but was perhaps unlucky that the rover peel was only half successful, the striker’s ball overrunning into the wire. Bob then went round and pegged out Y, with K for 1, and almost held out in the two-against-one. In the second game Paul eschewed peeling and got a steady win. He also secured a handicap reduction to scratch.

The Egyptian was won by James Hopgood of Meadows.

Round 1: J Hopgood bt Sylvia Steer +18 TP; Richard Griffiths bt Peter Wilson +20; P Rigge bt Liz Wilson +4; Ray Lowe bt Michael Steer +11.
Round 2: Winn bt Hopgood + 17TP; Burnett bt Griffiths +17; Rigge bt Pidcock +17; Lowe bt Barrett +6.
Round 3: Burnett bt Winn +24TP; Rigge bt Lowe +4.
Final: Rigge bt Burnett +3 +17.

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.