Press here for details:
2018 Bury Golf Croquet Fun Day
North West Federation of Croquet Clubs - for everything Croquet in the north west
by Chris Alvey
Westmorland are Crowned 2018 Festival Champions (North West Federation Festival of Croquet 23/24 June 2018)
A wonderful croquet weekend under blue skies, but despite a cooling breeze, sun cream was still the order of the day for players as the 24th North West Federation Festival of Croquet took place in sunny Southport over the weekend of 23/24 June 2018. Displaying a kaleidoscope of colours, about 100 players attended on each day, representing ten clubs from all over the North West – especially welcome were the team from Stonyhurst College, making their debut at this unique tournament.
The lawns were in excellent condition thanks to the weeks of work by Don Williamson and Terry Dunbar who prepared 17 beautiful Courts. The infamous North Lawns played well and are now even envied by some clubs. The catering team, led by Margaret Flemington once again excelled. Early each morning, Southport members turned out in force, to ensure hoops, chairs, balls, pegs, coffee, etc. were all ready for the visitors. Thank you Southport.
The Festival needs a fair bit of complex planning to ensure we have two days of croquet action – thanks to Liz Wilson for all the administration and a big thank you to Abdul Ahmad, who made a welcome return to Southport to manage the Festival with great efficiency.
The tournament enabled players of all abilities to participate and standard of play ranged from sheer brilliance to the ‘must practice more’ standard, but played in a great sporting atmosphere where advice and help was freely given but fierce competition was still evident.
In the Advanced Doubles, Fylde Croquet Club, once again took the title beating Bowdon in a final knock out match.
In the 18 Point Handicap, Bury emerged as the victors winning four of their six matches, closely followed by Westmorland and Chester.
The Short Croquet honours went to Chester winning five of their six matches and just edging ahead of Bowdon by a few games.
In the Golf Croquet event, Crake Valley were clear winners being victorious in eight of their nine matches, followed by Llanfairfechan and Westmorland.
The final twist to an excellent competition came when all the scores were suitably weighted and compared, the overall champions by a very slim margin were declared as Westmorland.
So we look forward to 2019 when this wonderful event will celebrate its Silver Jubilee – yes next year will be the 25th Festival – a very special event where all players will be requested to wear something Silver intertwined with their normal Festival colours. See you back at Southport in June 2019?
[PRESS ANY IMAGE TO GO TO A SLIDESHOW]
Phil Nuttall wins the 2017 All England AC Handicap Trophy
The winner of the 2017 All England Handicap Final was Phil Nuttall (16) from Bury, who won all five of his games. In second place was Libby Dixon (18) from Pendle and Craven, with three wins. Neal Bacon (5) from Nottingham and Jeremy Pardoe (8) from Broadwas were third and fourth, also with three wins.
This year’s competition began with 168 players playing preliminary heats at 30 clubs; 32 made it to the four area finals. The winners and runners-up from these were Neal Bacon and Adam Huby(7, Watford) at Edgbaston, Douglas Dykes (16, Surbiton) and Julie Sheahan (11, Merton) at Surbiton, Phil Nuttall and Libby Dixon at Fylde and Jeremy Pardoe and Robert Upton (3½, Dyffryn) at Camerton and Peasedown.
This year’s final was held at Wrest Park for the first time since 1998 when there were 16 players and all six lawns were flooded for many hours. However now the club’s new lawns drain more quickly; a Saturday afternoon downpour caused localised flooding, but the lawns were playable within half an hour even though the rain persisted. Games were limited to three hours and played as full bisque, base 10.
The photo shows the 2017 Players in the All England AC Finals – Standing L-R: Quiller Barrett (CA President), Robert Upton, Douglas Dykes, Neal Bacon, George Collin (Manager); Seated L-R: Jeremy Pardoe, Julie Sheahan, Phil Nuttall, Libby Dixon, Adam Huby.
The first round saw +26 wins for Julie against Adam and Phil against Robert. Libby made a promising start against Neal but the bisques ran out, and Jeremy had a narrow win against Douglas. Saturday closed with Phil on three wins and Julie, Libby and Jeremy on two.
On Sunday morning Phil stretched his lead by beating Libby, and Jeremy beat Julie +2 on time. Douglas accounted for Adam and Robert suffered his fourth defeat, this time at the hands of Neal. The last round saw Phil complete a clean sweep by beating Douglas +5 on time, and Robert (the lowest handicap at 3½) finally broke his duck by beating Julie +3 in a tight finish.
What of the play? Well, we saw its infinite variety, as you might expect with such a wide range of handicaps and experience.Lots of good stuff – solid break play and use of bisques to set them up, lawn length take-offs judged to a nicety, and considered leaves. On the other side, there were times when tactical errors and a lack of knowledge of the laws proved costly, as in not recognising a wiring lift when it was due, but these are the views from the boundary. Things are different when you have the mallet in your hand,time is approaching, the bisques have run out, the rain is falling and you are faced with a five yard roquet needing to make a hoop or two to have a chance of winning. Who has not allowed the heart to rule the head and have the hubris of an over-ambitious hoop attempt followed by the nemesis of an easy roquet for the opponent? And even world champions have been known to sometimes play the wrong ball.
Thanks are due to George Collin for managing the event and acting as the ROT. A five round Swiss with eight players can be a nightmare (see Gaunt & Wheeler on this), but Phil simplified his job considerably. Thanks also to Geoff Strutt and John Bevington for organising lunches and teas, Tim Brewer for pre-final admin duties and John Dawson as overall director of the competition.
The All England Handicap is the most democratic event in the calendar and deserves more support. Without more data one cannot judge its state of health, but the numbers have halved since 1998 when there were 357 entries. Would two more area finals draw in more clubs, with an American block final for the six winners? One for the Tournament Committee.
Phil and Libby took away the excellent trophies for their fine performances (along with 2 stroke reductions to their handicaps)
John Bevington
The results were as follows:
Name | Wins | Net points | Position |
---|---|---|---|
Phil Nuttall (16) Bury | 5 | +71 | 1 |
Libby Dixon (18) Pendle & Craven | 3 | +18 | 2 |
Neal Bacon (5) Nottingham | 3 | +10 | 3 |
Jeremy Pardoe (8) Broadwas | 3 | -16 | 4 |
Julie Sheahan (11) Merton | 2 | +25 | 5 |
Douglas Dykes (16) Reigate Priory | 2 | +19 | 6 |
Robert Upton (3½) Dyffryn | 1 | -63 | 7 |
Adam Huby (7) Watford | 1 | -64 | 8 |