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Sam Seal Wins Fed Millenium Golf Croquet

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Federation Millennium Golf Croquet Tournament 12th July 2019

On Wednesday 10th July, 12 contestants from the North West region took part in the Millennium Golf Handicap Tournament hosted by Chester Croquet Club. We welcomed competitors from Crake in the north of the region to Llanfairfechan in the south.

Two groups of 6 players played a round robin, with the winners of each group playing for first place and the runner’s up in each group playing for third place.

In a closely fought final Sam Seal from Llanfairfechan beat Roger Edwards from Craig y Don 6-4. The third place went to David Leach from Bury who defeated Brian Hayes from Chester 7-6 at the golden hoop.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to an excellent day – from the ground staff in Westminster Park who cut the grass at the crack of dawn, to the tea makers. We were blessed with perfect weather, the lawns looked great and we all remembered why we love croquet!

Dave Williamson Wins Fed Millenium Handicap

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NWFCC Millennium handicap AC tournament, 13th/14thJuly 2019

2019 Federation Millenium Handicap contestants

The Federation Millennium handicap AC tournament was held over the weekend of the 13th/14thJuly hosted by Pendle & Craven Croquet Club. With 8 contestants from Bowdon, Bury, Crake Valley, Fylde, Pendle and Westmorland and with handicaps ranging from 3½to 22 taking part, the event comprised 5 rounds of 18 point handicap AC played to a time limit of 2½hrs per game. The lawns were in excellent condition, running both true and consistently, and the weather forecast was for good, dry days so all looked on course for an enjoyable weekend of croquet.

Robert Essler (Pendle) presents the winning trophy to Dave Williamson (Crake).

Initial pairings were based on matched handicaps as far as possible with subsequent rounds determined using the Swiss format. This brought some interesting encounters with the overall ranking changing with each iteration. As late as round 4 there were still three of the competitors in contention for the title but by the final round this had reduced to two with the final result hung on the last game to finish. At the end of the tournament three of the players were tied on 3 wins out of 5 and the end placings were determined by net hoops however the overall winner, being the only player with 4 wins out of 5 was Dave Williamson from Crake Valley (who earned a handicap reduction from 22 to 16). Second place went to Paul Dowdall of Pendle and third place to Tony Phillips of Bury.

Robert Essler (Pendle) presents the Runners Up trophy to Paul Dowdall (Pendle)

Thanks to Pendle CC for hosting the event and for providing their customary excellent hospitality and to Robert Essler of Pendle who presented the trophies .

Silver Celebration for Festival – 29/30 June 2019

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2019 Festival Champions – Pendle & Craven

Whilst the rest of Europe were celebrating record summer temperatures, our Federation had its own record to celebrate – the 25th year of the North West Festival of Croquet – record number of competitors, new competition with Level Play Golf introduced, Southport lawns best ever, we even hired portable toilets for the first time!

Manager Ivan Wheatley produced a strict schedule of matches to fit everything in and for the first time, games were ended as soon as the ball stopped moving when the timer ‘pinged’, much to the chagrin of the croquet heroes who like to come from behind to snatch a win with their last turn.

The Southport micro climate gave us a mixture of blue skies, dazzling sunshine, bracing sea breezes, grey skies and the odd shower – all adding to the colourful spectacle as up to 100 people filled the lawns with a kaleidoscope of club team colours. Margaret Flemington and her team produced another catering triumph enabling everyone to indulge in a fabulous lunch, afternoon tea and copious light refreshments. Players mingled and renewed friendships and rivalries – it seemed as though everyone knew everyone producing a wonderful atmosphere, so typical of our Federation.

After two days of competitive croquet Pendle set another record by winning the Advanced and the Handicap trophies for the first time, Chester retained the Short Croquet shield, Llanfairfechan won the Golf Croquet event and Southport became the first winners of the new Level Play Golf Croquet trophy. When all the points were calculated, Pendle were declared Festival Champions for 2019.

2019 Festival Placings

2019 FESTIVAL PLACINGSADVANCED ACHANDICAP ACSHORT ACLEVEL PLAY GCHANDICAP GC
1stPendle & CravenPendle & CravenChesterSouthportLlanfairfechan
2ndBuryFyldeSouthportCrake ValleyCrake Valley
3rdBowdonBowdonWestmorlandPendle & CravenCulcheth

Federation Chairman Paul Rigge closed the Festival with a presentation of all trophies, acknowledged the enormous work of Southport for their organisation and of course everyone who participated in a great weekend.

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