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Fulford stars in First Fylde Tournament

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Jubilee Trophy Handicap tournament (Peter Wilson reports from Midgeland Road)

Winner Andy Brandwood, Bury. Runner up Robbie Dodds, Shrewsbury. Third place Joe Lennon, Edinburgh & Robert Fulford, Colchester.

The weather was mainly dry and Sunny but there were occasional brief light showers. With a capacity of twelve players, Peter Wilson ran this as a five round Swiss event. Soon entries were coming in from far and wide:   Andy Brandwood (11) and Graham Saunders (9) from Bury, Eileen Rossiter (18), and Eileen Gallagher (10) from Southport, Brian Christmas (3) and Robbie Dodds (0) from Shrewsbury, Joe Lennon (9) Glasgow, Janet Davies (14) Chester, Malcolm Daines (5) Huddersfield, Susan Fulford (22) and Robert Fulford (-2½) from Colchester, Ian Theakstone (12) Fylde.

Having advertised this as being the ideal venue to enter your first tournament we were delighted to see Susan doing just that. We were also delighted that Robbie entered and that he achieved a handicap reduction to minus half at the end of the tournament. But having Robert as a player made the tournament very special for all the players and everyone connected with Fylde, we looked forward knowing we would see some amazing play on our lawns.
In Round one we got it from Robbie who, playing Robert, hit on turn 4 and for 1.5 bisques, took his ball to peg, joined up in corner 3 with a cross wire at hoop 1. Robert missed and Robbie completed the game.  Andy was also looking in form, completing his game with a straight rover peel.  In Round two Andy beat Robbie +25 with a bisque or two standing.  Robert faced his second crosswire against Gally just as one of the heavier showers arrived. He hit in with Red and at 13:44 took croquet for the first time. At 1 Back the  waterproof was off and yellow peeled through hoop two. And now peeled though hoop three as Robert makes 4 back with the waterproof on. Finally yellow is peeled through hoop four as Robert takes his waterproofs and both balls off. This left Gally four behind with 7 Bisques remaining.  A little cat and mouse ensues and Gally runs out of bisques at 1 back. Robert has a five point two ball break going from 1 back, we are being treated to a master class of hoop running.  Good effort from Gally but Robert wins +6.

Round 3 and Graham is trying to do a straight rover peel  to beat Robert who is on 1 & 2 but it is going wrong.  Robert has hit in and is  taking a ball around trying to peel partner as much as possible and succeeds in pegging Graham out. There is some impasse for a while, but with a delightful take off  to behind opponents ball in corner three, Robert picks up a break and finishes. Susan chalked up her first victory and Joe beat Brian to lead overnight.

Sunday, weather even more changeable. Robert beat Brian +20TP, Susan achieved a Bronze award against Ian. Janet beat Malcolm and Gally beat Graham. Wins from Andy against Joe and Robbie against Rossy set up four players on 3 points for two deciding matches on lawn 1 in the final round. Robbie faced Joe, Andy faced Robert. The tie break situation was that if Andy won his match, he would win the tournament (having beaten both Robbie and Joe earlier). While if Robert were to win he would be runner up if Robbie were to beat Joe. The manager was ready with a 14 point decider if Joe and Robert won. But the writing was on the wall. Andy had 11 bisques remaining and the first ball to peg against Robert and then completed the game using only four more bisques. Andy achieved a handicap reduction to 10.

As the remaining games concluded Robert demonstrated a sextuple peeling finish. This together with his play and tactics in general was both remarkable and inspirational. He, together with a handful of players have raised the bar in Croquet to a new level.

Pendle Win Best Ever Festival

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Pendle Win 2012 Federation  Jubilee Festival of Croquet

Successful Pendle team – Federation Jubilee Festival Champions 2012
Whatever did we do to upset the weather gods?  They threw everything at us during the 2012 Federation Festival of Croquet  –  dark clouds, heavy rain, high winds, thunder, even a few hailstones, before relenting their punishment to give us glorious sunshine for our presentations.  This was the biggest Festival tournament to date and the 27 teams representing 9 clubs seemed to agree it was also the most enjoyable.  The Southport club take great pride in hosting this event and provided an environment that would be difficult to better.  The amount of work involved in preparing and setting out 15 lawns each day is staggering not to mention the awesome standard of catering which served about 80 players daily.  The infamous North Lawns were in their best ever condition demonstrating the progress made since the club took full responsibility for their maintenance earlier this year.  The opportunity to meet so many croquet players from across the region in one event makes this Festival unique and continually reminds us why we have a strong North West Federation – together we succeed in making Croquet a competitive endeavour played in a spirit of great friendship.The Golf competition was won by Pendle who won all their matches.  Similarly, Westmorland won the Handicap competition , remaining undefeated in this event.  Llanfairfechan only lost one of their Short matches to take the Short trophy.  In a tense final match, Fylde won the Advanced shield (for the second year running).Team performance in each event gains points to determine the championship club.  By a small margin Pendle were declared 2012 Festival Champions with Westmorland a close runner up.
SHORTGOLFHCPADVPtsPlace
Bowdon5-----2-----78
Bury233197
Chester444-----123
Culcheth-----2----------29
Fylde3153123 =
Llanfairfechan75----------123 =
Pendle68----------141
Southport1612106
Westmorland-----76-----132
Advanced Winners – Fylde
Handicap Winners – Westmorland

 

N.W. Fed. Festival of Croquet 2012

The teams they came from Timbuktu,
All decked in colours, red and blue.
The challenge rang the North West through,
For Southport’s croquet lawns.

Frantic members measured lines,
Laid the hoops twice, fifteen times,
Spread tea and buffet super fine,
For Southport’s croquet lawns.

Gazebos raised defied the rain.
And sure enough the rain it came.
But wind and hail don’t stop the game
On Southport’s croquet lawns.

Black clouds thundered overhead
And to the clubhouse spectators sped,
But on they played the North West Fed
On Southport’s croquet lawns.

Four events, twenty seven teams,
Hundred plus players walked the greens,
Made a real inspiring scene
On Southport’s croquet lawns.

Brave at golf Rod Sutton played,
Newly joined, but not afraid,
To join in matches here assayed
On Southport’s croquet lawns.

Our Advanced team scooped up second place,
The Golf team’s third did not disgrace,
But trophies eluded every chase
On Southport’s croquet lawns.

The Advanced was won by Fylde I reckon
The Short went west with Llanfairfechan
Westmorland’s Handicap won collection,
From Southport’s croquet lawns.

But Golf gave Pendle pride of place,
The sun shone to light the winners’ face.
Best in the North West is no disgrace
On Southport’s croquet lawns.

The hoards of players dissolved away
Reflecting on friends they made at play
But will return another day
To Southport’s croquet lawns.

By Kath Thomas, SBCC, 2nd July 2012

Short Winners – Llanfairfechan
Golf Winners – Pendle

Gallery – press any image to start slideshow:

Liz Wilson Wins Pendle May B Level

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Liz Wilson being presented with a trophy by Manager Fergus McInnes.
debt counseling

Pendle Advanced Trophy Kept in Family (Liz Wilson reports from Earby 24/05/12)

Liz won the event with a perfect six out of six. Players from Edinburgh, Bear of Rodborough, Penrith, Edgbaston and Nottingham and Terry from Fylde were all swept away on her path to victory. When it came to the presentation the cup could not be found. Who could have been responsible for the heinous crime of failing to return their trophy? On returning home Liz discovered it on the mantelpiece, Peter having won it the year before.

Liz Wilson won the Pendle & Craven B Level Weekend (Fergus McInnes Reports from Earby 24/05/12)

Twelve players gathered at the Pendle & Craven Club on a dry but mostly cold and cloudy weekend for the club's 2012 B-Level tournament. The contestants came from as far afield as Gloucestershire and Edinburgh, and their handicaps ranged from Liz Wilson's 2 to Howard Bowron's 8. Four of the five lawns were in use – the fifth having a large puddle on it after heavy rain on the Friday night – and so two of the six games in each round were able to avoid double banking.

Liz Wilson and Alan Wilson (no relation) were undefeated after Saturday's three rounds, and so in accordance with the Swiss format they met on Sunday morning. Liz won that game, and continued her winning run for the rest of the day to finish the tournament on 6/6, with Alan the runner-up on 5/6. Clive Goode took third place and earned a handicap reduction from 4.5 to 4, while Peter Wilson, Lawrence Whittaker and the manager Fergus McInnes suffered some upsets and found their handicaps going the other way. Fergus started off well by going to 4-back in turn 3 of his first game, and finished well with a +26 result against Lawrence, but what came in between was not up to the same standard; he and Peter and Alan had triple peel attempts, but none of these succeeded. With 2.5-hour time limits, 21 of the 36 games went to time, with the lowest aggregate score occurring in Ken Jones's 13-12 win over Roger Schofield.

Results aside, everyone seemed to have a good time; thanks go to all in the club who contributed to this through their work on lawn preparation and catering.

Final standings: Liz Wilson 6/6; Alan Wilson 5/6; Clive Goode 4/6; Roger Schofield 3/6; Richard Way 3/6; Terry Vernazza 3/6; Peter Moore 3/6; Ken Jones 3/6; Peter Wilson 2/6; Howard Bowron 2/6; Fergus McInnes 2/6; Lawrence Whittaker 0/6.

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