Ian Lines Wins Neil Williams Trophy Again by Geoff Young (26 Apr 09)

The NW Fed Millennium Advanced was played at Heaton Park on 25-26 April 2009 under the mangement of Bury Croquet Club.

Two sections were played. The Neil Willams Trophy in the A Section of 11 players was a Flexible Swiss, won in a close contest by Ian Lines who lost only one game – this was to new face Lee Hartley of Fylde, contributing quite a bunch of index points towards his handicap reduction to scratch by making five wins out of seven. David Walters (Bowdon) also won 5/7, handicap reduction to -1, and was defeated by Ian in a decider. Paul Rigge completed the peels for a quad but couldn’t quite do the pegout.

In the B section for the Woodlands Trophy, Roger Schofield (Pendle & Craven) had a clean sweep of five out of five in a round robin, with handicap reduction to 3.

Full results:

A SECTION: Brian Storey bt Bob Burnett +13; Lee Hartley bt James Hawkins +7; Andrew Winn bt David Walters +10; Dave Nick bt Paul Rigge +9; Ian Lines bt Ray Lowe +14; Burnett bt David Barrett +23TP; Storey bt Nick +17; Hawkins bt Rigge +9TPO; Hartley bt Winn +17; Walters bt Lowe +3; Lines bt Burnett +9; Winn bt Barrett +25; Hartley bt Storey +14; Nick bt Hawkins +19; Rigge bt Lowe +16; Walters bt Burnett +9; Hawkins bt Barrett +3(T); Lines bt Nick +25; Storey bt Winn +3(T); Hartley bt Lines +17; Nick bt Lowe +11; Walters bt Rigge +10; Nick bt Burnett +2; Lines bt Hawkins +17TP; Nick bt Hartley +17; Lines bt Storey +25TP; Walters bt Hawkins +20; Rigge bt Winn +19; Burnett bt Lowe +26; Hartley bt Burnett +17; Lines bt Rigge +17TP; Winn bt Nick +5; Barrett bt Lowe +1(T); Walters bt Storey +14; Burnett bt Hawkins +10; Rigge bt Hartley +25; Storey bt Lowe +22; Lines bt Walters +20; TP Winn bt Hawlins +25TP; Burnett bt Rigge +7.

B SECTION: Mark Lloyd bt Ken Anderton +2T; Roger Schofield bt John Wilkinson +1T; Liz Wilson bt Peter Wilson +2; Schofield bt P Wilson +1T; Lloyd by L Wilson +20; Wilkinson bt Anderton +9; Schofield by Anderton+10; Pwilson bt Lloyd +1T; L Wilson bt Wilkinson +19; Anderton bt L Wilson +5; P Wilson bt Wilkinson +14T; Schofield bt Lloyd +17;; Anderton bt P Wilson +9 Lloyd bt Wilkinson +26; Schofield bt L Wilson +10.

North West Fed Millenium Golf Croquet Handicap Just Survives (06/07/08) by Jean Hargreaves

This new tournament was played at Heaton Park. Eight players participated representing 5 clubs. All played all with double-banking. Several games went to time. At the end of round 6 we had 1 player who had won 5 games and 2 who had won 4 games. One of the latter was due to play the former in the last round so it could have worked out that 3 players could have tied at the end of round 7. However, the eventual winner, Alan Mayne from Bowdon, won his last game on the Golden Hoop, making 6 wins out of 7 games. We had 3 players in joint second place, each with 4 wins. Despite the heavy showers at intervals during the day a good time was had by all, and we have been asked “when is the next one”. We managed to finish the tournament and do the presentation just before the lawns were flooded with a tremendous thunderstorm!