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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 .

Croquet Newcomer Wins Regional Event

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NW MILLENNIUM SHORT AC EVENT 2019 – Hosted by Fylde CC, 11 May 2019. Report by Peter Wilson and Sarah Andrew.

James Thomas (Llanfairfechan) receives the Winners trophy from Federation Treasurer LizWilson (Photo provided by Sarah Andrew)

Teams of two from Fylde, Llanfairfechan, Bury and Bowdon gathered in the Sunshine for the tournament. However a chill wind from the North forced many to don extra layers covering their resplendent team colours. Two blocks of four separated the players by clubs and play progressed rapidly through the three rounds and a welcome hot lunch break. There was a bonus point (for tie breaking), awarded for pegging out but, after round three, no ties existed. Tony Philips (Bury) and James Thomas (Llanfairfechan) both remained unbeaten and contested a final game while others watched with afternoon tea or played a Swiss.

The final was won by newcomer James in two fine breaks which extended his long unbeaten run of games and earned another handicap reduction to 5 after the tournament.

James Thomas in play at Fylde (photo: Liz Wilson)

The Federation Secretary, Liz Wilson, presented the trophy and thanked both the individuals and clubs for supporting the Federation and Fylde by taking part in this event.  James thanked the organisers, Fylde Croquet Club, for an excellent day and lunch. 

This was the first external tournament James has entered – he is a student of Computer Science with the Open University and only started learning AC 11 months ago. James is a member of both Llanfairfechan and Chester Croquet Clubs and will have to decide which club to represent at the Federation Festival at Southport in June – perhaps he will choose which colour (purple of Chester or Brown of Llanfairfechan) is the more stylish!

Fed Sec Wins Millennium LPG

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Federation (Millennium) Level Play Golf – 17th April 2019, Bury Whitehead Park

Dave Walters, being presented with the Federation LPG Millennium trophy by Organiser Jean Hargreaves.

In lovely weather 14 players from 5 clubs played in this event. The handicaps ranged from -3 to 7 and play was in 2 blocks followed by semi-finals, play-off and final.

There were several very close matches and some surprise results in the block play, including games seesawing between players.  Among the most notable were Richard Leach (hcp 7) beat Colin Irwin (hcp -1) 7-5 and Keith Woodward ( hcp 5) beat Paul Rigge (hcp-2). David Walters (hcp -3) was the only player to win all his block games.

The semi- finals were David Walters against Colin Irwin and Paul Rigge against Libby Dixon. David and Colin fought a close match with David winning on the Golden Hoop. Paul beat Libby 7-0 but not without a fight from her.

In the playoffs Colin beat Libby 7-1 but she still played determinedly.

The final between David and Paul started with Paul pushing hard but soon was overtaken by David. The match ended at hoop 10 when a shot of Paul’s didn’t go to plan and with David having 2 balls near the hoop and Paul’s far off, Paul conceded the hoop, and the match to David.

A very enjoyable day was had by all.

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