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Crake Croquet Success with Unique Tournament

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Successful New Tournament – Alternative 18 Point Doubles – by David Lloyd (Tournament Manager) and Elaine Newman (Tournament Secretary).

 

Finalists in the Alternate doubles Crake Valley 8th April 2017- l-r Mike Patefield (Westmorland), Gail Moors (Southport), Peter Wardle (Crake), Tom Griffiths (Crake) and Tournament Manager David Lloyd
Finalists in the Alternate doubles Crake Valley 8th April 2017- l-r Mike Patefield (Westmorland), Gail Moors (Southport), Peter Wardle (Crake), Tom Griffiths (Crake) and Tournament Manager David Lloyd

Crake hosted an inaugural Alternate Doubles Tournament on Saturday 8 April 2017.  The event was fully attended with guests from Pendle, Southport, Westmorland and good representation from Crake with a handicap range of 24 to 0.5 – only a few murmurs about the early start 9.15 for 9.30 am. We got underway promptly with eight pairings seeded into two blocks. After the first two rounds of matches it was all square in both blocks with everyone having played two – won one and lost one. People went into the magnificent lunch feeling optimistic that they could be the pairing that went into the final.

Roger Schofield (Pendle) with another accurate shot.

After the final block match there were 4 pairs on 2 wins.  The final was contested between Gail Moors (Southport) and Peter Wardle (Crake) versus  Tom Griffiths (Crake) and Mike Patefield (Westmorland).  It was still an 18 point game played over two hours, with Gail Moors and Peter Wardle emerging victorious in the late evening sunshine.

A great day out with four matches each, perfect weather and everyone focussed, determined and good humoured. The perfect start to the season for all players.

Update to the Successful Handicap Meeting

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Federation Handicap Meeting – Saturday 25 March

The Federation’s workshop on Handicapping was well attended at Bury with about two dozen Club Handicappers & Team Captains making an appearance to discuss the various changes made by the CA for the coming season and to reinforce the need to accurately maintain our cards . The meeting had four CA Handicappers present to field all the raised issues & questions, led by Don Williamson from the CA Committee. 

Here is a more detailed report from the Federation Secretary, David Walters:

NW Fed Handicap Workshop, 25/3/17 at Bury Croquet Club
Leader: Don Williamson

The Purpose of Handicaps is to provide a level playing field to allow 2 players to have an equal chance of winning. Weaker player gets extra turns.

Automatic Handicapping System provided by CA. Relies on players keeping cards accurately. Requires at least 10 competitive games play per season. Wins increase index, losses decrease index. Trigger points cause handicap to change.

Do all NW Fed Clubs have Club Handicappers for both AC & GC? Please check both NW & CA website are correct.

Club Handicappers should review all cards at least once a year.

Limits on who can make what changes on CA website.

AHS doesn’t cope with rapid improvements- hence need for intervention by Handicapper.

Appeals – Club Handicapper can’t over rule CA Handicapper’s change. Ideally there should be communication between Handicappers re rationale. Should there be an appeals process within Federation? Final arbiter is CA Handicap Committee.

Drift within small pools. Tendency for handicaps to increase should be offset by comparison against players from other clubs / federations.

Setting Initial Handicaps – Don’t default to highest available Handicap. Should use tests laid out on CA website to assess initial handicaps for both AC & GC. Make this part of Introductory Course / on joining / before first competitive game.

Competitive Games vs Social Play. All organised games under CA rules should be recorded on cards.

Do all clubs display the CA poster on how to complete a handicap card? Do all clubs display an up to date list of handicaps?

Index should not decrease below the minimum points (850 AC full lawn, 30 AC Short, 900 GC)

Returning Players – after a break, players should use their old handicap unless medical reasons. If so, a CA Handicapper should be consulted re appropriate change.

Short Croquet – League Rule changes – full bisque play. There is a correlation between full lawn and Short. If full lawn handicap decreases, them short lawn handicap should decrease.

Handicap Changes should be recorded on cards & reported to CA Office. Changes take effect at the end of the day, or at the end of an event held over consecutive days.

Sources
CA Website

Guide for Club Handicappers
https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=games/golf/handicapping/ClubHandicappers

 

2017 Spring Meeting Executive Summary and Minutes

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NWFCC Spring Club Meeting 2017 – Executive Summary

27 people attended the Spring Meeting at Culcheth on 4th March 2017. Chairman Garry Wilson updated members on the CA Working Party currently discussing CA Governance and the Role of the Federations, the north west committee had discussed this in great detail and submitted recommendations to the working party. League Manager, Ivan Wheatley, reported the Advanced A League will not be running this year but we still have 46 teams competing in six different leagues for 2017. Coaching Officer, Paul Rigge confirmed GC coaching to be run at Craig-y-Don and Tattenhall, there will be an AC Silver level course at both Chester and Llanfairfechan. A referees course had been held at Bowdon and there is a club Handicappers meeting on 25th March. CA Representative John Dawson updated the meeting on the requirement for all clubs to report any safeguarding incidents to the CA. The CA will be appointing a full time National Development Officer and there are also updated tournament regulations. Once again consternation was expressed about the delayed implementation of the new national IT system. The draft league rules for 2017 were accepted. The Southport motion to change the B League to an A League (without scratch players) was overwhelmingly rejected. The Bowdon motion to abandon the extra time in Short league matches when games are double banked, was accepted.
The date of the next meeting, the Federation AGM, will be held on 18th November 2017.

(Above is a personal interpretation by Tony Thomas)

You can read the full Minutes here – Minutes of 2017 Spring Meeting

 

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