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Southport Win Mexico Trophy

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Southport Win Inaugural Croquet Trophy (31/05/08) by Tony Thomas

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The inaugural Mexico Trophy tournament took place at Southport and Birkdale Croquet Club last Saturday, 31 May, in Victoria Park, Southport. This new Croquet tournament will be played annually between Southport and Fylde Croquet clubs, in memory of the great lifeboat disaster of 1886, when the boats of both Southport and Lytham capsized with the loss of 27 crew, whilst going to the aid of the barque Mexico. The event will raise money for lifeboat charities.

In the heat of an early summer sun, experienced players as well as beginners, rose to the occasion, closely contesting matches in Advanced, Handicap and Short croquet formats. At lunchtime with Fylde leading 9-4, players retired, appropriately, to the Fishermans Rest for lunch, (this hostelry was used as a base by the Southport Lifeboat in 1886). Suitably fortified, Southport players made an exciting comeback in the afternoon, eventually emerging victorious 20-14.

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Over £500 was eventually raised for the new Southport Lifeboat House Appeal and Keith Broter, Senior Cox was presented with an interim cheque fior £300 by Southport club President Professor Alan Pidcock. The impressive Mexico Trophy (in the form of a mounted brass Anchor) was then presented to Southport captain Bob Burnett.

Tim King Wins 8th Lancashire Open Golf

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Tim King won the Lancashire Golf Open by Geoff Young

TimKing_LancGolf08The 8th Lancashire International Open Golf Tournament was hosted by Bury CC on April 12-13 at Heaton Park. Twenty contenders spent the Saturday in two blocks of ten, in a format giving each 8 games. Block A was won by Ian lines with seven wins, Brian Storey and John Moore winning six and the fourth qualifier on who-beat-who from a three-way tie on five being Freda Vitty. In Block B four six-game winners were similarly put into the sequence Chris Sheen, Samantha Curry, David Openshaw and Tim King.

This meant that in the KO phase on Sunday Ian and Tim met in a quarter-final. Overnight weather had delayed the start so they were put on the first playable lawn, 50 yards from the pavilion, so the disappointed crowd had a poor view. The other three lawns trickled in later, so the average time loss was about an hour. The weather then cleared and progress was steady, the final fittingly being the last game to finish ( just before six) with Tim beating Chris 6-7 7-4 7-4. The 12 non-qualifiers played a round robin of doubles won by Dave Turner and Fergus Thompson.

Picture left – Bury club president David Barrett presents the Lancashire Open Golf Croquet trophy to Tim King

Snowballing to Victory in Pendle

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Jacob Carr Snowballs to Victory by Barbara Dutton

The John Beech Memorial Handicap Tournament gave players a stern test at Pendle over the Easter weekend. With cold winds, rain, sleet and snow to contend with the players did well to complete their matches, even playing after dark. On Saturday players rolled huge snowballs around to clear the lawns for play and then had an early lunch to warm up.

Manager David Maugham from Bowdon club also won the most games played trophy with 12 games but the overall winner was Jacob Carr from Tyneside, who won all his 11 games played and also collected the cup for the fastest game in just 42 minutes with a victory over David Maugham. Lee Hartley collected the Low Bisque cup and Howard Bowron the High Bisque cup. Sadly vandalism by young footballers from the new playground and theft of three solar garden lights marred what was otherwise a friendly and enjoyable event in spite of the weather.

 

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