Crake Valley’s first major Advanced rules AC Tournament, the Cumbria Cup was held on 10th – 11th June, attracting 10 players from many parts of the North West. Arranged as a strict Swiss format, the first day’s play saw Neil Adams (Westmorland) attain a strong position by winning all three of his games.
Although the weather was fine and warm for most of the tournament, the players arrived on Sunday morning to find standing water from some heavy localised rainstorms, causing a delay whilst the lawns were cleared with the Bowdry. Neil continued strongly winning his first game to have 4 wins, but at this stage Charles Harding (Bowdon) and Brian Medley (Bowdon) were each on 3 wins, leaving the final result wide open.
In the final matches, Charles narrowly beat Neil, but Brian lost to a fine performance from Ged Smolskas (Bury), leaving a two-way tie at the top. Charles and Neil were also tied using the allotted tie-break of the number wins of their opponents.
The result rested on the fact that Charles beat Neil in their final match (by 1 hoop!), so Charles Harding was declared winner of this keenly fought tournament. (Full results are on Croquet Scores)
Before the prize-giving, Pam Bevins kindly presented to the Club a superb bench with an inscription in memory of Dave Nick, saying a few words on how much her former partner loved the game of croquet. The bench will undoubtedly be well used and will be a fitting tribute to all the work that Dave Nick put into Club.
