Giles Pepperell (Llanfairfechan) along with David & Sandra Cornes (Crake Valley) made the (very) long trip to Budleigh Salterton having been selected for the Croquet Association’s prestigious National 3rd Golf Croquet Eights tournament over the August bank holiday weekend.  Going into the tournament Giles was ranked 2nd, David 5th and Sandra last (8th). The format was “all play all” best of three games to be followed by a knockout. 

The quality of the the lawns and the player opposition was extremely high and Giles did not quite perform to his usual (very high) standards. He did, however, achieve being the only player to beat top seed Diana Wilson in the 7 block matches. David, however, managed to win all 3 matches (2 games to nil) on Saturday before losing narrowly in his other group matches. Sandra excelled with 3 match victories, including wins against experienced, local players Louise Smith (Sidmouth) and Marc Colson (Budleigh).

The outcome was that David had to play England’s player Diana Wilson (Roehampton) in the semi-finals. A closely fought contest, which took over 4 hours to complete, saw Diana win the first game 7-6. In game two David came from 4-6 down and used his developing AC skills to execute a superb cut rush over 15 yards to promote partner (Red) ball before running hoop 12 (ahead of Diana’s perfectly positioned Black ball). An extraordinary run of shots at 13, eventually saw David run a difficult 4 yarder to take the match into a decider.  Again, the third game was extremely close with David coming through 7-6.

In the Final, David played Phyllis Court’s Rick Lilley. Rick played solidly and took the first game 7-4. David responded with a 7-5 reply. The decider was also close but David had the misfortune to peel Rick through Hoop 10. Rick finished the match on the next hoop at 8.20pm, with the light faded to an extreme, to take the trophy.  

In the Shield Sandra progressed through to the final only to be beaten by Marc Colson 3-7, 6-7.

The Federation wishes David well in his selection to represent England in the forthcoming WCF Golf Croquet Over 50 World Championship in Bunbury, Perth. For Giles, and Neil Adams (Westmorland) there is a reasonable to good chance of National B-level success at Eastbourne, this weekend. 

The photos show the line up of players at the start of day 3 (Sandra 2nd left, Giles third and David fifth) and David looking on as Rick holds aloft the trophy with the evening dusk in the background.

It is very pleasing to say that the Level Play Golf Millennium tournament remains popular, with an excellent standard of play from our North West based players. 12 players (from 9 clubs) travelled north to Crake Valley where good, smooth lawns and friendly hospitality were waiting.

The play throughout the day was outstanding, with some rising stars showing they can cope with pre-tournament favourites. As a result, both Sarah Clements (Chester) and Dave Venables (Southport) achieved handicap reductions to 4.

There were two blocks of 6 with Block B going to form with Nigel Matthews (Bowdon) and Roger Brooks (Westmorland) going through without issue. Block A was a different story, with Dave Venables beating holder David Cornes (Crake Valley) 7-6 in the first round of games. Dave continued in the same manner and went through in 2nd place on hoop difference to the semi-finals. He joined pre-tournament favourite, Angharrad Walters (Bowdon), who won every game but had a huge fright in the first round overcoming Ursula Walker (Fylde) 7-6. A tremendous effort throughout the day from Ursula, playing in her first level play tournament with handicap of 12. Her game will improve no end from the experience.

Moving to the semi-finals and Roger Brooks was in unstoppable form overcoming Angharrad, with Nigel proving too strong for Dave.

In the final Roger held the lead for most of the match, but Nigel never gave up and fought back to win in a tense finale 10-9.

Congratulations to Nigel who adds the Level Play Golf crown to the Advanced AC Millennium trophy he won at Pendle the previous weekend.  

Listen very carefully and you might hear the rasping death throes of AC play up here in the North West – why start a report in such a manner? 

Well, despite multiple reminders from the Federation Secretary  to all member clubs, trying to gather support for the Federation’s Premier Tournament, the AC Millennium Level Play, the response was pitiful. Only eight players from four clubs attended this two day tournament at Pendle & Craven CC, with Handicaps ranging from 4.5 down to -1.5, both trophies at least could be contested.

Play got underway as the last winds from storm ‘Betty’ made conditions for ‘casters’ tricky. Four courts had been prepared, so luxurious single banking enabled four rounds of untimed games to be completed well before the booked tournament meal at the Jade.

Sunday was a warmer affair (summer returned), as the remaining three rounds of the all-play-all were completed… with the last round producing ties on number of wins for both cups.. This should have been resolved using who-beat-who for the Neil Williams, but all the high handicappers had beaten each other, and the options of playing various tie-breaking games were rejected, so ‘net-points’ as a method was utilised to separate them.

Thanks to Angharrad for posting up on CroquetScores, (https://croquetscores.com/2023/ac/nwfed-millennium-advanced) Richard, Nigel & Robert for helping set-up/clear-up

This year’s ‘Neil Williams recipient – Nigel Matthews (Woodland winner in ’22)

and the ‘Woodlands’ – to Steve Skelton.

Cheers Riggey