Golf Croquet National Singles Championship (AKA the Ascot Cup)
19-20 September 2020 at Southport
This is the premier Golf Croquet tournament in England and the north west had three players involved in the battle for the title – Paul Rigge (Pendle), Lorna Dewar (Pendle) and rising star Jack Good (Bowdon).
The Southport club had managed to prepare excellent lawns and also invested in new Ball Guards in the form of flexible drainage pipes (which worked).
The UK number one GC female player took the title with some outstanding play. Colin Irwin representing The Croquet Association made the presentation:
You can read a full report written by Paul Rigge on the Pendle Croquet Club website – read more here
The gods smiled down upon their children this weekend (there were four Gods of the game in attendance all wearing their England Shirts) at Southport. The weather was perfect – clear blue skies and 20oC. The courts were the best your correspondent has ever seen (V.fast – cut to 4mm) with ball stops surrounding each area of play – some hard clearances were clearly expected!
Because the Final was being hosted ‘oop north’, Riggey *had* to accept his offered place that he’d earned from the this year’s Lancashire Open and was seeded 7th in the field of 16.
No surprises were forthcoming from the Gods and day one closed with the top seven ranked players achieving their predicted form but, they were joined by the fourteen year old Bolton wunderkind at the expense of the twenty one year old one from York in the eighth spot for the qualifying finals on day two.
Rachel Gee (UK’s top female) told me at 10:20 on Saturday that she’s “remembered how to play” – A comment that was to prove prophetic (spoiler alert). Top four seeds brushed aside the mortals who’d dared to face them (only Rigge offered any resistance but succumbed in three rubbers). The minors went on to squabble for the inconsequential places.
In the final, teammate Vs teammate, man Vs woman or the two youngest (take your pick on how to describe the contest), was taken by Mrs Gee in imperious straight games against Richard Bilton.
Due to C-19 restrictions, the club had reduced spectator numbers, but we few enjoyed the show.
Full results can be found at Croquetscores.
You can read a very detailed report on the Croquet Association website – read more here