North West Federation of Croquet Clubs - for everything Croquet in the north west
The weather was good to us and the sun shone as the Mayoress of Bury, Mrs Dorothy Gunther, visited us to open our new facility. There was a good turnout of visitors and along with our own members everything culminated in a very enjoyable day.
Many thanks go to all members for their hard work and to Pat Carter for the fabulous cake – delicious!.
Federation Millennium Level Play Golf Croquet Tournament – 14/15 May 2016
Paul Rigge defended his Federation Title from last year, won at Chester, at Coronation Park, Bury, this weekend.
But he didn’t make it easy for himself, dropping block game after block game on the first day, but did enough by Sunday lunch to qualify for the KO stages.
Breezed through the semi’s to meet Dave Widdison in a Bo3 Final. Having gone 1 game up, he quickly lost the first 4 hoops in the second before recovering form to take the title 7-3, 7-4.
Was good to see our own Ken Eccles also fighting further down the field and he finished with points up on the weekend, he continues to climb the rankings.
South Shore Advanced Tankard Weekend, 16/17th April
Due to lawn conditions, Southport had to cancel the April Jubilee Tankard tournament planned for last weekend, however, Fylde jumped into the breech and invited all the entries to play on their dry courts.
Because of or in spite of an incorrect weather forcast, only Lancashire players turned out for this impromptu “Not Southport Tournament” or “Three-a-Day Advanced” with the same manager being retained for the new “venue”.
As it happens, shorts were in order on both days with loads of blue sky and early season sunshine – even Lee Hartley was seen without a scarf and coat, it was that warm!
Format was all play all over the two days and both Bury club members finished top of the heap with Matt Holmes having the Bragging rights over Paul Rigge on who beat who.
Many thanks to FCC for Hosting at such very short notice and as an illustration of how much fun was had – all combatants stayed until the very last stroke.
Liz Wilson from Fylde also writes:
The Pop-Up Tournament
Following the cancellation of the Southport and Birkdale Advanced Tournament 7 entrants (Hartley, Hawkins, Holmes, Nicholson, Rigge, Wilson and Wilson) decided to play an impromptu tournament at Fylde over the weekend. As one of the players said “It is difficult to negotiate a whole weekend off to play and is therefore a shame to have nowhere to compete”. Fylde is lucky in being one of the few clubs in the North West who seem to have conquered their drainage problems and thanks to the hard work of Philip Bass and the other members of the club the lawns have been playable for most of the winter. Manager James Hawkins entertained and managed in equal measures and warm help-yourself whenever casseroles were provided to counteract the Arctic Winds. Both days had a fair dose of sun and more than one of the players complained of sunburn (or was it wind burn). It was run as an all play all with only the non-played match being Wilson vs Wilson. There were many amusing incidents, grievous peg-outs and crazy misses along the way and the whole tournament was played in Great Spirit with Nick playing his usual entertaining cat and mouse game with Liz Wilson (well I like to give you a chance!). The “final” was between Paul Rigge and Matt Holmes with Matt running out the winner. In my opinion these pop-up tournaments are something for the Fed to consider – perhaps one day turn up and play events with a winner at the end of the season.