Busy Tournament Time at Crake

Crake Valley has been particularly busy with their annual Cumbria Cup (AC Advanced) seeing some superb quality play.  Paul Rigge (Pendle) came out on top with Lee Hartley (Fylde) second.

The following week 17th – 20th June, Crake Valley also hosted for the first time, 4 days of GC National tournaments, with lawns in great condition and a marquee erected should players need to shelter from the Lake District unpredictable weather.  In the end there was 4 days of back to back sunshine to help competitors produce their best croquet.

In the C level GC, 12 players took part with many games finishing 7-6. In the end John Armer (Westmorland) beat Crake Valley’s Frank Sharps 10-9 in a thrilling final. Sue I’Anson (Ripon Spa) took 3^rd place  from Tom Grievson (Chester).

The B level GC saw Tony McCann (Croquet Durham) unbeaten in his 7 games win the tournament with Mark Buckley (Leicester) runner-up.

The A level GC was 2 days of all play all twice for the 8 players.  In the end Paul Durkin (Long Eaton Park) won with 12 wins followed by Charles Sale (Ealing), David Cornes (Crake Valley and Jane Pringle (Auckland).

The lawns were praised by all who took part with many promising to return next year.

Lockdown Success on Crake Valley Lawns

Although the lawns at Crake are closed, some members have been working in shifts, within social bubbles and Covid rules, to improve drainage at the club.

Thirty years worth of debris and spoil has been cleared ensuring the embankment outlet flap from our ditches to the River Crake is now working properly.

Using a diagram from 2012 when some work was undertaken the members set about identifying, rodding and hosing each outlet. There were 20 outlets pipes (some buried) and all bar 4 of them had some level of blockage.

The attached photos show the effect of Storm Christoph on Thursday (21st January) lunchtime and just 24 hours later. Whilst we will always suffer from a high water table, being next to the River Crake, the work shows that standing water now drains much faster than before.

National Golf Croquet C Level Finals – 19/20 Sep 2020
David Cornes reports from Colchester

The North West Federation had 2 finalists at Colchester to compete for the National GC C level trophy over the weekend of 19th & 20th September. Frank Sharps and daughter Sandra Cornes finished 2nd and 1st at the Crake Valley qualifier in July and joined 8 other players for the national final.

The initial round was a block of “all play all” and both players scored a credible 49 hoops (maximum 63). Frank won 5 out of 9 matches and qualified for the semi finals whilst Sandra fell short with 3 wins (losing 2 matches 6/7).

In hot weather for the time of year Frank showed great stamina and skill pushing the undefeatable winner, Duncan Catterall (High Wycombe) to 6-10 in the semi final. He then played Rick Lilley (Phyllis Court) in the 3rd & 4th place play off. Frank took the first game 7-4 and then lost 5-7. Due to the fact the final had concluded both players felt it fair and proper to share 3rd place rather than play a decider.

To complete the family involvement David Cornes stood in at short notice to manage the tournament whilst already being requested to be referee for the event.