After 5 qualifying rounds held at Ashby, Middlesborough, Chester, Pendle and Nottingham 16 players descended onto Bowdon Croquet Club for the inaugural Northern Stars GC  “Finals Day” on Sunday 16th August.   

Top seed, Euan Burridge (Bowdon) won the “Championship Gold Star” relying on all his grit, skill and determination to progress to the final where he beat Callum Johnson (York) 7-5, 7-6. 

In the Quarter finals Bowdon’s Sandra Cornes played extremely well to beat Euan in game two but lost the match; whilst in the semi finals Euan beat Bishop Monkton’s Chris Higgins at the “golden” hoop in game 3.  Callum also had to negotiate hard fought matches against Ian Burridge (Nottingham) and then David Cornes (Bowdon) both ending two games to one.

In the Challengers Final  8 other qualifiers contested “all play all” 13 hoop games. Bowdon’s David Beddy won 6 games out of 7 played to take the title with most points gained on handicap card to take the “Silver” Star whilst Ashby’s John Picken was awarded the consolation “block” winner prize, also with 6 wins recorded.

Pictured are Ian Burridge (Championship Bowl winner), Euan Burridge (Championship Gold Star), David Beddy (Challenger Silver Star) and John Picken (Challenger Block)

On Saturday 1 August, the inaugural Barbara Young Memorial Trophy short lawn Tournament was held at Bury Croquet Club. A total of 14 players assembled on an initially overcast day and played on six fast, flat lawns. Most parts of the North West were represented, joined by Tim and Brenda Ash from Nottingham “her favourite place to visit”.

Handicaps ranged from 4P (Roger Brooks) to 8 (Brenda Ash) and the format devised by our International Referee Ken Jones was a Swiss variant with the aim to have everyone play at least 5 matches with a time limit of 1 ½ hours.

As it turned out, only five of the 35 games reached the time limit and with one pairing sitting out the first games, they were also quickly underway about an hour in.

Robert Bentwood (7) set off like a rocket winning his first three games +9, +9, +11 and was clearly going to be one to beat, this was cemented in his fourth game by beating Tim Ash (2.5) +6. This put Tim and Robert both on 3 out of 4 wins although having lost his first match to Bury’s Roger Schofield (1) -14, he was behind on net scores.

Elsewhere, Duncan Meachin (7) from Bury was progressing well beating Sandra Cornes (3.5) +13 and David Cornes (1) +1 but beaten by Tim Ash in game two -2.

At the end of the first four games, there were seven players sitting on 3 wins, including Roger Brooks (4P), Sandra Cornes, Roger Schofield, Tim Ash, Barry Broughton (5) with Robert Brentwood leading on net scores +23 closely followed by Duncan Meachin on +20.

The final round, played in brilliant sunshine saw Robert Bentwood (7) (Fylde) playing Duncan Meachin (7) (Bury), Robert Brooks (4P) (Westmorland) playing Tim Ash (2.5) (Nottingham), Barry Broughton (5) (Fylde) playing Roger Schofield (1) (Bury) and Sandra Cornes (3.5) (Bowden) playing Sally Slater (3.5) (Chester).

In the end, the most important match turned out to be between Robert and Duncan with Robert bringing his best game and winning +6, thereby securing the Cup with four wins from five and a net score of +31. Duncan was sadly knocked down to a creditable fifth position. Barry Broughton beat Roger Schofield +12, coming second overall and Tim Ash beat Roger Brooks +3 to secure third place.

Michael Young, a senior data analyst at Sport England and Barbara’s son joined us in the afternoon to watch the keenly contested matches and share memories of his parents, always taking him on holiday to somewhere close to a Croquet Club.

Having started the day at 09.45, we finished at 17.30 as planned, with prizes presented by Michael to the winner Robert Bentwood who received the silver Memorial Trophy, a bottle of English Sparkling wine and a £100 Amazon gift voucher. Prizes of bottles of wine went to Barry Broughton (second), Tim Ash (third) and Roger Brooks (fourth). All players from fifth to fourteenth received a small bottle of Cava.

Grateful thanks was expressed by the Club Vice-Chair Roy Spencer to club members who set up the lawns, manned the kitchen and handled the admin, especially the Tournament Secretary Sue Worth and Tournament Manager and Referee Ken Jones.

Chester hosted the NW Federation 26-point AC HC tournament on Saturday 25 July. Only four players – two from Bowdon and two from Chester – had entered the tournament which was disappointing but those present enjoyed a competitive day on Chester’s fast courts and showed great skill from the start. 

The day began in warm sunshine and in the first round of matches, Mike Flannery (11) from Bowdon beat Ant Fletcher (12) 18-4 as Ant struggled to get the measure of the court. Meanwhile Sally Slater (14) was narrowly beaten by Bowdon’s Robert Cutts-Watson (10) 15-18 as she came back strongly as time was reached.

After an early lunch the second round matches pitted Sally against Ant who following the break found his touch and playing neat controlled croquet – well mostly anyway! – won 18-9. The other match between Mike and Robert was of high quality with some excellent breaks. Mike established a good lead but then Robert pegged him back and got to within 3 hoops of parity but just failed to get position on 3-back. This allowed Mike to run out the  21-16 winner.

The tea break allowed all to recuperate with the help of chocolate fudge cake, strawberries and squirty cream ready for the final round.

Robert and Ant fought out a tough match which by their admission was not one for the crowds with Robert holding on to a 17-11 win. Meanwhile in the other match Sally started strongly and established a  small lead but Mike replied with some excellent and precise croquet to peg out in just over two hour of play to win 26-13.

Once all the results had been compiled and points calculated Mike Flannery was the deserved winner of the 2026 Millennium AC 26-point Handicap Tournament remaining undefeated through the day and with 65 hoops run in the process. His was a fine display of consistent hitting in, controlled croquet shots and excellent hoop running on the rapid Chester courts. 

With the manager’s failure to recover the Tournament trophy from a previous winner in time, Mike was presented with his very own Chester mug as a surrogate prize for his endeavours. The real thing will follow in due course!

Report bu Robin Tasker, Tournament Manager