Phil Scarr Wins Southport Advanced Tournament 14/15 Sep 13

Sixteen players, including five locals, assembled for the Southport Advanced Tournament.  At stake – the Sandiford Plate; above – the roar of the Southport Air Show; ahead – some excellent croquet battles; the forecast – wonderful first day weather to be followed by gale force winds and torrential rain on the second day.

Despite the spectacle of the Red Arrows, Spitfires, Lancaster Bomber, Typhoon, all performing acrobatics in the sky, players from Hurlingham, Fylde, Bowdon, Crake, Tyneside, and Middlesborough played a good standard of croquet on excellent lawns, including a spectacular straight quadruple by Dave Nick.  Mindful of the worsening weather forecast, play continued until 8pm and in the gathering gloom two players emerged top of the leader board – Phil Scarr (Middlesborough) and Mark Ormerod (Hurlingham).  Phil Scar hitting in and winning a game by the light of the clubhouse security lamp.

Sunday dawned wet and windy to the news that the second day of the Air Show had been cancelled due to the worsening weather and our leaders made a very early start to grab any advantage the weather situation could provide.  By lunchtime, in torrential rain, Phil emerged as the tournament winner.  Presentation made over lunch, all lawns cleared by the players and the lawns were left to the seagulls and ducks as everyone hurriedly departed in the howling gales.

Alan Pidcock wins Southport Super B Tournament

Peter Wilson Reports from Victoria Park

I am sure everyone will agree that a Croquet club bathed in Sunshine is a beautiful thing. But is there anywhere better than Southport on a weekend such as this one?  The flowers around its club house looking splendid, the lawns tending to be fast(ish) and the company of talented players enjoying themselves and having some fun.  Manager J Haslam split the entries into two blocks. This gave everyone nicely balanced and usually interactive games that could be enjoyed by the knowledgeable catering brigade who,  after producing such a fine array of gourmet food (honestly),  watched into the afternoon from the shade of the veranda.

After the second game on Sunday two local lads came to the top. Alan Pidcock unbeaten in all his Super B games and Ray Lowe runner up.  Fylde Croquet  provided both the b class winner , Terry Vernazza,  and runner up Liz Wilson.  Players also came from far and wide to avail the local life in Southport overnight which was in full seaside swing during this glorious weekend.

Local Press/Media Report 

The North West made a clean sweep of the croquet trophies at the B Level and Super B tournament held at Southport this weekend. Derek Knight of Beverley, winner of the competition in 2011 and 2012 returned aiming at a hat trick, but could not repeat his success of previous years. This B Level tournament is split into a Super B and a B Level and attracted players with handicaps up to 6, so providing an opportunity for players to compete at their own level of advanced play. Players came from Lancashire, Yorkshire, Tyneside, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Surrey. Southport members proved up for the challenge with Carole Lewis top of the leader board at the end of the first day but by Sunday evening, Super B honours fell to Southport’s President, Professor Alan Pidcock, world renowned designer and manufacturer of mallets, with Southport’s Ray Lowe as runner up. Whilst the B Level cup was won by Terry Vernazza of Fylde with the runner up Liz Wilson, also of Fylde and Chairperson of the North West Federation. Liz summed up the feelings of players, saying, “It is always a pleasure to come to Southport, it has a wonderful atmosphere and everyone is always very friendly”.

In one of the hottest weekends of the summer, players enjoyed a wonderful tournament, well managed by John Haslam. As always, the catering was simply excellent. The lawns continue to show further improvement since the club took total control of their management and are now virtually weed free under their organic programme of maintenance.