Association Croquet FULL LAWN — ALL ENGLAND AREA FINAL – 31stAugust – 1stSeptember 2019 at Whitehead Park Bury.
Five northern Croquet Clubs were represented in this Association Croquet Full Lawns Tournament – Bury, Bowdon, Chester, Pendle and Penrith.
Saturday’s opening games set the scene for the whole week-end with the two youngest players coming into the event never having previously played in full lawn tournament. Both are members of Bury Croquet Club – Jack Good and Richard Leach.
Previously they had only competed at Short Lawn croquet which meant that they were each entitled to have opening Handicaps of 24 and they both took full advantage of this by playing some outstanding quality croquet.
13 years old Jack Good is already being tipped for stardom and has been recognised by The Croquet Association as being one of the best new young players in the country. He quickly demonstrated his skills to the joy of all the spectators by performing some outstanding shots :- hitting in at 20 yards, then later at 35 yards to set up perfect four ball breaks with each ball. His opponent was John Dawson from Chester, a very experienced player with an handicap of 2.5 but he had little chance and could only watch as Jack went on to win the game 26 – 0.
This set the set the trend for the week-end with Jack winning 5 out of 5 of his match’s.
Meanwhile Richard Leach was the only player who came anywhere near threatening Jack’s top spot by taking him to within 2 points in their match against each other. Richard was certainly a worthy joint 2nd placed runner -up with John Dawson – each having won 3 games out of 5.
During the Tournament Jack and Richard both qualified to Receive a Bronze Merit Award for running 10 or more hoops in one break – a tremendous achievement for two young players in their first Full Lawn AC Tournament.
Unfortunately due to prior commitments Richard is unavailable to go to the Final, so it will be Jack Good and John Dawson who are eligible to enter the final next week.
David Barrett – Tournament Handicapper & Joint Manager