Croquet in the North West

North West Federation of Croquet Clubs - for everything Croquet in the north west

You are here: Home / Pendle Millennium Advanced Tournament

Pendle Millennium Advanced Tournament

by

What’s a Lummox? Or a Southport Leave?

Pendle & Craven Croquet Club hosted the Millennium Advanced AC tournament last weekend.  Fourteen competitors, representing six of the clubs within the North West, were split into two classes to try to ensure as much competitive play as possible.

In the A Class, run as a Flexible Swiss, the Manager allowed games to run their course, without any time limits. With 8 competitors the aim was to complete at least 5 rounds.  There were 6 entrants in the B class, playing an all play all block with 3 hour time limits.

Lee Hartley, from Fylde, triumphed in the A class, winning all 6 of his matches. 

The B class was a much closer affair with 4 players going into the final round of games able to win the trophy.  The victor was Jim Allcock from Crake Valley, with 4 wins, including one over Phil Snowden, who also finished with 4 wins out of 5


It was good to see new faces participating in their first Advanced level tournament. Congratulations to Andrew Gould (Pendle), Phil Snowden (Fylde) and  Ed Cheetham (Bowdon) who now appear in the World Rankings.

The weather was better than forecast, the lawns were playing well & the good spirited banter amongst the players was educational!

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a Lummox is a clumsy, stupid person, perhaps a harsh comment to one who has just quit the lawn having made an error.  And the Southport Leave is when the turn in which Hoop 1 is run, ends with the clip being placed on Hoop 2.

The trophies were presented by the Manager, Angharrad Walters in bright sunshine.  Thanks were offered to Pendle & Craven Croquet Club for hosting the event, to RD Geotech for their sponsorship of the event, and to the competitors for their participation & good spirits.  Full results are available on croquetscores.com.

Short Croquet at Bowdon

by

Short Croquet is enjoying a surge of interest at Bowdon Croquet Club in the south Manchester area, where several of the club’s stronger players have been attracted by the challenge of mandatory peeling to complete with a full range of other handicaps in the local federation SC league.

The club ran its first midweek Short Tournament in 2023 and its sixteen places were rapidly filled. An extra two lawns were allocated for 2024, allowing the event to expand to 22 entries from six different clubs over the two days.

Tournament manager Brian Medley said, “It was a pleasure to welcome so many players, and to incorporate the North West Federation’s Millennium Short Croquet event alongside our own Trophy competition. The Bowdon Trophy winner Roger Brooks proved almost unbeatable after being defeated in his first knockout game, and rewarded spectators with virtuoso displays of peeling. Everyone was able to play as many games as they wanted and all were delighted with the quality of the lawns.”

Several players, including Roger, managed to complete a healthy eleven games over the two days.

Bowdon’s own Cas Sinclair, who dispatched Roger in the first round of the knockout event, went all the way through to the final. A point of law arose in her semi-final, and play had to be suspended for twenty minutes while all the available referees congregated to discuss the status of mandatory peels during the extension period of a timed ending. Despite the interruption, Cas won the game and also the  Millennium event’s final 14-0 against club president Brian Storey to clinch the trophy.

David Artingstall win GC ‘C’ Level Series Tournament

by

David Artingstall (Bury) won the GC ‘C’ Level tournament at Bury beating John Bowes (Crake Valley) in the Final (10-6)

12 players were welcomed to Whitehead Park, Bury on a lovely warm sunny day.

Play consisted of two blocks, both producing some exciting closely fought matches.

Block A was dominated by David Artingstall (Bury) who won all 5 of his matches, followed closely by John Bowes (Crake Valley) who won 4 of his matches, both players gaining their places in the Semi Final.

Block B was closely contested with 3 players each winning 4 games – Brenda Knight, Karen Bowes and Ray Hodgson (all Crake Valley), but it was Karen and Ray who went head-to-head in the semi-final

David beat Ray (7-5) and the ensuing husband and wife battle between John and Karen Bowes was won on this occasion by John (7-4), Karen went on to beat Ray (7-4) to take 3rd place.

The Final was a 19- point match between David and John, an exciting and, at times, nail-biting match with some excellent play by both competitors. David emerged victorious and took the Bury ‘C’ Level GC Tournament Winner’s prize of The Golden Eagle Trophy (10-6), presented by David Barrett, the Club President.

Doreen Curtis (Chester) won the Plate and Sharon de Maine (Pendle) the Shield.

Full results can be seen on https://croquetscores.com/2024/gc

Thanks go to Referee John Crossland, the Tournament Manager and Admin team, the Grounds Team and the all-important Refreshments Team.

Find a Category

Webmaster – Chris Alvey (webmaster@croquetnw.co.uk)