Twelve AC players took to the superb lawns at Crake Valley over the weekend of 5th & 6th August.

Two blocks of six saw only 4 games out of 24 go to time. Most games being decided by quality breaks from the winner.

At the end of the 5 rounds there were two players in Block A on 4 wins – Rick Harding (Southport) and Charles Harding (Bowdon). Charles progressing by virtue of “who beat who”. In Block B, three players secured 4 wins out of 5. Neil Adams (Westmorland), Mike Sandler (Bowdon) and Steve Skelton (Keswick) all had a win against each other meaning Neil progressed on hoop difference (of plus 95!).

In the group stages both Neil and Rick achieve a triple peel.

Moving to the final and Neil took early control and overcame Charles by 26-4 TP. A great achievement for a player who only took up croquet about 3 years ago.

The other significant achievement was in the 3rd and 4th place play off where Mike Sandler only got 3 shots as Rick Harding achieved a SEXTUPLE.

This was fantastic to watch and, we believe, this is the first time it has been done at Crake Valley. Dave Nick produced one in Southport in 2006 but there is no record of a sextuple peel in tournament play at Crake.

Liz Wilson (NW Federation AC handicap officer) presented Rick with his paperwork to receive a Platinum Award from the CA.

Friday night – 12 players are entered with two blocks of six planed leading to semi-finals and final. What can go wrong? Answer – a telephone call at 8.30pm with two cry-offs due to predicted stormy weather and advice from fellow club members regarding potential poor travel conditions.

Saturday morning – with the paperwork re-worked to allow cross-block (5 games), 10 players from (Chester, Crake, Fylde and Westmorland) arrived for the early morning briefing. Play throughout the day was very competitive despite the persistent drizzle falling from the Lake District clouds.

At the end of the block stage we were faced with a bizarre situation. Despite the total handicap of players being very similar in each block (47 to 49), the majority of wins came from the same block! In Group A – Jude Acda (Fylde), Karen Bowes (Crake), Kerry Dadson (Chester) and Paul Galley (Crake) all had 4 wins out of five with the fifth player, Mark Hutchinson (Westmorland), with 3 wins.  In Group B – John Bowes (Crake) and Sue Clarke (Fylde) were the only winners with 3 out of 5 wins each.

A decision was needed as to who progressed. This was difficult because under advantage rules you do not take into account hoop difference and there was no “who beat who” due to the cross-block situation. The percentage of hoops scored to the maximum available for each player was considered but this was too close to call between all the players involved.

The drizzle continued but the lawns remained playable (with some assistance from the BowDry equipment) all 4 players from Group A went into a “mini” KO to determine the group winner, with the first games being 7-point and the others 13-point. The two players from Group B went straight to a play-off to decide their group winner.

In Group A – Paul beat Kerry 4-3 and Karen beat Jude 4-0. Paul then overwhelmed Karen 7-1. In Group B Sue beat John 7-4 to set up the final pair.

The final was a 19-point game with the start scores equal at 0-0. Paul took an early lead from which Sue could not recover despite her courageous determination. In the end Paul triumphed 10-5 to ensure the trophy stays at Crake following Frank Sharps win in 2022.  

Handicap reductions achieved were Kerry Dadson, now 5: Paul Galley and Sue Clarke, both now 7. A huge thank you to all players who made the day possible.

Lancashire Team mates and others who knew and loved Dave Nick are getting together at the Imperial Hotel, Southport (38 Albert Road, PR9 0LN) on Thursday 27^th July at 2pm. 

Do come if you have memories and stories you wish to share