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.
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