2009 Tournament Reports

The Team Doubles AC Weekend

Dulwich claim a 1/2 victory in the team doubles weekend.

Fourteen teams met at Southwick to contest this popular AC event. Our luck with the weather held and we were graced with two days ideal condirions for playing croquet. Of the 14 teams playing, three were second teams from the larger clubs. The normal five round Swiss format was played with each pair in a team playiong as individual pairs in a Swiss but never having to meet the other pair in their team. The winner were decided by the team with ther best joint performance.

Right from the start, Dulwich 2 showed great form and after four rounds still had a 100% record with eight wines from eight games. Theoretically they could still be overhauled by three other teams who had six wins from eight games but this was not to be. Although both Dulwich 2 pairs struggled slightly in the last round, they managed to obtain one win which guaranteed them the title outright and to put the final icing on the cake, their other team finished in the second place.

It was very pleasing to note that the Dulwich success was built around some rather younger but rapidly improving players. I am sure we are likley to see much more of these particular players in future years.

The full results are shown below.

Bill Arliss

Manager

The Dulwich 2 winning team

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LADIES DAY at Sussex County Croquet Club 1st July 2009

This is the twentieth year that the shield has been competed for and we all wondered whether Purley Bury Croquettes would win once again.
We used a similar format to previous years playing two rounds of two singles and a doubles of 18pts and a third round of 14pts.
Ten teams took part Sussex County (2 teams), Purley Bury (3 teams), Rottingdean, Worthing & West Chiltington and Rother Valley plus teams from Surbiton and Woking who joined us for the first time. After the first round Surbiton & Woking looked serious contenders for the shield but by the start of the third round Sussex Scorchers had won five out of six games with Purley Bury Maids of Honour, Surbiton and Woking on four wins.

Sussex Scorchers were victorious at the finish, winning eight out of nine games and Jonathan Isaacs; Chairman of Sussex County CC was delighted to present the shield to their captain Christine Constable. Second place went to Purley Bury Maids of Honour and third place to Purley Bury Croquettes.

It turned out to be a very enjoyable day with fast lawns, tight hoops, good weather and excellent food that was prepared and served by the men/man from Sussex CC & Purley Bury.

Pauline Davey

The Sussex Scorchers

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Golf Croquet Day at Southwick 9 Aug.

Tunbridge Wells take all the honours.

Entries were again this year over the maximum and a ballot had to take place to decide which second teams could be accommodated. Merton gave good notice that they could not raise a team and their place was quickly taken by Ramsgate 2. Unfortunately on the day our numbers were reduced to 16 as we had two 'No-shows' which resulted in some rapid rescheduling. However play got underway promptly at 9.30 under the strict time control of Pam and the dreaded noise generator. Tunbridge 2 made no mistakes and finished the morning doubles sessions with four wins from four games. Littlehampton and Sussex 2 were adjudged to be equal second, both with three wins and eight net points.

In the afternoon singles, it appeared that Tunbridge 1 would emulate their colleagues with a 100% record and it was not until the fifth round when they suffered their first loss but then recovered to claim all the remaining games and give themselves an unassailable lead of 11 wins from 12 games. Sydenham finished in second place with nine wins with Littlehampton and Ramsgate 2 third equal with 7.5 wins and 16 net points each.

Tunbridge Wells 2 Doubles Winners	Tunbridge Wells 1 Singles Winners

The full results for the day are as follows.

	DOUBLES			SINGLES
TEAM	Wins	Net Pts	TEAM	Wins	Net Pts
Tunbridge 2	4	10	Tunbridge 1	11	26
L'hampton	3	12	Sydenham	9	24
Sussex 2	3	8	L'hampton	7.5	16
Reigate Priory 1	3	7	Ramsgate 2	7.5	16
Reigate Priory 2	3	3	Reigate Priory 1	7	9
Tunbridge 1	2.5	2	Rottingdean	7	2
Sussex 1	2.5	1	Ramsgate 1	7	0
Rother Valley	2	7	Sussex 1	6.5	3
Rottingdean	2	2	Dulwich	6	1
Sydenham	2	-1	Preston	5.5	0
Ramsgate 1	2	-2	Rother Valley	5	-7
Preston	1.5	-2	Sussex 2	5	-7
Worthing	1.5	-5	Reigate Priory 2	5	-10
Dulwich	1	-6	Tunbridge 2	5	-19
Ramsgate 2	0.5	-7	Worthing	2	-27
Crawley	0.5	-13	Crawley	1	-27

 

Bill Arliss Manager

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U League Play Off for place in the Secretary's Shield in 2010

CANTERBURY Croquet Club are champions again.

On a cold,damp, Sunday at Tunbridge Wells they defeated South London side Caterham in a play-off to decide the 2009 winners of the southeast Unlimited Handicap League. It was the second time that Canterbury and Caterham had jointly topped the league. In 2003 Canterbury lost by four games to three. On Sunday Canterbury won by the same margin, so victory was especially sweet. In between Canterbury have won the title outright twice.

In the morning doubles Canterbury captain Frank Hughes, handicap, 12 and Brenda Porrer (13) played out of their skins and used their bisques (handicap extra turns) skilfully, never allowing Caterham captain Jon Male,(1) and Colin Best (8) to create meaninful innings. They won 26-8.
Ted Salisbury was too strong for Caterham’s Rolf Kaenzig but Jean Byers and Caterham’s Jeff Rushy were still on level terms after slugging it out for the full 3.25 hours. Rushby, however, was left having only a simple shot to make the deciding golden hoop.

After lunch Male showed his skill by demolishing Salisbury in quick time. Porrer built up an impressive lead against Best but the latter then ran 10 hoops in one innings, following up with another good break with his second ball. Porrer kept her nerve to peg out for victory.
Meanwhile Byers was losing narrowly to Kaenzig, leaving the match score level.

Hughes played probably the best game of his life to need only one hoop and to peg out for victory with his opponent, Rushby having scored only five hoops out of 24. However Hughes blobbed his last hoop, allowing Rushby to get back in to the game.
Rushby scored another seven hoops before Hughes regained the initiative with a couple of long-range hit-ins and pegged out for victory as darkness fell.

Scores: Canterbury names first, Hughes & Porrer 26, Male & Best 8; Ted Salisbury 26, Rolf Kaenzig 8; Byers 18, Rushby 19; Salisbury 13, Male 26; Byers 22, Kaenzig 26; Porrer 26, Best 18; Hughes 26, Rushby 12.
Blob: This win means Canterbury are eligible to enter the national Secretary’s Shield competition, open to all area U League winners.
Canterbury won the shield last year, the first south-east league side to do so.

Frank Hughes

The Caterham Team	The Canterbury Team

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