Author: nigelmartin

Congratulations to Don Wright and Dave Okell on becoming the Croquet North 2024 AC Doiubles Champions. Don and Dave won both the Draw and Process side of the knock-out competition, obviating the need for a final decider.

Congratulations to Andrew Killick on becoming the Croquet North 2024 AC Advanced Singles Champion. Andrew won both the Draw and Process side of the knock-out competition, obviating the need for a final decider.

The Croquet North Golf Croquet Singles Championship was played at the well-organised grounds in Albert Park, Middlesbrough on Saturday 10 August. This competition is only open to CN players whereas the Turner Goblet (8^th Sept) is an open competition.

 In ideal weather with no sign of the riots earlier in the week the 16 players started with four blocks made as equal as possible according to handicap. These matches proceeded largely as expected although Don Morton managed to buck the trend and finish in the top half of the 16.

The afternoon was devoted to knockouts for the top half and for the lower half.

Phil Errington won the lower half and the runner up was Eric Nixon.

In the top half a surprising win by Peter Tymms knocked out Tony McCann in the first round whilst Roger Carpenter managed to get to the final having beaten Jane Pringle and Laura Johnson. William Steadman got to the semifinal having just beaten Nigel Martin 7-6 where he fought for what seemed an age at the 9^th hoop against Peter losing 5 – 4. Peter beat Roger 7-4 in the final.

Entries are invited for the 2024 Croquet North GC Open competition (The Turner Goblet). The competition is best suited to players with handicap 7 or lower.

Teams of 6 from Croquet North and The North West Fed met at Pendle for the annual contest. 

North – Andrew Killick (- 1 ½), Terry Vernazza (3),David Millener (6), Julian Gibson (c)(8), Nigel Durie (10) and Derek Johnson (12)

North West – Lee Hartley (-1), John Henderson (5) Chris Alvey (8), Betty Bates (8), Anne Alvey (10 and Libby Dixon (12) (Non-playing Captain Liz Wilson)

The three morning  advanced doubles paired 1 with 6, 2 with 5 and 3 with 4.  John and Anne saw off Terry and Nigel in record time winning 26 – 0 and Chris and Betty did pretty much the same thing against David and Julian 26 – 3.  The other game featuring the minus players was far more tactical with Lee and Libby beating Andrew and Derek 26 – 9.  So 3 nil to the North West at lunch.

In the afternoon the first 4 pairings played level advanced with the final two pairings playing handicap.  First to finish was Lee vs Andrew 26 – 9.  The next to finish was Terry vs John which went to the North East 26 – 9.  Chris Alvey then produced the match deciding win against David Millener  again winning 26 – 9.  The other three games all went to time and were very close and exciting.  Libby beat Derek 26 – 21 in the time turn.  Julian beat Betty 20 – 18 and Anne beat Nigel 18 – 16.  The final score 7 – 2 to The North West but it could easily have been 5 – 4!

On Thursday 16^th May Middlesbrough hosted a 1 Day AC Advanced Tournament, which, after a couple of rearrangements, had 6 players with handicaps ranging from minus 1.5 to 12.

The competition was arranged in three rounds with a two and a half hour time limit. Great cooperation from the players finishing within the time limit in all but one match meant the three rounds were completed just in time for the sun to come out at about 5pm.

Andrew Killick won all 3 of him matches and was duly confirmed as worthy winner.

	Errington	Hall	Killick	Pratt	Scarr	Vernazza	Games Won
Phil Errington			8-26	26-9		26-10	2
Ian Hall			8-26	26-20	14-26		1
Andrew Killick	26-8	26-8			26-18		3
Stephen Pratt	9-26	20-26				10-25(T)	0
Dennis Scarr		26-14	18-26			26-16	2
Terry Vernazza	10-26			25-10(T)	16-26		1

Charles Waterfield presents trophies to the finalists

At a time when some AC Tournaments struggle for numbers 14 players entered the Middlesbrough AC Handicap Singles Weekend, which was very good response for early season when the weather can be iffy; and it was.

Saturday was mostly cold with steady drizzle and very occasional bright spots. But, on Sunday, the weather was quite simply dire. Cold conditions were maintained with the drizzle giving way to rain in bucket loads leading to squelchy lawns and soggy players. The downpour eventually relented – just as everyone was locking up and heading for home!

Handicaps ranged from 20 to minus 1.5. Full of good intensions we began Saturday with 2 Blocks, playing 18-point games with 2-hour time limits, which seemed about right with only a handful of games going to time. The target of 4 rounds on Saturday was comfortably achieved.

As the reality of Sunday weather struck home and with the happy band of 14 players reduced to 9, the Blocks were abandoned to focus on games between those players with 100% records from day 1.

Thankfully 2 rounds on Sunday gave us a winner. In a very tight Final, Andrew Killick (-1.5) beat Mark Simmerson (+3.5) plus 2.

It must be said that the 4 lawns are very much improved. The second year of Duncan Hectors Lawn Maintenance Programme is coming along quite nicely.

Special mentions go to 5 visitors from Nottingham Croquet Club, to Stephen Pratt who decided to return to AC Croquet after a couple of decades away, to Mark Simmerson from Sheffield Croquet Club who is a regular supporter of our Tournaments, and to Croquet North and Middlesbrough Club Members for supporting the Tournament.