Managing to arrange players to be available on a given weekend is never easy. This year was proving to be particularly difficult so the early summer final in July was cancelled to be replaced by one in September. Nevertheless initially Doug and latterly Caroline managed to put together a programme of seven finals over the weekend of 17-18 August. There were two sunny days of play through hoops recently re-sited and set at a tight-ish but not too daunting 3/32”.
Centenary Plate
First up was the Centenary Plate match (GC, handicap advantage, 19pt, best of 3) Despite a significant difference in the contestants’ ages and handicaps, Lorna put up a determined and sustained opposition to Chris, with the first game lasting over 1¾ hours and ending 10-8 to Chris. He followed up winning the second game more easily, 10-6, to become the holder of the Centenary Plate 2024 with Lorna a very honourable runner-up.
It was an interesting match to watch, even though their significant handicap difference made the evolving score in advantage play was hard to be sure about at any point. It evoked much discussion in the 10-strong crowd of onlookers.
Jubilee Bowl
Next was the Jubilee Bowl final, which was also GC handicap advantage, but there was no handicap difference between finalists Bob Nichols and Derek Ryan.
Their first game was close fought until Derek drew ahead to 7 at hoop 13, which is effectively the golden hoop that is not played in advantage. The second game was complicated by a sequence of unrelated wrong balls played from hoop 7 onwards. This was resolved by the on-call umpire and the spectators yelling out “yellow” on several occasions.
Derek won this game 7-5 to become the holder of the Jubilee Bowl for 2024, which he celebrated by kissing the cut-glass bowl and putting it on his head in true celebratory style at the presentation!
Fuller Buckley Cup
The afternoon was taken up with the final of the Fuller Buckley Cup, which is handicap Association Croquet competition, with Simon Ling against Geoff Gunton. Receiving 3½ bisques Simon made good use of 1½ to take one ball round to Rover. From then on the game was to and fro with Geoff playing catch-up. Until a long roll shot by Simon from the north boundary towards corner left one ball trapped in hoop 3. A few turns later Geoff used this to claim a lift to get back into the game and eventually to peg out to win +7.
Just after 09:00 on the following morning Neil Coote and Caroline Barnard took on the long established pair of Alan Slade and Frank Burch in the Candlesticks, an AC handicap doubles event. It pitted a pair comprising a low handicap and a high handicap against a pair of nearly equal handicaps, resulting in only ½ bisque in play.
Neil took his ball to Rover in a continuous break. After that, Alan and Frank made some hoops in their familiar ‘divide and rule’ style whilst Neil advised Caroline around, eventually pegging out +12.
Knight Tankard
The Knight Tankard Final – a handicap GC competition played with extra turns rather than to Advantage rules – put Sue Rice up against Michael Bye with three extra turns for Sue each game.
She made good use of them in the first game to stay in front winning 7-5. The second game was closer and went to the golden hoop but a ball of Michael’s became hampered against hoop 12 and he chose to deem it in two subsequent plays which gave Sue the edge to eventually run the golden hoop and win the final 7-5, 7-6.
Golf Doubles
Jill Dawson and Freda Knight were up against Alan Slade and Claire Brugger in the Golf Doubles and they took the first game to the Golden Hoop. However Alan and Claire ran that hoop and also went on to win the second game quite comfortably; overall a 7-6, 7-3 win for them.
Frances Payne Cup
The end of the day saw the ‘crowd’ of spectators increased significantly for the final of the Frances Payne Cup, a level-play knockout GC event. Michael Bye had progressed through the knock-out stages to be up against Jamie Burch. Jamie’s power game, risk taking and accuracy sped him through to win 7-3, 7-0.
Congratulations to all the winners and commiserations to those that came second.
It was two days of entertaining croquet that began with a demonstration of dogged and determined resistance by Lorna and ended with a demonstration of world-class golf croquet from Jamie. Those two widely contrasting styles and all those in between are all part of what makes the croquet worthwhile, a key factor behind the longevity of the club.