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Terry Kendal Cup – Saturday 30th September 2017 (The Final Tournament)
16 members had entered for this year’s tournament which The Manager had arranged into groups of four each member playing each other to determine whom would play who in the first knock-out round. However, disaster struck early when Noel Gill had to unfortunately retire having suffered an un-expected bout of appendicitis resulting in hospitalisation. Being one player short and no reserves to call on Terrey Sparks who was only expecting to manage the event had to step in to fill the gap.
Depending on their position in the blocks determined whom they played in the knock-out the 16 proceeded to eight knock-out games with the 8 losers going into a Subsidiary Plate Round and the remaining successful players going into a quarter-final round, reducing the numbers further to four.
The resulting semi-finals between David Thirtle-Watts versus Pauline Donner and David Boxell versus Terrey Sparks proved very close with David beating Pauline 7/5 and Terrey scraping home 7/6 against David.
In the Plate Round Caroline Harper just managed to beat Christine Thirtle-Watts 6/5 and Gwenda Mackenzie managed to win against Ron Goggins 7/3.
The final round between Terrey Sparks and David Thirtle-Watts, proved to be a very slow and intense game with Terrey managing to win 5/2. Whilst in the Plate Final Caroline just managed to beat Gwenda in a very close game 7/6.
THE CARPENTER CUP (Singles Handicap 10 – 14) Played on 14th September 2017
Twelve entries split into two groups contested this year’s Carpenter Cup (Handicap) Tournament, with the top two in each block proceeding to a semi-final. The two blocks consisted of players with handicaps ranging from 11 to 14, playing timed games of 40 minutes plus 8 shots.
Blue Block – Christine Thirtle-Watts 11, John Harper 14, Gwenda Mackenzie 14, Ian Wilson 14, Faith Harman 14 and Iris Verrando 14.
Red Block – Ros Etheridge 11, Janet Kendal 12, Caroline Harper 14, Chris Herbert 14, Jan Haslop 14 and Ron Coggins 14.
In Blue Block both Gwenda and Ian managed four wins a piece, with Gwenda taking top spot based on her nett hoop score being one better than Ian’s. The remaining games were all close affairs with Christine and John taking twenty two minutes to complete the first hoop, this must be a club record.
The Red Block saw Chris complete a clean sweep of five wins, followed by Ros on four. All the other games were well contested with wins for every player.
- semi-finals commenced with Gwenda and Ros playing each other in their second semi this year, having met in the Green Shutters singles. Ros was unable to overcome Gwenda again, with a win for Gwenda 7/2. In the second semi, Chris, who is new to croquet and playing in his first tournament, gave Ian no chances and finished with a 7/1 win.
- final between Gwenda and Chris was a close affair until hoop eight, where Chris took control to finish with a 7/4 win and become the 8th winner of the Carpenter Cup.
Premier Croquet at Hunstanton
Hunstanton Croquet Club was honoured this year to be selected as the venue to host the prestigious singles event ‘The Presidents Cup’.
This tournament staged on an annual basis around the country comprised of eight of the very best in the croquet world ranging from England, Scotland, Spain and The Channel Islands, produced over the week-end of 7th – 10th September much to the appreciation of the spectators some of the best croquet seen at the club.
At the end of a gruelling four days of intense play youth prevailed and the magnificent cup was presented by the President of The Croquet Association Quiller Barrett to the youngest player taking part, Jose Riva of Spain.
| Samir Patel (Eng) | Chistian Carter (Eng) | James Hopgood (Sco) | Stephen Mulliner (Eng) (Joint R/U) |
| Jose Riva (Spain) Winner) |
Gavin Carter (CI) | Robert Fulford (Eng)
(joint R/U)
|
David Maugham (Eng) |
Photo David Thirtle Watts
(GC) Club Doubles – Saturday 19th August 2017
Sixteen contestants entered this year’s doubles which the manager split into two groups of four.
Group A, Terrey Sparks & Caroline Harper, Pauline Donner & Ian Wilson, David Boxell & Christine Thirtle-Watts, Noel Gill & Pat Baillie
Group B, John Reddish & Gwenda Mackenzie, Chris Ward & Anne Gill, Roy Donner & Janet Kendal, Su Debenham & Myfanwy Dunford
Each round of games timed at 1 1/2 Hours consisted of each team playing twice for which two points were allocated for a win. At the end of the rounds Group A leaders were Pauline & Ian with 10 points followed by David & Christine on 7. Whilst in Group B the undisputed leaders were Chris Ward & and Anne Gill on 8 points. However, the partnerships of John & Gwenda and Roy & Janet tied for second spot on 6 points apiece. As Roy and Janet had beaten John & Gwenda earlier in the round they were allocated the second place.
The following semi-final between Pauline & Ian & Roy & Janet resulted in a win for Pauline & Ian 7 – 5. In the other semi David & Christine upped their game a gear against David & Anne to run out 7 – 0 winners.
After a break for mid-afternoon tea the final round between David & Christine and Pauline & Ian took place before an appreciated crowd. However, David & Christine continued to maintain their form and dominated the game running out the overall winners 7 -2.
(GC) Week – End Invitation Tournament – 5th & 6th August 2017
Saturday (Singles): Consisted of 20 players split into two sections of 10 depending on handicaps one section playing level singles and the other handicap each, playing 40 minute timed games with 8 extra shots. Each group was then split into 2 groups of 5 who then each played 5 games across the blocks with the winners and runners up playing each other to determine who went through to the final round.
Handicap: In Group A, winner Ann Udal played Maureen Croft in a semi-final which was won by Ann 7-4. Whilst in Group B the winner Vivian Heard met Roy Donner in a group B semi-final in which Vivian ended up winning 7-3. In the resulting Final Ann Udal managed to beat Vivian Heard 7-3 to run out the overall winner.
Level Play: Things finished closer in the level play where there were 3 players each finishing on four wins in Group A, Les Heard, Pauline Donner & Colin Robinson. In a count back Les totalled +14, Pauline +9 & Colin on +5 which determined that Les played Pauline in the first semi-final which in a close game went in favour of Les 7-5. In the second group two players led the group husband and wife Steve & Anne Dennis on 3 wins apiece who unfortunately met in the second semi-final in which Anne ran out the winner 7-5. In the resulting final Last year’s winner Less Heard in magnificent form ran out the overall winner against Anne Dennis 7-1.
- (Mixed Doubles) Level Play: 24 entries split into 12 pairs by top and tailing played a total of 6 games of 40 minutes duration each played under the Egyptian format to determine the winner from an initial rating of 100. Right from the start the pace was set by the pairing of Jeffery Brocket and Karen Jones, despite being closely pursued by Les Heard/ Anne Gill & Roy Donner/Pat Dawson they managed to see off all opposition by winning all their games to end up the overall undisputed winners.
Final Rating 1st: Jeffery Brocket (Northampton) & Karen Jones (Chelmsford) – 126, 2nd: Roy Donner (Hunstanton) & Pat Dawson (Hunstanton) – 118, 3rd: Les Heard (Northampton) & Anne Gill (Hunstanton) – 110
GREEN SHUTTERS DOUBLES (Handicap) Tournament – 27th JULY 2017
GREEN SHUTTERS SINGLES (Handicap) TOURNAMENT – 6th July 2017
Twelve entries split into two groups contested this year’s Green Shutters Singles (handicap) tournament, with the top two in each block proceeding to a semi-final. The two blocks consisted of players with handicaps ranging from 4 to 14 playing timed games of 40 minutes plus 8 shots.
Block A Pauline Donner 4-David Boxell 6-Noel Gill 7-Janet Carpenter 8-Ros Etheridge 11-Ian Wilson 14
Block B-Chris Ward 4-Roy Donner 7-Pat Baillie 8- Christine Thirtle-Watts 10-Susan Boxell 11-Gwenda Mackenzie 14
In Block A Pauline managed to overcome the free shots against her and finished her matches with 5 wins taking her in to the semi-finals. The second place was a much closer affair with Noel & Ros completing 3 wins each but with Ros beating Noel 6-4 taking her in to the semi-finals.
In Block B Gwenda made good use of her free shots to finish on 4 wins and headed the group. As with block A we had another tie between Chris & Susan on 3 wins each, with Susan following her 7-6 win over Chris taking her place in the semi-finals.
The semi-finals commenced with Pauline v Susan and Ros v Gwenda. Both games were close affairs with Susan beating Pauline 7-5 and Gwenda taking the game against Ros on the 13th 7-6.
The final between Susan & Gwenda was a nip and tuck with Susan completing her victory 6-4 and winning for her first time the Green Shutters Singles Salver.
Paul Durkin Michael Bilton Tony Lee Henry Hobbs
Eighteen entrants from an over-subscribed entry gathered at the club for this years ‘B’ Level Qualifying (GC) tournament. Split into groups of three with the group winners plus the best runner up proceeding through to the knock-out round. This turned out to be Michal Bilton, Henry Hobbs and Tony Lee all on a maximum of 5 wins each. However, in determining the best R/U proved more difficult for the manager as three players had finished on three wins each which meant that a count back had to be carried out to determine who went through. This turned out to be Paul Durkin +2, closely followed by Janet Carpenter+1 and Derek Buxton -4.
The First semi between Tony Lee and Paul Durkin, Tony ran out the winner 7-6 whilst in the other match Michael overcame Henry 7-6. In the resulting final after some very determined and intelligent play Tony ran out the overall winner of the tournament 7-4. Paul overcame Henry in the 3rd/4th play-off.
1st: Tony Lee – Hunstanton. 2nd: Michael Bilton – Richmond Par. 3rd: Paul Durkin – Long Eaton. 4th: Henry Hobbs – Enfield.
The winner – John Noble (Letchworth)
The following three matches played late into the evening sun provided some of the most entertaining Golf Croquet seen at the club all finishing on the 13th hoop keeping the watching audience glued to their seats. John Noble (Letchworth) won over Duncan Hector (Hunstanton) , whilst in the other match Peter Dowd beat Les Heard both from the Northampton club. In the final despite a shaky start John Noble last year’s winner managed to make a remarkable recovery to take the game to the final 13th hoop and eventually retain the trophy for the second year.
Report: Terrey sparks. Photos: David Thirtle-Watts.
Club (GC) Level Play Champinship
Played during a very hot sunny day with the temperature reaching the high 80’s F, sixteen club members varying in handicaps between 12 – -1 this year had entered the GC level play Club Championship.
Split into seeded blocks of four, each played the other block members twice to determine who would procced to the semi – finals on the greater number of wins.
In Block ‘A’ this turned out to be the seeded favourite Duncan Hector (-1) who had won all his six games, who met in the Semi- Final Block ‘C’ winner Chris Ward (5) who also had an unblemished record of six wins. However, things were not that simple in Block ‘C’ where three players John Reddish, Pauline Donner & Noel Gill all stood on four wins apiece. As the manager could not determine the winner by using the ‘who beat whom’ formula he had to revert to hoop difference where the winner turned out to be Noel Gill (8) who went on to meet the Block ‘D’ winner Terrey Sparks (2) who also stood on maximum wins.
The first semi – final produced the first major upset of the day with Chris running out the winner beating Duncan 7 – 4. Whilst, the other semi between Terrey & Noel proved to be a very close and tense affair affair with neither player taking dominance until the penultimate hoop when Terrey took the final two final hoops to seal the game 7 -5.
In the final round Chris got off to a shaky start allowing Terrey to run the first four hoops for no reply. Despite a recovery by Chris, Terrey was not going to let his lead slip and traded hoop for hoop running out the winner 7 -3.
Despite a decade of not being contested the first internal tournament of the summer ‘The Grass Roots Qualifier’ got under way under a blazing sun comprising of 7 club members with-in the handicap bands of 8 plus. Originally 8 members entered but unfortunately Pat Dawson had to withdraw after going down overnight with a stomach bug.
At the end of the days play two players Christine Thirtle-Watts and Janet Carpenter both stood on 5 wins out of 6 games however, to determine the first place and as Christine had beaten Janet she was declared the winner and Janet second place. In third place on 4 wins came Pat Baillie.
Gwenda and friend – Just what I always wanted’
George Noble won the Lord Fermoy Cup for the third successive year
Eric Miller’s Funeral
It is with regret that I have been informed that former member Eric Miller recently passed away after a long illness in a nursing home in Snettisham. Due to his illness Eric has not been seen at the club for some years. However, with his wife Rita who also passed away last summer they were often seen together at the club together.
Eric served on the Committee for several years and as one of his interest, was carpentry proved most useful around the club carrying out all the maintenance. Also being a avid model aircraft enthusiast meant that his week-ends were spent flying taking him away from representing the club which he was well qualified to do.
Our condolences go to his family
Terrey Sparks Hunstanton Croquet Club Secretary
John Reeve died on 16th February 2017
John presenting the Prichard Trophy in 2015
It is with sadness that I have to inform the membership that following a fall on 16th February 2017 former member John Reeve passed away peacefully. His son Duncan also a previous member informs me although physically frail he was in good form to the end.
John was an active member in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and served on the committee for some years, in fact holding the office of Chairman for the period 1994 -1997. John last visited the cub during May 2015 when he presented The Prichard Trophy to the winner George Noble.
Our condolences go to his family.
Terrey Sparks Secretary