GC C level tournament 11 July

report by Richard Keighley

The winner was Elaine Wilson from the Lodsworth club in West Sussex.

Heatwave conditions and Covid-19 precautions caused the field of 15 players to disperse to four bases established under gazebos adjacent to the four lawns.

This “group” stage produced three convincing winners who remained unbeaten after three rounds of games. They were George Savage (7) and Terry Collis (7) both of Wrest Park and an in-form Karen Gray (9) of Wingrave. However, the remaining group comprised three evenly matched players who each won two of their three games. Marian Harding (10) of Newport missed out on hoop count, but Elaine Wilson (7) of Lodsworth and Tony Meredith (8) of Wrest Park had identical net hoops. Elaine was pronounced group winner as she had beaten Tony in their game.

To minimise movement of players between lawns, the afternoon session took the form of a mini-league of three games between group winners, and similarly for groups comprising the runners-up, third and fourth places.

There were some early shocks in the “winners” league. In the opening round, Karen pipped Elaine at the golden hoop (7-6) and George was trounced (1-7) by Terry. However, the next round of games led to a reversal of fortune as Elaine beat Terry (7-2) and George beat Karen (7-3). This meant that all four finalists had won one game each so the result turned on who performed best in the third round. Terry beat Karen (7-4) but Elaine’s win (7-4) over George and her superior hoop count over Terry led her to be declared the tournament winner.

Manager Richard Keighley congratulated all the players on how well they had coped with the challenging conditions and presented Elaine with an engraved glass trophy. He was very grateful to Richard Skidmore for his assistance on the day, to John Bevington and George Collin for mowing and hoop-setting respectively, but in particular to Peter Aspinall for his meticulous cleaning of hoops, balls and chairs and careful preparation before the day.

© Wrest Park Croquet Club  

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