Club

Croquet

Wrest Park

All England Handicap area final
17-18 August

report by Peter Rothwell

The AC All England Handicap Southern Regional Final took place at Surbiton. WPCC was represented by the two members who reached the final of our club’s Ashwell Cup competition: Peter Aspinall and Peter Rothwell.

Conditions were warm and sunny all weekend, the lawns were fast and the hoops were suitably challenging. The planned field of 12 entrants was reduced to 10 on the day due to a couple of late withdrawals. The format was a fixed Swiss block, with everyone playing three games on the Saturday and two on the Sunday, each played with a handicap base of 6 and three hour time limits. Five qualifying places for the National Final were up for grabs.

On the Saturday, Peter R (4.5) started strongly, winning his first two games, +24 against Colin McKenzie (Ealing, 5) and +8 against Martin Strange (Winterbourne Valley, 10). He then came up against Sean Doherty (Ealing, 14) conceding 9½ bisques to a very capable GC player who is fast-improving at AC. Sean made full and effective use of all his bisques and inflicted Peter’s first ever -26 loss in little more than an hour. Meanwhile, Peter A (11) had beaten David Graham (Ealing, 11) in a close game +2, followed by a -13 loss to Sean Doherty, and then played Peter R’s afternoon opponent Martin Strange in a very close fought contest that went to time late into the evening, with Peter A eventually running out the winner +4t. That left both WP members with 2 wins and 1 loss at the end of the first day.

Sunday morning brought more fine weather and our two Peters arrived at the lawns to find that their similar records had paired them against each other in the morning game. Peter A received 6½ bisques and the handicap system proved to be well balanced as a very competitive and close game ensued. Reluctant to use his bisques too quickly, Peter A ran a series of shorter breaks with both balls, whereas after finally running hoop 1 successfully Peter R took a ball round to rover. Peter R subsequently got in with his back ball but stuck in hoop 4 and struggled to get another chance as Peter A’s accurate hitting became a recurrent theme in a tight tactical battle. After the bisques had all been used, Peter R eventually gained the innings and compiled a break with his back ball in the last half hour to end up the winner +11t.

Peter A then played yet another Peter, Peter Adams (Guildford, 9) in his final game but lost -21, whereas Peter R was matched against Colin Carver (Enfield, 22) who has only been playing AC for a few months. Not having scored a point in the first hour, Peter R hit in from distance and was taking his first ball round mostly with a 3–ball break but then ironically broke down before 4-back not long after he had picked up the fourth ball. Colin then used his remaining bisques to get his balls to peg and rover but was unable to finish. Peter gained the innings back and advanced his forward ball to rover, setting a leave for his back ball which was still for hoop 4. With no bisques left, Colin was unable to regain control, so with time soon to expire, Peter R made a tcontrolled break, running the remaining nine hoops and pegging out both balls to snatch a win by +3. It would have been an exciting finish to watch, but sadly the most of the other games had completed by then and the crowd had dispersed!

So, Peter R finished on four wins and one loss, which was sufficient to qualify for the National Final to be held at Blewbury on the weekend of 21/22 September, along with Diana Wilson (Roehampton, 2.5) and Sean Doherty (Ealing, 14) who also had four wins each. David Graham (Ealing, 11) was the only player to finish on three wins, followed by Colin Carver (Enfield, 22) with two wins and the best comparative results (having beaten Diana), so he took the remaining qualifying spot.  They will be joined by three other qualifiers from the Northern Regional Final. Peter R’s wins also earned him a handicap reduction to 4. Unfortunately Peter A, who also had two wins and three losses, finished in sixth place, just one place outside the automatic qualifying positions.

Thanks go to Surbiton Croquet Club for their hospitality and the excellent playing conditions, and to manager and referee Andy Dibben.

© Wrest Park Croquet Club