Club

Croquet

Wrest Park

September swan song

The weekend of 27-28 September was a busy one. On the Saturday we hosted the EACF GC Handicap league final, in which Colchester beat Enfield 12-6, and on the same day the CqE GC Inter Club Tier 3 final between Roehampton and Nottingham, with Roehampton winning 4-3.

Sunday saw the EACF AC league finals. This was between the winners of the Beds & Herts League (Watford), the Northern League (Pinchbeck) and the Essex and Suffolk League, which is made up of three teams: Colchester, Newport and Old Brentwoods. Old Brentwoods had finished bottom of the league, but Colchester were reluctant to travel (somewhat surprising given their GC team had managed it the day before), and Newport had arranged their club finals for the same day so presumably couldn’t raise a team. All this left Old Brentwoods as the league’s representative.

The format consists of three doubles matches in the morning followed by six double-banked singles in the afternoon. With only three teams involved a playoff is a distinct possibility, and the regulations for this and the order of play can be found on the EACF website. Time limits were 3¼ hours.

The doubles were played in a heavy drizzle, with Old Brentwoods winning two and Watford one. The weather improved and after lunch the clouds eventually rolled by giving way to bright sunshine. Pinchbeck found form and had three wins, but OB’s Rick Harding (-1½) showed his class against Watford’s Eddie Chung (8) by going to 4-back, dispersing all four balls to the corners and later completing a triple to win +16TP.

Rick Harding lining up the rover peel.

Simon McKinnon (14) then beat Watford’s Marc Popiolek (18) +12 to give OBs a 4-3 lead, and it was left to Peter Brown (Pinchbeck, 6) to try and overcome Derek Code (OBs, 22) and force a playoff. Time was called with Peter in play, needing to make hoops 4 and 5 to go one ahead, but although he made 4 he couldn’t make 5, which left the scores level, and Derek then made 2-back with pink to win +1t and leave Old Brentwoods the winners 5-3.

The scene shortly after Derek had run 2-back (his other ball was for hoop 6). Peter Brown is on the left. What he and the others were thinking
 is best left to the imagination.

The Old Brentwoods team with the Chairman’s Cup. l-r Simon McKinnon,
Derek Code, Nick Steiner and Rick Harding.

© Wrest Park Croquet Club