8-15 January 2005
Wanganui, New Zealand
By Jonathan Kirby

Congratulations to Robert Fulford on winning the New Zealand Open Singles for the third time. A very impressive set of scores: in the four knockout rounds, all best of three, he played four test players and dropped only one hoop point in total. Was that a POP I wonder? How many times did his opponents take croquet?

Ronan McInerney had a good run to get to the final, beating Bruce Fleming, Aaron Westerby and Chris Clarke. Chris appears to have had a return to form after a poor 2004, with ten triples in his fifteen games. He also reached the doubles final with Jenny Williams, against Bruce and Liz Fleming. What happened to this? If Chris and Jenny won then Chris will have reached 11 major doubles titles, matching Cotter, Hogan and Prince and just one behind the record of 12 held by Jackson and Solomon.

17 January 2005
Wanganui, New Zealand
by Pamela George

English world titleholder Robert Fulford proved why he is the king of croquet when he demolished Ireland's Ronan McInerney 26-0, 26-0 in a one-sided singles final at the 2005 New Zealand open croquet championship in Wanganui on Saturday.

Although there were one or two minor blemishes in his play, Fulford was in a class of his own when he collected his third NZ title, adding to his victories in 1993 and 2000. It took him just under two hours to win the final match, which included a triple peel in the opening game.

In contrast to his steady play in the semi-finals, when he upset 1995 world champion Chris Clarke (England), three-times Irish champion McInerney was never in the hunt against Fulford, with some of his shots off target. This proved to be fatal against the machine- like play of Fulford who is shooting for a sixth world title on home country lawns at Cheltenham [England] in August.

Clarke beat Graeme Roberts (Wellington) for third place, collecting triple peels in both games in his 26tp-0, 26tpo-15 victory.

Bob Jackson (Franklin-Manukau) and Trevor Bassett (Australia) won the consolation finals and John Versey (Hawke's Bay) claimed a second Heenan Plate title. Jackson, who has his name in the Guinness Book of Records for his 14 NZ singles titles, beat last year's doubles champion Peter Batchelor (Taranaki) 26-21, 21-8 in the Y consolation final.

Bassett, ranked No 1 over the Tasman and No 6 in the world, beat 1994 NZ open winner Aaron Westerby (Waikato- King Country) 26-0, 26-9 including triple peels in both games to win the Z consolation final.

Versey, winner in 2003, won his second Heenan Plate in three years with a 26-13 win over Michael Wright (Wanganui). There were four previous plate winners in the event.