CROQUET NEWS:  British Open Won by Robert Fulford

	Top-Ranked Players
	#1	Reg Bamford
	#2	Robert Fulford
	#3	Keith Aiton
	#4	Johnathan Kirby
	#5	David Maugham
	#6	James Death
	#8	Chris Clarke
	#9	Ed Duckworth
	#10	Matthew Burrow
	#12	Mark Avery

Robert Fulford winning the British Open.

Chris Williams wrote, "Reg Bamford and Robert Fulford, who meet in today's Opens final, are both aiming to win the Coronation Cup for the seventh time. Only John Solomon (10), Nigel Aspinall (8) and Humphrey Hicks (7) have won the Open Championship on more occasions.

"The Coronation Cup is a magnificent gold cup, subscribed for by the members of the Croquet Association to commemorate the coronation of George V in 1911. The Ayres Cup, which is presented to the runner up, was until 1932 presented to the winner."

Jonathan Kirby wrote, "The final was probably the only major final ever to have both players completing sextuples. That was almost inconceivable before the final of the World Championship in 2001, the first time in a major event when the sextuple was deployed clearly as a winning tactic rather than just for showmanship. In that final Reg completed two sextuples but both players failed a sextuple in the third game.

"More recently, in fact only two months ago at the Coles Championship, the same Cheltenham lawn 8 saw Robert overcome Reg 3-2 with both players completing sextuples, but the Coles Championship is not a major event like the Open.

"In fact for me, the Open final was more interesting for the number of peeling breaks which failed. Three of the games saw a player seemingly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In the first, Robert was hampered after getting a lot of hill after a straight rover peel, missed and then lost the game. In the fourth, he broke down with the difficult part of the break done, and lost two turns later. Crucially in the fifth, it was Reg's turn to have trouble with a straight rover peel. He looked to be about two feet straight in front, and I was expecting him to play an Irish peel to send the peelee about seven yards. Presumably keen to avoid Rob's error with the hill, Reg opted not to have an Irish peel, but played the stop shot so gently that the peelee hardly reached the hoop. Although he partially recovered and did have another chance to finish in the turn, this ultimately led to him losing the match.

"Another unusual feature of the match was that, until the last game, the number of peels was more than the number of turns."

The tournament format started with four round-robin blocks. The winners of five or more games in block play advanced to a single-elimination knockout.

Reg Bamford [#1]		Bamford +26qp +14	Bamford +12sxp -17tp -26 +26 +17sxp	Bamford +26qp +26sxp -26tp + 26sxp	Fulford -2qp +25sxp +26qnp -8sxp +1
Leo McBride [#45]
Ed Duckworth [#9]	Duckworth +25 +17tp	Duckworth +26tp +26tp
David Harrison-Wood [#43]
Peter Trimmer [#30]	Trimmer +7otp +17tp
James Death [#6]
Keith Aiton [#3]		Le Moignan +17tp -26tp +14otp	Clarke +9 -26tp +15tp +15tp
Tony Le Moignan [#114]
David Goacher [#15]	Goacher +15 +12tpo	Clarke +17tp +26tp
Jenny Williams [#51]
Mark Avery [#12]	Clarke +5tp -17tp +26tp
Chris Clarke [#8]
David Maugham [#5]	Maugham +26tp +9otp	Maugham +17tp -17tp +26tp	Maugham +17tp +20tp -26tp +26qp	Fulford 26tp 17tp 9tp
Shane Davis [#81]
Ian Lines [#35]	Cordingley -11tp +6 +24
Phil Cordingley [#148]
Matthew Burrow [#10]		Evans -26tp +10tpo +26tp
Marcus Evans [#21]
Jonathan Kirby [#4]		Kirby +25tp -17 +26	Fulford -17tp -26tp +25qp +24sxp +26tp
Sam Tudor [#41]
Brian Cumming [#117]	Mulliner +26tp +26	Fulford +23tp -17tp +21sxp
Stephen Mulliner [#23]
Ian Burridge [#80]	Fulford +26tp +6otp
Robert Fulford [#2]

During the finals, Chris Williams wrote:

Game 1
Reg (Bk & Bu)
Rob (R & Y)

• Bk supershot
• R trickles to 2 yards east of Bk
• Reg (Bu) from C1 just clips R and embarks on a 3 ball break and is just approaching 3.
• Reg (Bu) to 3back (to prevent tpo) with diagonal spread.
• Red on west boundary
• Rob (Y) shoots from end of A baulk and just clips the inner ball (Blue)
• Y has just made hoop 1 off read and has rushed red to east boundary. Bk is hoop 2 pioneer
• Rob (Y) stopped at 1 back with Bk and Bu cross wired at 1.
• Reg (Bk) shot and missed. Rob has embarked on a sextuple
• Rob missed hampered shot after straight rover peel at end of sextuple.
• Reg is now taking black round
• Reg has just pegged out after a qp to win game 1 +2qp
  

Game 2
Reg (RY)
Rob (Bu Bk)

• Rob (Bk) first supershot.
• Reg (R) to peg high on E boundary
• Rob (Bu) misses R from C3 to 6 yards south of Bu (Level with hoop 5)
• Reg (Y) misses from C3 to level with hoop 4
• Rob (Bu) hits Y and embarks on 4 ball break.
• Rob has set another sextuple leave with Bk in C3 and blue 2 yards NE of hoop 3.
• Reg misses the tea lady shot with Y into C3.
• Rob has completed the sextuple to win game 2 +25sxp. It is now 1-1.
  

Game 3
Reg (Bu Bk)
Rob (R Y)

• Reg (Bk) laid supershot
• Rob (R) trickled and hit. 2 balled it to 2 back (failed to get rush out of 1 back) and lay up with R in C4 and Bk a yard or 2 out of C2.
• Reg (Bu) hit Bk took off to R and missed a 6 yarder.
• Rob (Y) hit R in C4 from A baulk. Approached 1 off black from W boundary level with hoop 5. Long hoop 1 and has run it.
• Rob completed the quintuple to take a 2-1 lead.
  

Game 4
Rob (Bu Bk)
Reg (R Y)

• Rob (Bk) Supershot
• Reg (R) East boundary peg high
• Rob (Bu) Misses R from C3 and ends up 8 yards S on E boundary
• Reg (Y) From C3 misses into C4
• Rob took Bu to 1 back
• Reg has just missed the tea lady.
• Rob had a go at the 1 back peel on the way to 1.
• Rob has just missed a return roquet after 2 back having done 4 peels of a sextuple.
• Reg has just made hoop 1. Reg completed the sextuple in game 4 to win +8sxp and tie up the match at 2-2
  

Game 5
Reg (Bu Bk)
Rob (Y R)

• For the fifth successive game Bk has gone to the supershot position.
• Rob (Y) to peg high on E boundary.
• Reg hit yellow with Bu from C3. Now setting off on a 3 ball break.
• Reg has just missed a long peg out at the end of his quad and pegged black out. Reg's straight rover peel failed - blue seemed to come back out of the hoop. Reg cannoned the blue through with red but failed to get past blue and ended with a 10 yard peg out. Reg pegged black out. There is a big debate ging on on whether Reg should have left black on the lawn.
• Rob went to take a contact but was stopped by Reg, because Rob was not entitled to one. Rob is now taking yellow round on a 3 ball break. Rob has just taken a ball(Y) round leaving blue just out of corner 3 (probably wired from the peg) and left himself a rush in corner 1.
• Reg has not taken the shot, but has put blue into C4
• Rob got as far as hoop 3 and lay up on E boundary.
• Reg missed the peg from near C2 and missed Y.
• Rob has a hampered shot after 3 which he he. Now has a 3 ball break. Slightly awkward approach to 4 leaving a longish angled hoop which he runs easily. Now has standard 3 ball break to finish. Rob has pegged out to win +1 in the fifth.

Jonathan Kirby wrote:

For the statistically-inclined, my semi-final match with Rob probably set a record for the lowest number of turns in a five-game match. The total was 27 turns, with the games being 6,5,5,6,5. Usually at least one game will not see croquet taken on the first four turns, meaning at least 7 turns in the game.

A supershot was laid in each game, with Rob going first. In game 1 I chose not to shoot on turn 2, and Rob hit and went round on turn 3. I hit the lift, Rob missed his, and I finished. In game 2 Rob chose not to shoot, I hit, Rob missed, and I finished. After that we were shooting on turn 2. In games 3 and 5 I hit and had the defensive leave I wanted but Rob went round anyway, with a pop in game 3 causing him to fail to make 3b. In each game I missed the shot and he finished. In game 4 Rob missed on turn 2, but I missed on turn 3 and he went to 1b with two pops. I missed the tea lady and he finished.

Total: 27 turns, 22 peels.

At the end of the fifth day, Robert Fulford wrote:

Been really wet here, some flooding both last night and this morning. Play eventually started on some of the lawns by 10.30 am and all were in use within the next hour. Any chance of fast conditions for the final stages have bitten the dust.

One of the first matches to start was Stephen Mulliner versus Robert Fulford. Mulliner took the second game to equalise, having hit a 30 yard last shot to save it. Stephen then established a 3 ball break third turn of the third game but missed a hampered stroke after 3 and Fulford finished sixth turn with a sextuple.

Pete Trimmer and James Death met on a heavy and hilly lawn 3. After 4 turns there were only 2 balls left on the lawn, Pete having gone round third turn and James having TPOed and pegged two balls off. The two game was fairly scrappy with Pete winning by 7 with James's best chance to get a 2 ball break being approaching 1b from the boundary straight in front, but he overapproached. In the second James failed 1 third turn allowing Pete to go round, but then after James missed the lift Pete took off off the lawn. James went to 4b having given up on a 1b leave when the cross wire failed. Pete hit the lift and finished.

Chris Clarke met Mark Avery. Mark looked to have the first game in the bag but with all the peels done, though with the peelee in a slightly awkward position just through rover, missed a 3 yard rush out of 4b and the game went to Chris. Chris had the first ball round in game 2 but Mark hit the lift and won in two turns.

Chris was first to take croquet in game 3 on turn 6 after a Duffer tice opening where Mark had shot through the Duffer from corner 3 on turn 3. Chris failed to approach 2 with a backward take off from the north boundary. Mark took a 30 yarder at partner ball which left Chris a 17 yarder. Chris shot and immediately reacted like he thought he'd struck the shot really poorly but hit! With hindsight Mark the previous turn could have taken a six yarder at Chris's ball on a boundary that would have allowed him to either significantly lengthen Chris's shot or have a go at rolling to 1 from 20 yards. Chris went round laying up on the west boundary and Mark missed through into C2. Chris finished having got going approaching 2 with a drive sending a ball to 4.

Reg Bamford looked likely to win in perfect fashion against Canada's Leo McBride with a fifth turn QP followed by a sextuple but just clipped the peelee jumping over it after his stright rover peel. Leo rather forgetting himself raised his arms and cheered! Reg pegged out 1 ball. Leo obtained a 3 ball break and with all 3 balls round rover decided to leave Reg's ball just south of rover wired from the peg and layed up in C2 with a rush to 1. Reg from a couple of feet shot through hoop 5 and hit the peg!

Keith Aiton was the first seed to fall against Tony Le Moignan on the easiest lawn, lawn 10. The first 2 games were error free 17TP to Tony then 26TP to Keith. In the third Keith hit the lift and TPOed Tony leaving one ball in C2 and the other on the east boundary. Tony rolled to corner 2 putting the other ball between 1 and 2, attempted to take off to 1 from C2 and ended up taking position. Keith cornered the ball in the middle into C4. Tony ran 1 to the N boundary, hit the ball in corner 2, rolled up to 2 and just made it. Tony hit the subsequent hampered stroke, rolled off 3, got a rush he took to hoop 5, took off in front of 4, ran it and hit the ball in C4 and that was that.

Arguably an equal shock was Phil Cordingley, ranked 150 in the world, beating Ian Lines ranked 10. This probably says more about how Phil's ranking has suffered while he has been doing lots of sterling work for the CA than anything else. The match was scrappy though considering it was on the very easy lawn 9 and I'm not betting on Phil to get much further.

Marcus Evans who was a surprise choice as seed was drawn to play Matt Burrow. Matt won the first 26TP. In the second Matt had the equalising break to 4back and made an NSL. Marcus shot with his hoop1 ball at partner which he could hit directly or off hoop4 and hit them simultaneously. He didn't get in position to start his own triple, but opted to TPO Matt's ball instead. Eventually Marcus won +10.

Marcus had the first break in game 3, but made a hash of the leave. Matt missed a double down the East boundary into C4. Marcus, who had a partial rush to C4, ended up taking off to 1 from about 15 yards. He ran hoop 1 so his shortest shot on any ball was about 10 yards, and opted instead to take his 25 yarder at partner in C4 which he hit and finished.

Ed Duckworth started off playing David Harrison-Wood on lawn 11. Despite being next door to the match, I didn't watch any of it, and Ed's gone now, so I don't really know what happened. Ed won comfortably and quickly.

Ed Duckworth then went on to play Peter Trimmer and demolished him +26TP, +26TP, no croquet. He
plays Reg next.

After a scrappy +15, +12TPO win in heavy rain against Jenny Williams, David Goacher played Chris Clarke in the second round. Chris had the first ball around. David then took 9 minutes to miss his lift. Afterwards Chris played a bad touch shot and missed his subsequent 7 yarder. Goacher went around, but Chris hit the lift and finished. Chris won the next +26TP after David missed a short roquet early on.

It's 7.15, the only main event game in progress is Maugham against Cordingley which has just started. Phil's had a ball to 4back and Dave has just failed hoop 2 off the 4back ball.

Block A

	Bamford	Clarke	Duckworth	Mulliner	Trimmer	Kibble	Burridge	Burrow	Jenkins	Cordingley	Emmett
Reg Bamford [#1]	9 wins		+25	+12tp	+23sxp	+24	+17	+25sxp	+26tp	+26tp	+26tp
Chris Clarke [#8]	+26tp	10 wins	+26tp	+26tp	+24tp	+24tp	+26tp	+25tp	+26tp	+21tp	+26tp
Ed Duckworth [#9]			6 wins			+26tp	+24tp	+26tp	+5	+15	+12
Stephen Mulliner [#23]			+26	6 wins		+16		+25tp	+26tp	+22	+17tp
Peter Trimmer [#30]			+26tp	+26tp	5 wins			+4	+12		+24tp
Dave Kibble [#78]					+16tp						+1(t)
Ian Burridge [#80]				+14	+24	+11	7 wins	+25	+5	+4	+21
Sarah Burrow [#118]						+8			+5		+16
Roger Jenkins [#122]											+15
Phil Cordingley [#148]					+20	+17		+5	+13	5 wins	+26
Paul Emmett [#207]

Block B

	Death	Burrow	Wicks	Tudor	Williams	Lewis	Le Moignan	Cumming	Mundy	Murray
James Death [#6]	6 wins		+19		+12tpo	+5tp	+24		+22	+24
Matthew Burrow [#10]	+20tp	6 wins				+21	+20tp	+24tp	+12	+25tp
Jack Wicks [#34]		+11tpo				+26tp			+25tp
Sam Tudor [#41]	+26	+7	+25	5 wins		+3			+26tp
Jenny Williams [#51]		+12	+7	+17	6 wins	+25tp		+5		+26tp
Steve Lewis [#79]							+4
Tony Le Moignan [#114]			+17	+26tp	+12		5 wins		+8	+23tp
Brian Cumming [#117]	+11		+10	+23		+2	+26tp	6 wins	+18
Dave Mundy [#184]					+4tp	+8				+26
Martin Murray [#221]			+4	+5tp		+6		+14

Block C

	Fulford	Maugham	Evans	Lines	Harrison-Wood	Patmore	Williams	Magee	Morrow	Vincent	Gooding
Robert Fulford [#2]	10 wins	+6otp	+26tp	+26tp	+24tp	+24tp	+24tp	+10tpo	+26tp	+26tp	+25
David Maugham [#5]		8 wins	+26tp	+26tp	+26tp	+23	+11tp		+26tp	+13tpo	+19
Marcus Evans [#21]			8 wins	+1tpo	+4	+26tp	+24tp	+8	+23	+13	+11
Ian Lines [#35]				7 wins	+24tp	+14	+5tp	+2(t)	+26tp	+16	+17tp
David Harrison-Wood [#43]					5 wins	+4tp		+13tp	+23tp	+26	+15tp
Chris Patmore [#52]							+26tp	+2	+25	+26
Chris Williams [#87]					+17tp				+23	+26
David Magee [#127]		+26tp					+6		+15	+18
Nelson Morrow [#186]										+2	+2
Ian Vincent [#210]
Mark Gooding [#230]						+26	+15	+22		+25

Block D

	Aiton	Kirby	Avery	Goacher	McBride	Patel	Davis	Foulser	Guest	Noble	Bradforth
Keith Aiton [#3]	9 wins		+2tpo	+26tp	+26tp	+22tp	+6	+25tp	+18	+6	+17tp
Jonathan Kirby [#4]	+4tp	6 wins				+16tp	+4	+1tp	+26tp	+26
Mark Avery [#12]		+23tp	7 wins	+21tp	+4	+6		+26tp	+5	+6
David Goacher [#15]		+25		8 wins	+11	+24tp	+5	+23	+24	+3	+24
Leo McBride [#45]		+11otp			6 wins	+15		+5	+3	+17	+26tp
Samir Patel [#63]							+19stp			+22
Shane Davis [#81]			+13		+3		6 wins	+17	+16	+17	+19
David Foulser [#106]						+7			+16	+14tp	+26tp
Jerry Guest [#171]						+26				+15	+16
George Noble [#213]
Louise Bradforth [#243]		+11	+8			+9				+16