CROQUET NEWS: Croquet Association Eights Won by Robert Fulford CROQUET NEWS: Croquet Association Eights Won by Robert Fulford | Place | Player [World Ranking] | |
| 1st | Robert Fulford [#1]  |
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| 2nd | David Maugham [#3] |
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| 3rd | Rutger Beijderwellen [#6]  |
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| Marcus Evans
[#15] |
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| 5th | Stephen Mulliner [#12] |
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| Jack Wicks
[#62] |
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| 7th | Keith Aiton
[#11]  |
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| 8th | Mark Avery
[#25] |
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| 1st | Jeff Dawson [#19] |
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| 2nd | Ian Lines [#23] |
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| 3rd | Sam Tudor [#40]  |
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| 4th | David Goacher [#18] |
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| 5th | Tony Le Moignan [#54]  |
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| 6th | Ian Burridge [#37] |
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| 7th | Chris Patmore [#57] |
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| 8th | Chris Williams [#88] |
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| 1st | Samir Patel
[#72] |
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| 2nd | Richard Dickson
[#84] |
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| Phil Cordingley
[#92] |
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| David Magee
[#93] |
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| 5th | David Harrison-Wood
[#85] |
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| 6th | Jerry Guest
[#107] |
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| 7th | Roger Jenkins
[#136] |
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| Sarah Burrow
[#139] |
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| 1st | Nick Butler
[#239] |
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| 2nd | Nelson Morrow
[#198]  |
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| 3rd | Andy Davies
[#174] |
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| 4th | Nick Harris
[#95] |
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| Ben Ashwell
[#105] |
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| Dave Trimmer
[#146] |
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| 7th | Paul Smith
[#130] |
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| 8th | Martin Murray
[#207] |
6-10 September and 12-15 October 2006
Hunstanton, Nailsea, and Subiton, England, UK 
; and Jersey
by Leo Nikora in Maui Croquet Club News of 2006, Kihei, Hawaii, USA 
picture and scores by Croquet Association News
 |
|
| Back: Rutger Beijderwellen, Marcus Evans, Keith Aiton, and Mark Avery. Front: Jack Wicks, David Maugham, Robert Fulford, and Stephen Mulliner . |
The First Eight was played on October 12th-15th in Jersey; and the President's Cup was won by Robert Fulford of England.
The Second Eight was played on September 7th-10th at Hunstanton, England, UK; and the Chairman's Salver was won by Jeff Dawson of England.
The Third Eight was played on September 6th-10th at Nailsea, England, UK; and the Spencer Ell Cup was won by Samir Patel of England.
The Fourth Eight was played on September 6th-10th at Surbiton, England, UK; and the Treasurer's Tankard was won by Nick Butler of England.
Chris Williams wrote, "There were 29 peeling breaks (27tp, 1tpo, 1otp) in the Chairman's, 6 in the Spencer Ell, and none in the Tankard. This was the first time since the 1992 Spencer Ell that an eight has not contained a triple and only the third time since 1976.
"Jeff Dawson became only the third winner since 1972 of the Chairman's aged over 50. (Don Gaunt in 1997, and Vic Rees in 1980)
"Jeff Dawson, became only the second player to have his name in more than one of the three columns engraved on the Salver. His previous two wins are in the same column, as are Phil Cordingley's. David Goacher, who has won 4 times, is in all three columns. (Thanks to Keith Aiton for spotting this gem yesterday afternoon)
"The average age in the Chairman's was 42, just below the 43 of 2001, which was the most since 1979.
"The average age in this year's Spencer Ell was 55, just below 2004's figure of 56.
"I am not sure of some of the ages of the Treasurer's competitors, but estimate the average to be about 45.
"The average age in next month's President's Cup will be 35. Since 1995 it has varied between 33 and 38.
"David Goacher has now won 88 games in the Chairman's Salver. One more than the previous record set by Edgar Jackson. Jeff Dawson is not far behind on 83.
"Stephen Mulliner needs to win 11 games to overtake John Solomon's record of 244 wins in the President's Cup.
"David Goacher played in his 20th successive eight. Jeff Dawson and David Maugham are currently on 19. Chris Clarke was on 19, but misses this year. The next best current runs are Mark Avery on 7 and Paul Smith on 6. Stephen Mulliner had played 27 consecutive President's Cups before missing last years."
| First Eight President's Cup |
Fulford | Maugham | Beijderwellen | Aiton | Mulliner | Evans | Avery | Wicks |
| Robert Fulford [#1] |
1st 11 wins |
+17tp | +25sxp +15tp |
+15sxp +26sxp |
+24tp +14sxp |
+17 | +13tpo | +26tp +26sxp |
| David Maugham [#3] |
+8 | 2nd 10 wins |
+19tp | +26tp +17tp |
+3 | +23tp +26tp |
+17tp | +26tp +20tp |
| Rutger Beijderwellen [#6] |
+14 | 3rd 7 wins |
+26tp | +26tp | +19tp | +17tp | +26tp +11otp |
|
| Keith Aiton [#11] |
+17tp | 7th 5 wins |
+26tp | +24tp | +25 | +24tp | ||
| Stephen Mulliner [#12] |
+15tp | +17tp | +26tp | 5th 6 wins |
+17tp +17tp |
+25 | ||
| Marcus Evans [#15] |
+26 | +26tp | +26 | +2tp +4tpo |
3rd 7 wins |
+8tpo +17tp |
||
| Mark Avery [#25] |
+16tp | +26tp | +5tp | +25tp | 8th 4 wins |
|||
| Jack Wicks [#62] |
+17 | +6tp | +9otp +26tp |
+24 +26tp |
5th 6 wins |
David Maugham wrote, "The 14 games each were completed in three days (probably in under 20 hours playing time)."
William Prichard wrote, "Congratulations to Robert on winning The Men's Championship, The Open Championship, the President's Cup and the Open Doubles Championship in the same year for the second time (1st 1998), thus equalling John Solomon's record (1959 and 1964)."
Evans Marcus wrote, "I'm not sure if I can compete with Ian Burridge on length, and I certainly can't on humour, but I will have to try in order to do justice to an excellent 3 days of croquet.
"The lawns had been superbly prepared by the Jersey groundsmen and members, and were cut every morning before play, but the weather, while excellent for the time of year, kept them very easy-paced throughout - they were timed at about 9 seconds on the Saturday morning. Lawn three in particular had a pronounced slope from West to East, but nearly all the hoop areas were perfect and most boundaries were fine. Hoops remained firm and well-set throughout, but the ground was soft enough to bully them and they certainly couldn't be described as difficult. All this meant roughly a third of the games were entirely error-free, with several more finishing quickly after one or two mistakes, which allowed the manager to complete all the scheduled rounds inside three days - something of a relief to him personally, as his flight left at 3pm on the Sunday, leaving little time for any play-offs!
"Further statistics of note include: the event contained 46 triple peels or better in 56 games, two fewer than last year's record number, but tpos seemed more successful than last year with 3, and only 2 otps. I maintain that this is because this year all but one tpo had two balls pegged out, making a finish from the contact much less likely. In several games a failure to take the opportunity to tpo was punished by the opposition hitting in and finishing.
"In every game, the winner of the toss chose to go first, and in all but one the other chose red and yellow. The supershot opening was by far the most common choice, with all but 2 games starting this way. The most common response appeared to be divided fairly equally between going to the maximum length position on the East boundary, corner II, and trickling at the supershot ball from the end of A-baulk. Trickling from corner I was also popular, followed by shooting hard, corner IV, and putting the second ball a couple of yards East of the first. It's hard to say which was the most successful, but to me it appeared that the standard of shooting was so high that the best option was to try to hit the supershot 2nd turn, or if not go as far from baulk as possible, the 13-yarder to corner II being just not long enough to be credible.
"The N/MSL [New/Maugham Standard Leave] seemed the most popular leave, while the diagonal spread continues to be effective. The 1-back leave only really worked when the sextuple was completed, and there was only one player in the field for whom this was a winning tactic. This event also saw a number of"defensive leaves", which is the term I shall use for one ball in corner IV, the other ball on the West boundary level with the peg, and one's own balls joined in corner II a yard apart on the West boundary. Again, I felt that this offers too short a shot, but its consistently effective use by Fulford in particular shows that it does indeed make it unlikely that the opponent will get a break if they lift the West boundary ball. The leave with one ball on the back of hoop 1 was, I believe, hit every time it was used, and is probably too attacking when the other opponent ball is for 1.
"The tournament got off to a good start for Keith Aiton when not only did he have to pay £15 each way for his mallet to go on the plane in a guitar case (while Mark Avery simply left his sticking out of a sports bag), but he also had his suntan lotion confiscated by security. While perhaps not critical for Jersey in October, he will have to be more careful on the way to Australia. Most of the players congregated at the club the day before the start of play to do some practice, which was much appreciated. Once the hoops had to be removed for court preparation, the players entertained themselves with a game of "Croquet Bowls". Those who have been to Jersey CC will know that there is a large, closely-mown bank running between courts 1 & 2 and 3 & 4. With the stop boards between 3 & 4 removed, it is possible to play from the south boundary of lawn 4, up the bank, and back down on to 3. Thus one can play a "jack" and then hit croquet balls towards it in this manner, the scoring being identical to lawn bowls. Avery execelled at this, mainly by hitting it harder than most others, while Robert Fulford struggled initially before winning one or two shots. This proved to be an almost complete reversal of the result of the actual croquet.
"Dinner that evening provided further entertainment when it was revealed that David Maugham had offered odds of 2-1 against Mark Avery finishing in the top 3. Mark had put £25 on (in the event of him finishing joint third, the bet would apparently be declared void), but no-one else was tempted. Indeed, later in the week people were queueing up to offer him longer odds!
"Rutger Beiderwellen joined us the next morning asking where everyone was the day before. Apparently he had arrived at the club at 5.30pm, shortly after everyone else had left to watch the football. It was thought that, despite this lack of practice, he may have a psychological advantage over the rest of the field as the only non-England supporter. However, there were no large divots on the lawn to hamper Marcus Evans, who quickly despatched him +26tp 5th turn (the two biggest swingers being first to finish), shortly followed into the clubhouse by David Maugham with a 6th turn win against Keith Aiton by the same score. Robert Fulford was next beating Jack Wicks +26tp in seven after Wixy took off the lawn immediately after hitting 4th turn, becoming the first victim of lawn three's East boundary. Stephen Mulliner took slightly longer to see off Mark Avery, having been hampered after 6 on his first break which allowed Avery to go to 4-back. However, he later made three more hoops with that ball and finished next turn, after Mark missed the lift, with a nice delayed triple, +17tp.
"In Round Two David Maugham, as the winner of the toss, opted to go in (rather than his customary choice of red and yellow) for the first time in about 100 games (other than a few against Fulford). He claims that usually it doesn't matter, but this time he felt that conditions were easy enough to warrant a little more respect. Amusingly, Evans started a 2nd turn break against him, but despite having some control he stuck in hoop 3. Maugham rush peeled it from B-baulk and finished in two turns, +23tp. Keith beat Rutger +17tp after Rutger, making an MSL, rolled partner off the East boundary (lawn 3 again). This conceded a near-perfect double from B-baulk which Keith hit and finished, having got to 4-back himself earlier on. Mulliner had the first chance against Fulford but missed after making hoop 1 on the 3rd turn, handing Rob an easy break. He went to 4-back with one POP (leaving Stephen on 1 and 3), leaving a ball near corner IV, a ball on the West boundary level with the peg, and his balls one yard apart on the West boundary just South of corner II. Stephen missed this from B-baulk and Rob finished, +24tp. Wicks eventually beat Avery +24 in a poor game in which Mark had a few errors and misses. Maugham offered to sell him the bet for £30 - Mark thought about it but declined.
"Bodgerwelly recorded his first win in Round Three, a smooth +26tp over Wixy. Muppet did the same by beating K +25tp after Keith had sent a ball off approaching 2. The Kid had a surprising +26 win over The Bunny in which he attempted the 4-back peel unsuccessfully five times, but eventually had a fairly tight leave from which Rob missed for the third time in the game. Finally, Beast triumphed over the Short Man +3 in an entertaining finish. Maugham had reached peg and peg, with Stephen still for 1 and 1, after failing the straight rover peel of a triple. Mulliner went to 1-back with the standard leave, and was going reasonably well on his sextuple when he overhit the rush to penult on his straight triple. With one of Dave's balls already in the jaws of 3, he made the last two hoops and manged to jaws Dave's other ball in 1, sending partner (for penult) to near corner II before pegging himself out, conceding contact. This obviously made it difficult for Dave to finish on that turn, being unable to rush either of his balls closer than seven yards from the peg. Fulford, in the clubhouse, pointed out that Dave could simply take contact from partner in 1 (lifting the ball in 3) and just play a little roll through the hoop, leaving a wired rush to the peg. However, the postion of the ball in 1 apparently made that difficult, so Dave simply lifted it to A-baulk and played a 1-foot shot, wired from Stephen's ball, knowing he would get a wiring lift with the ball in 3 next turn which would give him a rush to the peg. Mulliner took the only shot he had, from near corner II to the ball in the jaws on 3, but this missed so Dave took his lift and finished, +3.
"Mark Avery recorded the upset of Round Four by beating Dave Maugham, +26tp. Dave now offered to sell the bet for £20, but Mark, confidence boosted, refused. Keith then beat Stephen by the same score, shortly before Fulford beat Rutger +25sxp after Rutger failed hoop 2 on the 3rd turn, giving Rob all the balls for the third time in four games. Rob finished despite his rush to 2-back hitting the peg, after jawsing the 4-back peel. Finally Wixy beat Marcus +9otp in a rather poor game. After a slow start Wicks got to 4-back. Marcus played a terrible long lift shot which hit the in-lawn ball, 1 yard away from the aiming point, luckily cutting it off the lawn close to the other ball. The tpo was routine, with 2 off as usual, but Evans played several poor shots in the ending, giving Wicks too many easy chances which he accepted with aplomb.
"The fifth and final round of the day provided two interesting games. Mulliner hit in on the 4th turn against Evans, had a look at a 1-back leave but failed the cross-wire so went to 4-back with an NSL instead. Marcus elected to take the shot at the East boundary balls from hoop 4, hitting through the hoop. The shot was clean and well-struck but missed by nothing. Stephen then failed 3, and then missed the lift with his 4-back ball after Evans went to 4-back with a defensive leave. After a bit of messing about, Evans got in again and failed to get position for a tp, so took on the tpo instead. In the sixth big pass-roll of his turn, he clanged into the back of hoop 3 after rushing up after 4 with one peel done and stayed there, forcing him to retire to corner II. Mulliner had all the balls for his double peel before hoop 6, but only managed to jaws the first peel going to 4-back. The attempt to promote partner through penult after 4-back resulted in the promoting ball blocking the hoop and the peelee going through by a couple of inches, so he elected to rush peel it through 6. This dislodged the other ball, but peelee remained a few inches due North of penult. Stephen then played an Irish peel of penult and ended up with a good position for the straight rover peel, which he completed. He then rushed partner into the back of rover where it stuck, so he put it over to the West boundary, put Marcus's 4-back ball near 4-back, and went to corner II, leaving Marcus's hoop 5 ball about an inch off the end of A-baulk. Evans took contact from this with the 4-back ball and attempted to cross-wire Stephen at hoop 1 (more big rolls), joining up near 4-back. Mulliner hit the failed cross-wire and laid a 1 yard rush to peg on the end of A-baulk, with Evans's 4-back ball on the East boundary level with 4-back and the other ball in corner II. Evans hit partner from corner II, played some good aggressive shots to get the delayed triple going, and finished, +2tp.
"Meanwhile, Fulford and Maugham were having a good game - Rob went to 1-back on the 4th turn with 1 POP [peel of partner], but the leave offered Dave "only a 27-yarder" (Rob's words!). Dave duly hit and went to 4-back with two POPs, but failed to put Rob's 1-back ball in the jaws of 2 and ended up with an OSL, which Rob missed. Dave then played a poor turn in which he only peeled 4-back going to 2-back, which was then failed. Rob thought about an sxp starting at hoop 3 but elected to dpo Dave instead, leaving his balls in corner IV and near the North boundary in front of 1-back. Dave took contact from the corner IV ball, took off to the other ball and managed to rush it so 1-back wasn't in the way, but the roll to 2-back was short and he failed the hoop (off Rob's peg ball). Rob hit and made a very good leave with Dave in corner I and his own balls joined up in corner III with the peg ball wired from Dave and not rushable to near 2-back. Dave hit his second tea-lady of the game and finished, after a perfect rush (i.e. as near as he could get) and a better roll-up to 2-back, +8. By this time Rutger had beaten Mark +17tp in a game both players described as "rougher than it sounds", and Jack beat Keith +17 after failing the straight rover peel and then hitting the lift when Keith got to 4-back.
"All this left David Maugham the early pace-setter on 4/5, with Wicks, Evans and Fulford close behind on 3/5, and the rest struggling a bit to keep up but still very much in contention. Most went for dinner at an excellent Chinese where history, I believe was made: Wixy failed to transfer any sweet and sour sauce to the front of his shirt. Red wine was however deposited on to Sarah Burrow's white jacket, with Maugham spilling a second glass all over yours truly's trousers in attempting to mop it up. Dave's fortune cookie then revealed that "The next cloudy day will be lucky for you." As the previous two had been gloriously bright and sunny, which was forecast to continue, Dave decided not to get his hopes up too much. Besides, it is of course bad luck to be superstitious."
About his win over Robert Fulford, David Maugham wrote, "I had a supershot and missed the ball near II 3rd turn.
"Rob went to 1-b with a pop [peel of partner].
"I hit the tea-lady and went to 4-b with 2 pops and an OSL [Old Standard Leave].
"Rob missed the short lift with the hoop 3 ball.
"I played a pretty poor turn and managed to peel 4-b before 2-b and then failed 2-b.
"Rob took the hoop 3 ball round and pegged me out, without peeling partner, leaving a ball in IV and
the peg ball on the N boundary wired from 2-b by 1-b.
"I took off from the ball in IV and moved the other ball over a couple of yards and rolled to 2-b and
failed it.
"Rob hit my ball and chopped it towards I while taking off to partner and rolled to III leaving the
in-lawn ball wired and difficult to rush to 2-b.
"I hit and finished."
Ian Burridge wrote, "Eights are horrible as you stand around waiting for the event to start, will you be the miserable sole on 0/4 wanting to go home rather than play 3 more days of croquet at dinner on the first night, or will you be one of the bouncy lively ones near the top raring to go the next morning. Just when things can’t get worse you get lumbered with writing the report despite not being last to arrive, the supposed determination criteria. Indeed Ian Burridge and Sam Tudor decided to set the standard for the rest of the event turning up first and having to wait for everyone else and for the club to be unlocked. The lawns had good quality grass, were easy paced and the hoops were easy without being trivial and tended not to get much easier as each day progressed, the boundaries were locally poor in places, but fine for shooting down. All those who had been before thought that they had improved since their previous visit, a tribute to the work of groundsman Jeff Race.
"Holder Jeff Dawson quickly dispatched of Tony Le Moignan despite failing 2-back on his first break only for Tony to stick in hoop one and spend the rest of the game looking as if he has just remembered why he failed to complete the last eight he played in. Nobody had predicted that Chris Williams (Statto) would win and rightly so given his shocking display of form in his six error victory over Chris Patmore who didn’t look like he could hit a barn door. Tudor took the first all Welsh clash against Burridge (in this the first Chairmans with 3 Welshmen since 1984) in a reasonable quality game. David Goacher, in his 20th consecutive eight, set his stall out for the week when pegged down against favourite Ian Lines, one break all after 2 and a half hours.
"Statto understandably hadn’t been watching but if he had done he might have avoided falling down the same cliff as Lines had against Goacher on the west boundary of lawn one to gift Burridge his first win in round two. This and the other round two games hadn’t even started when Tudor beat Patmore with the first triple of the tournament, making Burridge feel both old and slow. Le Moignan dispatched the Goat who was by now beginning to look quite out of form and Dawson completed a TP to beat Lines who didn’t take croquet.
"In the club house “World of Croquet” was getting a good read by the out players, given recent correspondence, Burridge was surprised to see the use of an analogy between chess and croquet. It is something of a clue to when the book was written that the tice opening is compared to P-K4, these days it is more likely to found in the obscure/unsound chapter of any opening book. The book is actually very good and the chapter on cannons is particularly good, most players would benefit from reading it. Burridge was using the advice to good advantage when picking up his first break for the second consecutive game with a corner two cannon for hoop 1 a shot he actually learnt from the book (now we have moved on from the Barlow era all the cannons described actually work again!) Tony was then particularly hard done by as he made a standard triple (“part of every good player’s armoury”!) look easy for once. Unbeaten Tudor and Dawson clashed and it started brilliantly with a Dawson TPO on turn 4. Sam got himself a four foot angled 45 degree angled jump at hoop 1, his trademark shot but on this occasion he failed. If croquet was a team game where different members could come on to play different shots Sam would be the long angled jump shot player for the World Champions. The game then degenerated slightly with Sam having one further turn of croquet before Jeff finally finished him off to take the outright lead on 3/3. Lines beat Patmore in a slightly scrappy affair and Goacher was last to finish again by some time; winning what to be fair was a relatively interesting tactical affair with Williams +4.
"Tudor was again the lucky person able to start without waiting for the Goat but this time he was dispatched in quick time by Le Moignan. Lines, the most prolific peeler of those playing, completed his first against Statto. Burridge had Dawson on toast needing to play a 4 ball break from hoop 1 to the peg to win but came to grief at four-back and when he failed to finish again after another Dawson error Jeff wrapped up the game to take a commanding lead in the event on 4/4. Goacher improved slightly to beat Patmore but still didn’t look like a likely winner.
"Patmore achieved his 5th loss of the day at the tournament meal (held early as this was the only day Burridge wasn’t commuting) in the first game of spoof and Jeff proved that he could be beaten at something in the next. Earlier in the day the manager, Patmore, had set us the task of creating a new croquet term. Our early offering of “Lining”, placing the pilot ball between you and the hoop when approaching a hoop so that it prevents you from being able to run it on the floor, may have a 10% chance of sticking but no more. In the evening our attention had switched to nicknames and particularly the lack of them for Ian and Jeff. Although the shopkeeper was OK for Jeff people shouldn’t be allowed to invent their own, so we will have to try and get our alternative BH to stick. Lines appears to be one of those people who has the personality capable of rendering themselves nickname proof. Statto in conversation with Burridge, Lines [and Dawson] came out with an early winner for quote of the week when saying “there is a lot of partner swapping goes on in New Zealand”, in a tone of voice that suggested it was a phenomenon unique to that country. Tony had been researching all day the competitors’ attitude towards golf croquet and Goacher said that he was quite a regular player at Bristol playing in the annual club tournament in which he revealed other entrants included such golf croquet aficionados as David Kibble.
"Tudor beat Lines with a 6th turn TP after an uncharacteristic breakdown by Lines having hit the lift. Le Moignan kept up his record of winning every game in which he scored a point whilst making sure that Williams did not take croquet for the second game running. True to his word of the night before Burridge ensured that Goacher was not last to finish for the first time gifting him two breaks as his hoop stroke appeared to disintegrate. Dawson and Patmore both retained their 100% records as Jeff won his third Riggalled game of the event, although Patmore showed some form that suggested he would soon break his duck.
"Burridge confirmed his total loss of confidence with an abysmal performance against Lines who completed his second TP, despite looking error prone himself. Only Tudor could now be considered to be playing well, nobody else looked likely to play an errorless game. Dawson lost his 100% record to Williams. The rest of the players were getting used to watching Goacher and his occasionally bizarre shot selection and he didn’t disappoint at the end of his TPO against Tudor. He opted to play a two yard peg out as a split shot and it duly missed, after only about 30 seconds thought he then rushed partner to the east boundary and laid up a yard apart. Sam picked up his hoop 1 ball took the forgotten contact and finished. To be fair to David watching him playing well is as interesting as watching paint dry but when he is a bit below form he gives you time to savour every move and decision. Patmore looked like winning his first game but his rush to peg from the south boundary hit rover and the game was pegged down with Le Moignan having a six yarder, which he chose not to take, with his hoop 1 ball with partner on 4-back.
"Tudor had already got more than a round ahead again with a 5th turn 26tp demolition of Williams. Once a lawn was available Burridge joined him in the clubhouse having beaten Patmore +26. Lines finished another triple against Le Moignan who didn’t have croquet. Which left us watching Goacher again who as usual didn’t disappoint. Finishing a TP with a straight rover peel against Dawson he rushed to an unpeelable angle about a foot from the hoop. He adopted a bizarre yoga position to line up the peel and played a shot where the actual aim will remain a mystery to everyone - suffice to say his next stroke was to play away without a peel having been achieved. Dawson missed the ball in the hoop horrendously allowing Goacher to make rover but Dawson hit his last shot before probably the worst hoop stroke of the tournament allowed Goacher to wrap the game up.
"The second series started with a return match, if this is possible given that it wasn’t spotted in round 1, with the four Oxbridge Physicists against the others. They had comprehensively won 3-0 with one pegged down in the first series and a repeat scoreline certainly looked on the cards at the outset. The match got off to a peach of a start for the rest, Patmore appeared to place his first ball in corner 3 and Statto traditionally put his ball into corner 1 only for Patmore to walk to third corner place his ball on the corner spot and played his 6” rush towards hoop 2 but somewhat predictably failed hoop one having rolled up. Tudor responded to the pressure of favouritism well with a +3tp victory after Burridge had failed a tricky penult and peg finish, getting caught out by the same hill that had foiled Goacher’s TP in the previous round. Lines looked like completing another robotic TP against Goacher but came to grief an Penult before eventually taking the game an hour or so later. Dawson won a good quality game with Le Moignan +17. Patmore took his game with Williams with a TP after Williams had failed his own. Another victory for the physicists.
"Overnight the police attempted to move Goacher on from just outside the club where he had pitched his tent but sweet talking David managed to see them off, promising not to do it again. Presumably when the police returned later in the evening to investigate a ram-raid on the adjoining cricket pavilion they might have hoped that the man in the tent would have been able to help them with their enquiries, but he had slept through the event oblivious.
"Round 9 started with the smell of sewage wafting across the town presumably something to do with the 20 year high tide. Jeff played an errorless game, hitting a lift to beat Tudor +17tp. Burridge again ensured that Goat wasn’t last to finish going down 26tp no croquet in 90 minutes. Le Moignan won with a TP against Williams after the latter had failed his own and Lines made it four TP’s in the round for the first time against Patmore.
"Stabber failed his trademark shot again 3rd turn against Lines but after the resulting seven yarder was missed Sam won two turns later. Burridge shut out Le Moignan again but couldn’t complete his second standard TP of the event. Goacher equalled Edgar Jacksons record of 87 wins in the Chairmans Salver with his TP against Williams and Dawson beat Patmore +2TP after Chris had failed to peg out through rover at the end of his own triple.
"Round 11 saw the four contenders play the non-contenders. Williams suffered his 4th no croquet loss of the event to Dawson. Lines sent his Irish peel at rover off the lawn against Burridge but a rover and rover triple failure, far worse than any of Goacher’s that had previously been so gleefully criticised, gifted the game back to Lines. Le Moignan put up a better showing for the also rans with a TPO against Tudor a game he looked like winning when Sam shot at and duly missed wired balls in corner one from corner three when he was for hoop six. However he refused to play a makeable sweep shot after penult and played away, Tudor hit the resulting 13 yarder and finished from hoop 2. It was Patmore who finally disposed of one of the contenders with a TP after Goacher had missed a three yarder to follow on from his missed five yarder that had conceded the first break.
"Dawson employed the same trick as he had against Williams in the previous round against Burridge, failing to make his diagonal spread to ensure that he only had a standard TP to do to win +26tp. Tudor beat Goacher +26tp despite sticking in hoop one at the first attempt. Whilst Burridge and Goacher were watching and listening to the football scores Ian innocently asked what the paper arrow stuck to David’s radio was, to uncover a little gem. David’s kinesiologist has told him that affixing these arrows (hand drawn in pencil stuck on with sellotape) pointing upwards to household gadgets such as TV’s and radios would deflect the electro-magnetic rays from them upwards rather than them entering the room. The four physicists all of whom I would generally regard as mild mannered men were asked their opinion on the matter with the following responses:-
“What a F***ing muppet”
“What a load of cobblers”
“B*****ks”
“Complete C**p”
"Meanwhile Lines was beating Williams and Le Moignan beat Patmore +17 before completing the double over him with the resumption of their pegged down game which he won +2. Goacher and Lines also managed to complete their game from round one game with Goacher taking no further croquet.
"The tension started to creep in during round 13, Tudor missed a big double in the opening, broke down at two back on his first break and when Patmore failed his TP Tudor missed a nine, twenty five, twenty and twelve yarders before Patmore wrapped the game up. Dawson Lines saw Jeff stick in hoop one turn five and hoop two on turn 7 after Lines had joined up. Lines uncharacteristically finished in three turns only attempting the first peel straight when Jeff asked what happened to the TP Ian’s reply was “he sort of bottled it”. Burridge completed his second TP against Williams and Goacher made sure that Le Moignan had no hope of getting his afternoon flight with a +4 victory finally surpassing Jackson’s record at the third attempt to prolonged applause.
"The final round saw Dawson play his best turn of the event to complete a delayed TP against Goacher and guarantee at least a play-off, Goacher having missed in the opening when Dawson had failed hoop 2. Tudor put the ball going to hoop 3 off in a Hogan roll (Hogan Drive?) but in a very poor game eventually beat Williams. Patmore and Burridge produced an equally forgettable game that Patmore won convincingly in the end. Lines was back to his robotic best with a no croquet +26tp against Le Moignan to force a play-off.
"(Career Chairman’s Salver wins Goacher 88, Jackson 87, Dawson 83, Cordingley 73)
"This produced a play-off ensuring that those who turned up to watch at lunchtime got something to see. I had left but understand it was far from a classic and hopefully ANOther will provide further details, however Dawson won with another TP to become only the second person to successfully defend the Salver, the other being our old friend the Goat.
"The tournament ended with the top four ranked in the top 20 in the world and it is fair to say that they were a different class to the other four competitors. It was nine years since I had last played an eight and I certainly hadn’t changed much, an average of an error a game, good shooting and a poor peeling record pretty much summed up my play a decade ago and it was no different this time. Now however this form gets you in the bottom half of the Chairman’s Salver rather than the President’s Cup. The staggering fact for me was that in the event my opponents only made 10 errors against me (5 of them in two games), I used to expect that many in the President’s and probably three times as many in the Chairman’s. All four games where I failed to finish saw me immediately shaking hands with my opponent at the end next turn there were no last shots with which to save the game like there were in the good old days.
"Tudor’s lack of experience eventually cost him, there had been early signs of the nature of his eventual demise to Patmore when his shooting had deserted him against Burridge when he acquired the favourites tag but he still made it to the final day before falling short. His overall standard of play was excellent, particular his single ball shots and he certainly had a higher standard of play against him by his opponents than Lines or Dawson. His tendency to send pioneers well past the corner hoops had become apparent long before the Hogan Drive and this regular failure to play within the box formed by the outside hoops will cost him more dearly in difficult conditions.
"Dawson’s play was excellent once he had a break established but he was much weaker at getting going than several others in the event [this was written before the play-off – honest!]. Good shooting also made sure he made it to the final day in contention. He was definitely fortunate to be be on 6/8 at the end of day two but he capitalised well on his early good fortune, taking over from Tudor who had been the best player on the opening days
"Lines has no real weaknesses and one strength, his peeling. He could be relied upon to make a mistake a game but his shooting and peeling were just enough to make up for this. He wasn’t actually as clinical as usual with his TPs failing three that had got to the point where they were easier to finish that fail but fortunately for him all three went unpunished.
"Goacher was visibly out of form and it is a credit to his general standard of play that he was briefly able to haul himself into contention before his errors caught up with him in the second series.
"Le Moignan appeared to take a while to adjust the standard of play but looked very solid once he had, indeed given a few more big shots in his repertoire when required he might have been able to mount a challenge.
"Patmore’s shooting was not up to the required standard but once he had managed to get a bit of play under his belt his general play was as good as the others in the three places above him.
"Williams was the unfortunate person to get into the event on his early season/last seasons form but came into the event out of form. His shooting was not of the required standard as his four no croquet losses show and he was significantly more prone to making an error mid-break than all the other competitors.
"Finally a thank you to all the members at the Hunstanton club who with their catering and support helped make this an enjoyable event for all the players."
Phil Cordingley wrote after the first day, "Conditions were bright at first, clouding over towards late afternoon/early evening. Lawns hard & fastish (11.2 Plummers, I am told). Hoops firm and narrow with variable approaches, so plenty of early sticking. All in all, a hard but invariably fair test. Play finished comfortably by 18:30.
"The event got off to an early managerial cock up when I told those that asked that play started at nine thirty, when in fact the conditions say ten. Thus it was that David Harrison-Wood?s and Roger Jenkin?s first round games started half an hour after everyone else, a cardinal error from which many managers have failed to recover. Amazingly, these were in fact the first two games to finish. Rather be lucky than good, as I always say.
"Samir Patel set the early pace, winning his first two games by narrow margins and in far from clinical fashion, but nonetheless both with tps. In the final round of the day he faced his fellow Eights debutante Richard Dickson, who was winless thus far. Not surprisingly Samir prevailed to remain undefeated. David Magee joined him on 3/3, winning by increasingly comfortable margins. Jerry Guest failed to join these two by losing to Roger Jenkins in the final round. Roger himself produced the luckiest shot of the day from the vicinity of hoop 4 he ran 6 (his hoop) when shooting at two balls a yard to the side. David Harrison-Wood got off the mark in the last round with a tidy tp."
Phil Cordingley wrote after the second day, "Round four saw the clashes of both the Titans (Magee and Patel, both undefeated) and the Rabbits (Burrow and Dickson, both winless). Of the Titans, David prevailed to become the first outright leader. Of the Rabbits, Richard got off the mark, despite failing to peg out from three yards by electing to play a roll. David Harrison-Wood completed his second consecutive tp with the aid of a rush peel of 4b from just off the east boundary level with the peg.
"In round 5 David Magee maintained his unbeaten record to 5/5 with a N attritional win against Jerry Guest, while Samir got back to winning ways with a quick win over Phil Cordingley, while David Harrison-Wood completed his third consecutive win following two straight losses. Sarah Burrow got out of the unenviable position of being the only winless player by beating Roger Jenkins.
"In round 6 the battle of the Davids saw Harrison-Wood hand David Magee his first defeat, to the gratitude of the rest of the field. Patel was thus able to join him at the top of the leader board on 5/6 by struggling home against Roger Jenkins, after Roger had helped by sticking in rover with the second ball. Richard Dickson showed his nereves, if any, had dissipated by beating Jerry with a tp. In the worst game of the tournament to date, Phil Cordingley eventually overcame Sarah Burrow in near darkeness by taking off to corner 2, hitting hoop 6 (his hoop) but sitting in front of it. With partner for the peg, he ran hoop six, hit the double in corner 2 and finished."
Phil Cordingley wrote after the third day, "Conditions continue to get more difficult as Day 3 dawns with not a cloud in the sky. Richard Dickson and Jerry Guest win quickly, the latter over joint leader Samir Patel. Phil Cordingley looked well set to hand David Magee his second defeat when for peg and 3 back against 1 and ball box, but a succession of 25+ yard roquets by David ended when from the last he played an increasingly controlled break to win by four. The final game, also a three ball ending, span out for four hours when Sarah Burrow finally hit and finished when for peg alone after David Harrison-Wood had clanged penult.
"After lunch Phil beat Roger quickly, and David Harrison-Wood beat Jerry easily. Samir lost his second game in a row, this time to back marker Sarah Burrow, but temporarily at any rate lost no ground to David Magee as his epic with Richard Dickson was pegged down.
"In round 9 Samir stopped the rot by beating Phil after being potentially a break away from defeat, not in the least due to good shooting, having hit on the fourth turn and two lifts. David Magee continued to keep the pressure on by beating Sarah Burrow. Jerry Guest beat Roger Jenkins to consign the latter to a share of last place, and David Harrison-Wood and Richard Dickson pegged down, with Richard well ahead."
Phil Cordingley wrote after the fourth day, "No time for full report today, as tournament dinner beckons (Chinese take away in club hut). Top five still mathematically in contention, with Samir in the box seat with 9/12, David Magee lurking with 7/10 with two pegged down, and Richard Dickson on 8/12 after seven consecutive wins. Undefeated today were Cordingley & Dickson, while Burrow, Guest and Magee failed to register a win."
Phil Cordingley wrote after the fifth day, "Final day, and in the morning Phil Cordingley beat Richard Dickson in a hard fought battle, but both were consigned to the also rans as Samir Patel beat David Harrison-Wood reasonably easily. David Magee eventually prevailed over Roger Jenkins in a four and a half hour pegged out epic. Thus Samir and David Magee were now the sole contenders, with David two wins behind but with two pegged down games in hand. Thus David potentially having four games still to complete from two thirty in the afternoon. The spectre of this nightmare scenario receded somewhat when David lost to Phil in round fourteen, leaving Samir with his fate in his own hands playing Jerry Guest. Having pegged Jerry out, Samir embared upon a potentially Cup winning two ball break from 2 back, only to clang penult, also Jerry?s hoop. Needless to say, Jerry hit and finished, leaving David Magee with the two pegged down games to win to force a play off. In the first, he was penult alone against David Harrison-Wood?s peg and rover, but with a lift. The lift at the peg ball was missed and Harrison-Wood had a leave. This shot was also missed, and Harrison-Wood finished, thus sealing Samir?s victory."
George Noble wrote after the first day, "The harvest moon was high over the lawns at Surbiton at 20.15 when Nick Harris and Martin Murray decided that their game should be pegged down and put the dwindling crowd out of its serious misery. All the players must have been enjoying themselves, given the amount of time they spent on the lawns, but it was not immediately obvious why that should have been so. The lawns were a conducive 11.70 Plummers and the hoops firm but fair: yet only Nelson got anywhere near a successful TP and that bit the dust at rover. Only Nelson is unbeaten......... and they made me miss the first half of the footie."
George Noble wrote after the second day, "There was a partial eclipse of the harvest moon this evening. In view of the consequent reduction in light intensity, it was necessary to peg down Nick Harris's evening game at 20.10 rather than 20.15 as yesterday. Nelson Morrow lost a game today so he now ties for first place with Nick Butler: five wins each."
George Noble wrote after the third day, "Paul Smith and I had half a plan to go to the world premier on Thursday evening of an opera about the leader of Libya, but the measured pace of the games meant that we were unable to do so. Judging by the reviews, we may have had a lucky escape. Further gratitude to the players today who responded to the imposition of time limits by completing all the scheduled games by moonrise. The pegged down Smith/Harris game will be resumed at 09.00 tomorrow and pegged down again at 10.15."
George Noble wrote after the fourth day, "Games all finished at 19.20 today to much relief. Nick Harris now obviously content. Nelson Morrow and Nick Butler tie on 10 wins each and they play each other in the final round. A play-off cannot be contemplated because of the clash with the televised Hammers v Villa game."
George Noble wrote after the fifth day, "None of that tripling nonsense here. Nick Butler won what was effectively a final in round 14. He and Nelson had started the final day on 10 wins each but Nelson lost to Ben Ashwell, who had drafted in a supporter, and Nick just beat Nick (+1T) so that Nelson had to beat Nick B in the final round to force a play-off (which would have been infeasible). Some good, golf croquet style, play for Nick B was, sadly, too much for Nelson. The best example was when Nelson set a reverse spread and Nick B ran 1 from A baulk and then hit the balls on the west boundary."