CROQUET NEWS:  North of England Championship Won by Keith Aiton

25-27 August 2006
Bowdon Croquet Club, Bowdon, England , United Kingdom
story by Ian Lines in Nottingham List
photo by Bowdon Croquet Club

Keith Aiton receiving Faulkner Cup from Sheila Black.

Keith Aiton won the 2006 Championship of the North of England at Bowdon, beating James Death +13tp, +16tp, +18tp, to win the Faulkner Cup for his first time. The games in the final were almost error free, with supershot openings and James getting the first ball round on each occasion. However, Keith was hitting lifts, popping and doing tight hoop leaves, so in the 3rd game James tried for a sextuple, but came to grief very early by taking off from 2 into the back of hoop 1.

...

The presentations were made by Bowdon President Sheila Black, who thanked all those involved in setting out the lawns and hoops, particularly Colin Irwin for his tireless efforts in setting hoops and mowing the lawns during the event, and also all the various Bowdon members who laid on truly excellent lunches and teas. The Bowdon lawns were described by Keith as currently the best in England, although due to recent rain they were fairly easy paced. ...

I timed the lawns during the Northerns at about 10 seconds when dry. Hoops were fairly firmly set by Colin at 1/32", but basically easy conditions (5 sxps and 65 tps in 138 games).

During the Northern Week (15-20 July) the lawns were much more were seriously challenging (only 1 tp by anyone in whole week), averaging about 12.5 to 13 seconds, and approaching 14 seconds down the boundary of lawn 3.

Jack Wixy wrote, "Lawn four was exteremely difficult. There is a massive cliff running along the west boundary. I don't know how anyone kept the ball down that side of the pitch!!!"

The full results are as follows:

Preliminary Round (best of 3)
Sam Tudor beat Ailsa Lines +25tp, +26tp
James Death beat Martin Granger-Brown +26, +21tp
Keith Aiton beat Jerry Guest +20, +26tp
David Maugham beat Steve Lewis +26, -26stp, +11tp
Ken Cooper beat Tim Wilkins +6, +17
Colin Irwin beat Phil Cordingley +22, -14, +13
David Harrison-Wood beat David Mooney +16, +13

First Round (best of 3)
Marcus Evans beat Steve Comish +16, +26tp
Rutger Beijderwellen beat Jack Wicks +11tpo, +8qp
Sam Tudor beat Andrew Davies +25tp, +19tp
James Death beat Ken Cooper +15, +24
Robert Fulford beat Richard Dickson +26sxp, -26, +26tp
David Maugham beat David Harrison-Wood +14tp, +17tp
Keith Aiton beat Colin Irwin +17sxp, +15
Ian Lines beat David Goacher +11tp, -14tp, +4tp

Quarter Finals (best of 5)
Robert Fulford beat Ian Lines +26tp, +25sxp, +13otp
James Death beat Rutger Beijderwellen +2, -6tp, +16tp, +10
Keith Aiton beat Sam Tudor -2tp, -26tp, +15tp, +25tp, +15tp
David Maugham beat Marcus Evans -15tp, -8tp, +25, +26sxp, +8

Semi Finals (best of 5)
Keith Aiton beat Robert Fulford +17tp, +23tp, -26tp, +25tp
James Death beat David Maugham -17, -5sxp, +12tp, +26tp, +15tp

Final (best of 5)
Keith Aiton beat James Death +13tp, +16tp, +18tp