CCA Closing Day was held Sunday 18 April 2021 at Fendalton Park Croquet Club.

The CCA Beginners competition was held before the closing.

Closing Day started with play from 2pm to 3pm followed by the prize-giving and afternoon tea.

Prizes and awards are listed below followed by photos.

Players who had joined one of the 14 CCA Clubs since September 2019, were on a 12, 14 or 16 handicap and had not yet competed in Interclub were invited to enter a competition run on the morning of our Closing Day.

We expected around 20 entries but ended up with 40, representing 10 of our 14 clubs. Unfortunately, some had to withdraw, and we ended up with 8 blocks of 4 players with two blocks playing on a lawn. We had to be finished by 1 pm so went for a round robin format with each block of 4 playing 3, 7-point levels games and then Block A playing off against Block B to end up with a winner for each lawn. This meant that everyone played four 7-point games as well as allowing for lots of socialising with members from other clubs between games.

Many of the competitors had never played a singles game before, so the supervising referees on each lawn were kept very busy. Thank you to our five referees, Bruce McLay, Nigel Grondin, John Yarrall, Gay Jones and Duncan Dixon.

The format and withdrawals created a few issues for the managers, two of whom were managing their first tournament, but we coped. Apologies to Libby Newcombe who started in a block of five players and ended up on her own. Well done to Sylvia MacFarlane and Helen Webber for their excellent work, you make a great management team.

Many of the players had never filled an AHS card in before so help was on hand to show them how to use the charts to work out points won/lost and five players also reduced their handicaps. This will stand them in good stead for Interclub which is also Levels play. Thanks to Janet Scott, Esme Burt and others who helped out here.

After a chilly start we had a beautiful Canterbury day, and it was great to see players from so many clubs competing against each other and enjoying each other’s company. We are looking forward to seeing many of them competing in the Interclub competition next season and I will be running regular coaching/rules sessions over the winter to help them prepare for this. If you are interested, please email me at chorncastle1@gmail.com

Thank you to Fendalton CC for allowing us to use their lawns and to Mike Dawson and Vina Gough-Jones for turning out at 7.15 am to set everything up. A big thanks to Esme Burt and her team for their hard work in the kitchen for both this competition and the CCA prize-giving that followed.

Full results are on Croquet Scores at https://croquetscores.com/2021/gc/cca-newcomers.

The bi-annual South Island GC Teams event was held over the weekend 20/21 March 2021 at the Waireka Croquet Club in Ashburton. The Associations represented were Canterbury, South Canterbury, Nelson, Southland and North Otago. 

Canterbury were represented by Duncan Dixon (United), Gay Jones (Cashmere), Mark Walker (Akaroa) and Lyn Ringrose (St Martins). 

South Canterbury had the overall lead after the singles games on Saturday.  The doubles were played on Sunday and the final result was still in the balance with 3 games to play. The Premier game between South Canterbury and Canterbury was won by Canterbury however the other two games were won by Southland and South Canterbury.

After two days of play the final result saw South Canterbury with 18 games and Canterbury on 17. 

A fantastic weekend with Croquet and new friendships the winner.  Congratulations to South Canterbury and we look forward to next year when it will be South Island AC Teams. 

Full details on CroquetScores at https://croquetscores.com/2021/gc/si-golf-croquet-teams-championships-1

The final of the Atkins Trophy was held at St Martins on Saturday, March 20^th. Twenty teams had played five rounds to reach this stage, culminating in 19 point knock-outs on the day.

The first semi- final between Holmes Park and Akaroa 3 was won by Holmes Park 10-4. The other semi -final was between Cashmere 2 and United 1, and Cashmere came out the winners by 10-6.

In the final Cashmere 2 took the trophy beating Holmes Park 10-5.

The Plate was won by Cashmere 1 who overcame Fendalton 2 in the plate final by 10-3. Previously Cashmere 1 had beaten St James 1 in a tight game 10-9, and Fendalton 2 over Hornby 1, 10-7.

A full list of results can be found on Croquet Scores at https://croquetscores.com/2021/gc/atkins-trophy.

Cheryl Morrall (Manager)

The CCA GC Silver Badge Finals were played at United on Sunday 14th March 2021. The weather was perfect at around 22 degrees although it was a bit too windy at times.

There were eight entries in the Primary Grade who each played seven, 50-minute, 13-point games, and 6 entries in both the Intermediate and Senior grades who each played five untimed 13-point games. There were just three entries in the Premier Grade so they played best-of-3 matches.

There was some excellent croquet played in all the grades and no-one won all their games. The eventual winners were:

Primary – Carolyn Smith (Akaoroa) with 6/7 wins. Well done to Marie McDonald (Barrington) for beating her in the final game of the grade.

Intermediate – Melanie Stevenson (Cashmere) with 4/5 wins despite a 6/7 loss to Louis Inglewood (United) in her first, very long game. 

Senior – Neville Turner with 4/5 wins only beaten 2/7 in his last game by Galina Worley (United).

Premier – Duncan Dixon who won 6/8 games. The final match of the day was a nail-biter between Duncan and Josh Winter (Cashmere) with Duncan just getting the win 1/7, 7/3, 7/6.

Full results are available on croquetscores

Many thanks to Bruce McLay who gave up yet another Sunday to referee for us and to United CC for the use of their lawns and the excellent catering.

There are no prize-giving photos as the Silver Badges will be awarded at the CCA Closing Day on Saturday 17th April.

Claire Horncastle (Manager)

The inaugural Canterbury Golf Croquet Open was played in stunning weather at St Martins Croquet Club on Sunday 28^th March. The 15-player field had a good mixture of young and more experienced players was well suited to a flexible Swiss event, which saw players matched up against opponents with similar win records, and very little waiting between games.

The hoops were very well set and provided a good challenge to all players. All present were treated to generous catering in a mainly outdoor setting as St Martins did a great job of hosting the event the day after a sudden shift to COVID level 2 was announced for the region.

Relatively new players Carolyn Smith and Mark Walker from Akaroa acquitted themselves very well in a field packed with minus players and cheerfully stepped up against a wide range of opponents.

Reece McCorkindale, who entered the event off a 7 handicap, gave Duncan Dixon a scare (5-7), and Cashmere star Josh Winter (6-7), before ending the event with a win against top seed for the upcoming NZ Golf Croquet invitation, Levi Franks (7-6).  This earned Reece the manager’s prizes for the most index points gained, and the most games played (9), as well as a handicap reduction to 3.

In total 51 games were played, with several players choosing to stop after playing 5 games, having had an 11 hour playing day in the Doubles event the previous day. The younger players all managed to complete between 7 and 9 games, as did Canterbury Croquet Association president Owen Evans. The number of close results shows how effective the event format is at providing many well balanced matches.

Pre-event favourites Logan McCorkindale, Duncan Dixon and Josh Winter shared honours with all players having at least one loss leading to Logan and Duncan tying on 7/8 wins, and the tournament coming to a tie-breaker of “quality of opponents”. Duncan won out by the narrowest of margins – his opponents had played 50 games and had 23 wins, while Logan’s opponents had 23/51.

 Congratulations to all players and many thanks to St Martins CC for hosting an excellent event, and congrats to Duncan who added another title to his impressive collection.

Full results are at https://croquetscores.com/2021/gc/cca-open/singles-flexible-swiss

The Agnes Dick (AC Handicap Doubles) was played 1^st and 2^nd March 2021 at Elmwood Park Croquet Club.

Congratulations to the winners Cheryl Hopley and Steve Costigan and the runners up Jenny Hollobon and Diana Howes.

This event in recent years has been held at the popular club Elmwood but in past years it was held at all the eastern clubs simultaneously with often over 80 entrants. It has always been popular and often a senior partners a junior and over the days the junior gets coaching and an experience of tournament play. Monetary prizes have also been welcomed in recent years.

It was great to see another recent beginner winning the event and also being the senior partner!

Many thanks to Pam Hurst and John Yarrall who stepped in at the last minute for Margaret Lane who now says she is 99.9% after a weekend in hospital. It was great to see Margaret who came to watch her protégée play and to watch the Final.

Thanks to all 17 who played and to Jenny Tait and her Elmwood Club for accommodating us.

Manager (Philippa Porter)

The inaugural CCA GC Open Doubles competition was held at St Martin’s Croquet Club on Saturday 27^th Feb 2021. There were eight pairs entered with the individual handicaps ranging from -5 to +11 and the combined handicaps ranging from -7 to +21! We had both the current NZ National GC Champion and the current U21 GC World Champion playing which was great to see.

Block play was organised with the lowest handicap players at the top of the block and the highest handicap players at the bottom of the block and follows a set pattern, starting with the highest handicap players playing the lowest handicap players and then, as the day progresses, players play opponents with closer handicaps until the last games when players play the opponent ranked closest to them. This means, that (in theory), the lowest handicap players start with their easiest game and end on their hardest game and the highest handicap players start with their hardest game and end with their easiest game. However, nothing every quite goes to plan and everyone won at least one game and well done to Lyn Ringrose and Hans Van Den Bos from St Martin’s who had to wait until their very last game of the day for their well-deserved win. Open events such as this are a great way of improving your play as you get to play some of the best players in NZ which is a very good way of improving your game. If you lose, you only lose one index point and if you win you can pick up nineteen index points. Combine that with good company and tasty food and you wonder why there were only eight pairs entered. Hopefully, we will have more pairs entered next year.

Edmund Fordyce and Chris Spittal were the hot favourites and ended the day unbeaten although five teams all scored three hoops against them. Their last game against the second seeded Duncan Dixon and Claire Horncastle was close and ended with a (failed) jump shot at hoop 13.

First place went to Edmund Fordyce and Chris Spittal and runners up were Jonathan Hart and Marguaritte Rogers from St James Park. The full results can be found at croquetscores.com/2021/gc/cca-open/doubles

Thanks to Bruce McClay for giving up a Saturday to referee the event, Claire Horncastle for managing it and St Martin’s CC for organising the lawns and catering and generously allowing us to use their grounds for the second time this month.

The CCA Handicap singles tournament was held in warm conditions at Fendalton Park Croquet Club on February 21^st.

Eleven players representing five clubs competed. A late withdrawal meant double banking wasn’t required, using all of Fendalton’s five lawns. This made for a relaxed tournament with time between games for re-hydrating and socialising; and an early finish before the late afternoon heat.

The finalists were Carolyn Smith and Mark Walker from the Akaroa club. This was a repeat of the grade singles held on Waitangi weekend. However this time Carolyn came out on top beating Mark 7-4. Third place was Ian Hobbs from Kaiapoi overcoming fellow club member Adrienne Lamb 7-4.

Full results are on Croquet Scores at https://croquetscores.com/2021/gc/cca-handicap-singles

Cheryl Morrall (Tournament manager)

The final of the Arthur Ross AC Canterbury Final was held today at Cashmere Croquet Club on Sunday 14 February 2021. It was disappointing to only have three Clubs represented this year. However, the games provided great viewing for those supporting the players. 

The day started with Dormer Gardner (Barrington) playing Steve Costigan (United) in weather a little cooler than recent days. With time against the players Steve held on for the first win 16 – 11. Next to play was Myles Duggan  (Cashmere) v Dormer, this proved an even closer game with the score 12 – 9 to the youngster. 

The final game of the day provided a few nerves – Steve got away to a flyer with a few good breaks and Myles was in catch-up mode. As the game progressed Myles found a bit of success and started the chase. After 2.5 hours the game came down to both players shooting for the peg. Myles unfortunately missed on a reasonably long attempt with both balls. leaving Steve to place both balls in close range and then success. Result 26 – 24 to Steve. Results are on Croquet Scores at https://croquetscores.com/2021/ac/cnz-arthur-ross-canterbury-final

Congratulations to all players and to Steve who will represent Canterbury at the CNZ Arthur Ross AC Final in Pukekohe on March 12-14th. 

Myles Duggan and Steve Costigan (unfortunately Dormer had left)