The CCA GC 1+ Singles Tournament was held at Fendalton Park Croquet Club over the weekend of 17^th and 18^th October. Leading up to the weekend Christchurch had experienced heavy rain, but Saturday dawned clear and although cold, no rain for the two days with Sunday being warm and sunny. Considering the rain, Fendalton’s lawns were in great condition and looked a picture.

The field of sixteen played a round robin on the Saturday, finishing the final round on the Sunday morning. Then, playing across the two blocks, the top four were determined to play for the title and the new perpetual trophy.  Meanwhile the rest of the field played for placings 5^th to 16^th.

The top four players, Jonathan Hart, Brian Goodwin, Beverley Parlane and Isaac Conolly played 19 point games in a round robin format.  Jonathan Hart was a clear winner at the end of the day with three wins. Beverley who had been called in as a reserve the day before, finished runner up with two wins and Brian placed third.

This was the first time CCA have run this tournament. It was well supported with players coming from Queenstown, Timaru and Blenheim to join local Canterbury players, and is likely to become a regular fixture.

Cheryl Morrall

Beverley Parlane (R/Up), Jonathan Hart (Winner) Brian Goodwin (Third)

The annual AC Interprovincial was held at Waireka Croquet Club in Ashburton on Sunday 20 September. Canterbury were looking for a repeat and the chance to bring Basil the Ram back to Christchurch. 

A team of 10 travelled down the highway on a cool morning hoping for warm weather, unfortunately a cold wind prevailed throughout the day with the sun not providing any warmth.  

South Canterbury provided two players for Canterbury to even up  team numbers. 

Games were played as doubles with an experienced player guiding an inexperienced player over 2hours. 

After 3 rounds and some closely fought games Audrey who managed the tournament alongside Raylene gave the results and dput the red and black scarf on Basil – Canterbury winners over South canterbury by 20+ hoops. 

Thanks to Waireka for a great day and to the players from South Canterbury who proudly wore red and black for the day. 

Gay Jones

An annual event held at Waireka Club involving 12 players from each region covering handicaps 0 – 11. The sunny weather was appreciated and made for a great day of croquet. 

This event is played with senior, intermediate and primary players playing in mixed doubles teams followed by graded singles. A format that allows a lot of learning for the higher handicap players. During the final round it became clear that the winner would be decided during the last 2 games – Canterbury needing both wins to win by net hoops and South Canterbury requiring 1 win to win outright. 

Congratulations to South Canterbury now the holder of ‘Larry the Lamb’ trophy until next year.

Canterbury players represented Broadfield, Cashmere, United, St Martins, Akaroa and Holmes Park . 

Gay Jones

This event was held at Waireka Croquet Club on Saturday and Sunday in fine weather against all predictions of rain on Sunday. 

Five Associations were represented – Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago, Marlborough and Nelson. To eliminate a bye round an Invitational team was included consisting of  3 x Canterbury and 1 x South Canterbury players. 

The format of alternate singles and doubles across 5 rounds was enjoyed by all players with round 6 being a playoff for all places. Canterbury finished top and unexpectedly played the Invitation team for the trophy with Canterbury proving too strong and kept their unbeaten record for the tournament. Well done to Canterbury back to back winners in this event .

Canterbury team: Josh Winter, Jonathan Hart, Geoff Price and Ayelen Tayagui. 

Invitation team: Owen Evans, Kevin McGlinchy (Timaru), Gay Jones and Carolyn Smith with the winning Canterbury team.

A well supported tournament with full fields utilizing the 5 lawns at Fendalton. Fields consisted of players from Wakatipu and Geraldine Clubs and players new to this tournament. 

Our changeable summer weather did not let us down – sun, rain and cold winds. 

Thanks to all players and the referee who braved the elements later in the day. 

The competition was played to a high level with many games being played to the 13th hoop. 

Congratulations to the following

Senior Grade: Ian Ruddenklau, (Wakatipu Club)

Runner Up: Betty Inglewood, (United)

Intermediate Grade: Jill Smithies, (United)

Runner Up: Ian Bain,( Broadfield) 

CNZ Silver Badges will be presented to the following players at CCA Prize Giving: Betty Inglewood and Jill Smithies. 

Winner Senior Grade, Ian Ruddenklau with Manager Gay Jones.

Winner Intermediate Grade Jill Smithies with Manager Gay Jones.

Six entries formed a high class field arriving at Holmes Park on Sunday 1st March and although the weather was fine in the morning, a few light showers passed through before steady rain set in accompanied by a decent southerly to make the conditions distinctly unpleasant for the last round or two.

For the first four rounds, nobody really gained the upper hand with the leading contenders all losing one of their games and we entered the final round with three players on three wins, Levi Franks, Josh Winter and Paul Kaiser, all with a chance of claiming 1st place.

Levi had the superior net hoops score having beaten Paul quite convincingly in round 3 after Jason Hodgett had ‘poked the bear’ by beating Levi in Round 2, and Levi finished it off by winning his round 5 game and taking 1st place and the Silver Badge for the grade. Paul Kaiser finished in second place and Josh Winter in third.

Chocolate fish goes to Jason who, despite finishing in fourth place, scored more hoops than anyone else with his 3 losses all being 9-10.

Well done to all the players for playing through some challenging conditions, including Jono Hart from St James and good to see the up and coming Max Philpott from Gore.

JCB

The GC Primary Grades was held on Sunday 22nd February in warm conditions at Cashmere and Barrington. With eighteen players, two blocks of six played a round robin at Cashmere, with the third block playing at Barrington.

Winners of each block alongside the next top qualifier played a semi final and final at Cashmere. The eventual winner was thirteen year old Isaac Conolly (Cashmere) defeating Alison Lowe (Cashmere)7/4 . Third place went to Wayne Thomas from Broadfield.

Wayne Thomas, Isaac Conolly and Alison Lowe with Manager Cheryl Morrall.

The AC Grades were held on the 31 Jan and 1 Feb in warm pleasant weather for croquet at United Croquet Club.

There were 4 Grades, of which 2 grades  played for Silver Badge only as there were not enough players, and 2 grades where Silver Badge was played for with also the right to be crowned Champion of the Grade.

The 0-3.5 was a best of 3 between Roger Murfitt and Carolyn Fordyce of South Canterbury, with only Roger eligible for silver badge if he won.  With Roger winning the first game pegged out, it looked ominous for Carolyn with Roger playing well. But Carolyn came back to win the next 2 games to deny Roger a silver badge, in a 9 hour battle.

The 10-16 was also played as a best of 3 between Gay Jones and Stu Rich.  But this time 3 x 2.5 hour games.  With Gay winning the first one in reasonable fashion over Stu, again the pressure was on Stu to win the next 2 games, which like Carolyn he also managed to do.

The 4-9 and 18 – 24 were both played as a double round robin 3x 2.5 hour games.

The first day belonged to Jonathan Hart (4-9) and Carolyn Smith (18-24) winning all their games, with the pressure on the other players to come back and for Jonathan and Carolyn to maintain their form on day 2.

Jonathan Hart ended up winning the 4-9 comfortably, winning all his games with 1 peg out and several close attempts, with the runner up Owen Evan winning 3 games.

The winner of the 18-24 was not decided until the last round with Carolyn Smith and Ayelen Tayagui having won all their games on the final day.  The pressure was on Ayelene to win to force a count back as both would have lost to each other.  Ayelene managed to do the win, so ended up winning comfortably on net hoops. with Carolyn being runner up.  A special mention also goes to Sarah Polson who was playing her first AC games, where I think she got better as the tournament went on, and also managed to get 2 wins.  Well done Sarah!

I would encourage more people to enter next year as you will be playing people in your own grade and you never know you might surprise yourself.

A big thank you to United for the excellent lawns which were pretty consistent.

Jonathan Hart ( Manager)

Full results can be found on Croquet scores

🔴⚫Canterbury (NZ) AC Grades – Croquet Scores

Jonathan Hart after receiving the trophy from CCA President Gaylene Jones.

Ayeline Tayagui and Manager Jonathan Hart.

Heretaunga CC President Carrie Cooke and GC Open Singles winner Josh Winter.

Josh Winter & Paul Kaiser secured the Doubles Championship in two games 7:5 & 7:2..

CNZ Board Chair Graeme Roberts with Singles Winner Logan McCorkindale.

As part of prizegiving, Levi Franks won the Charles Jones Memorial Salver recognising the best player on a handicap of 0 or higher