Four players battled it out on Sunday 9th February for the right to represent the CCA at the national Don Reyland finals at Rose Gardens in Palmerston North 14th and 15th March.
The day started cool and fresh with dew glistening on the lawn, just right for a day of serious croquet. The four players were soon into it and some serious competition followed. The small group of spectators were treated to some great displays of croquet at its best, and the time sped by. Myles Duggan (Cashmere) was the winner, with Cheryl Hopley as runner up. The other two contestants, Linda Humphreys (Fendalton Park) and Maggie Croy (Holmes Park), were worthy competition.
The Canterbury association playoff for the Arthur Ross was played at Rangiora on Sunday 2 February.
The players were Josh Winter from Cashmere, Alistair Newey from Rangiora, Steve Costigan from Edgeware and Cheryl Hopley from United.
The results were:
Round 1: Josh beat Steve 19-9, Cheryl beat Alistair 8-7
Round 2: Josh beat Cheryl 13-5, Alistair beat Steve 15-10
Round 3: Josh beat Alistair 26-8, Steve beat Cheryl 9-7
Josh will play in the national finals in Dunedin starting 28 February.
Correction:
The original post said that Josh had his first ever peg out in the last round. This is incorrect. He pegged out six times in November in the South Island AC Champs.
The eight teams of four have played in Nelson in two blocks with the top two teams from each block to go into a knockout semifinal and then the final on this weekend the 11th and 12th of January.
Egypt won its block with the United States runner-up: in the other block New Zealand won with England runner-up. The other teams were South Africa and Sweden in the first block and Australia and Ireland.
Egypt comfortably won its semi-final against England. New Zealand won its semi-final against USA in a close-fought test.
Youth is to the forefront with the oldest Egyptian being 31 and the defending champions, New Zealand, having a team under 30.
Three of the New Zealand team have won the Under 21 World Golf Croquet Championship Josh Freeth (2015), Felix Webby (2017), Edmund Fordyce (2019) whilst Duncan Dixon has won the national title many times. Also three of the team are members of the United club with Felix being the exception.
The 2020 GC World Team Championship Tier 1 is being held at Nelson from Monday 6 to Sunday 12 January 2020. There are eight four-player teams from New Zealand, Egypt, Australia, England, South Africa, USA, Sweden and Ireland.
The New Zealand team is Duncan Dixon, Edmund Fordyce, Joshua Freeth and Felix Webby.
The championship started with block play. There are two blocks of four teams. Each test consists of eight best-of-three matches. Block play ended Wednesday and NZ won all three tests losing only two matches.
The Swedish team spend several days playing at United Croquet Club where they also played a team of Canterbury U17 players on Thursday 2 January. Results of this match is at https://croquetscores.com/2020/gc/sweden-v-canterbury-u17
The original posting had some errors:
1. The location was incorrectly given as Napirt
2. USA is participating, not the Finland
3. The Swedish team practiced at United, not Finland
We had a full competition and tournament season despite Covid disruptions, and overall the weather was kind to us too. It was encouraging to see greater participation from higher handicapped players this last season, a reward for the targeted pre-season coaching.
The Silver Badges were merged into the Grades tournament this year and overall this went well. Participation in the Don Reyland playoffs was much improved this year as a result of more pre-season promotion. The number of Arthur Ross entries was however low as there was little interest in the winner travelling to the national final during Covid restrictions.
The Outcomes section of the Strategic Plan includes a summary of our other activities this last season.
In terms of KPI’s, tournament attendees returned a 93% satisfaction rating.
Below are some statistics from Competitions and from Tournaments
The CCA Golf Croquet Doubles Handicap competition was held at Fendalton Park Croquet Club on Sunday 24 November. The weather was kind to us: the forecast was for 28 degrees, but cloud and an easterly breeze kept the temperature down.
There were 13 pairs entered and games were played in two blocks with the winners of each block playing off for the trophy. The clear winner of block A was Gae Keng and Joan Bradford from Fendalton and the winner on net points in Block B was Josh Winter and James Duggan from Cashmere.
The final was a tense game with extra turns being used wisely and the winners of the day were Gae Keng and Joan Bradford with Runner up being Josh Winter and James Duggan. The second team in each block played for third place and this was between Jono Hart (St James) and Mike Bunce (St Martins) against Terry Green and Liz Partridge from Rangiora. Liz and Terry managed to take out third place.
It was great to have Lyn from Ryman Health, our sponsor for the tournament to be there to present the trophies.
The competition was good, there was a pleasant atmosphere, great facilities, some lovely croquet, and a good day was had by all. It was pleasing to see members from a number of clubs participating.
Gae Keng and Joan Bradford, winners of the 2019 CCA GC Handicap Doubles with Lyn (centre) from Ryman Health, our sponsor for the tournament
Congratulations to Myles Duggan & Levi Franks from Cashmere High School for winning the National Secondary Schools Tournament held at United Croquet Club on the weekend of 7th and 8th September. Te Kiri King and Isabelle Tong from Hawera High School were runners-up. Josh Winter and James Duggan also from Cashmere High School were placed third. What a great result for Cashmere High School, Cashmere Croquet and their coaches and mentors. Take a bow Gay!
Not only were Cashmere members cheering on their boys, they managed to find time to provide the food for the Event Dinner on Saturday night.
Other Canterbury teams were Yani Rutherford & Molly Campbell of St Margaret’s and Rudolf Steiner. After a slow start the St Margaret’s team won their last three games in a row.
Special thanks to United Croquet Club who hosted the event and provided non-stop food and drinks over the bitterly cold weekend and to Jenny Clarke who managed the tournament.
Of course, it just didn’t happen without a huge amount of work in putting the event together over many months, thanks to Lyn Dawson And Owen.
There were 24 teams from throughout New Zealand organised into four blocks of six teams. The top 16 then contested the knockout.
Non-qualifiers for the knockout stages contested the 2019 Plate event.
The practice day on Friday was very wet and cold and most of the day was spent with the kids inside playing board games and waiting for the lawns to dry out. The newly installed heat pump was much appreciated. The manager, Jenny Clarke provided pizzas and most of the food bought in for the following weekend tournament. This was paid by United with contributions from some parents.
Sunday play started with temperatures around 3 degrees and MANY of the kids ended up with hands turning unhealthy looking shades of red or blue. Some “Hot Hands” handwarmers were distributed to those looking in most need.
Croquet Canterbury 