Hi John

The CCA Agnes Dick competition was held at Elmwood Croquet Club on Monday 14^th and Tuesday 15^th March 2022. There were eight pairs entered. The event was managed by Jim Hopley.

The weather was fine but cool. Lawns and whole of Elmwood Croquet Club looked a picture.

Results:

Round 1
Steve Costigan & Betty Hall beat Jenny Hollobon & Diana Howes 22-7
Jim Hopley & Cheryl Hopley beat Carol Kidd & Alister Newey 17-13
Owen Evans & Patsy Clegg beat Geraldine Murphy & Jenny Tait 19-18
Bruce Wright & Gay Jones beat Sally Jeffcott & Kevin Cusack 26-1

Round 2
Jim Hopley & Cheryl Hopley beat Jenny Hollobon & Diana Howes 19-3
Steve Costigan & Betty Hall beat Carol Kidd & Alister Newey 19-16
Owen Evans & Patsy Clegg beat Sally Jeffcott & Kevin Cusack 21-14
Bruce Wright & Gay Jones beat Geraldine Murphy & Jenny Tait 18-11

Round 3
Jim Hopley & Cheryl Hopley beat Steve Costigan & Betty Hall 10-8
Carol Kidd & Alister Newey beat Jenny Hollobon & Diana Howes 20-16
Bruce Wright & Gay Jones beat Owen Evans & Patsy Clegg 16-12
Geraldine Murphy & Jenny Tait drew with Sally Jeffcott & Kevin Cusack 11-11

Round 4
Bruce Wright & Gay Jones beat Jim Hopley & Cheryl Hopley 18-13
Steve Costigan & Betty Hall beat Owen Evans & Patsy Clegg 26-9
Sally Jeffcott & Kevin Cusack beat Jenny Hollobon & Diana Howes 15-4
Geraldine Murphy & Jenny Tait beat Carol Kidd & Alister Newey

Winners: Bruce Wright & Gay Jones
Runners-Up: Cheryl Hopley & Jim Hopley

The CCA GC Open tournament was held over the weekend of March 12^th and 13^th. Getting a field together for both days was challenging, and a big thank you goes out from the manager to those who entered. Five teams competed in the doubles on Saturday, and two blocks of five in the singles on Sunday.

Both days experienced sun, cloud and wind, but thankfully no rain. The lawns at St Martins were beautifully prepared and there were some tight games and hoops on both days.

Josh Winter partnered with Patrick Conolly to win the doubles. Gaylene Jones and Melanie Stevenson were runners-up. A clean sweep to Cashmere.

Josh also prevailed over his friend and National Doubles partner, Levi Franks to win the singles 10/8. John Borner from St Martins was third.

Detailed results for the doubles is at https://croquetscores.com/2022/gc/cca-open
Detailed results for the singles is at https://croquetscores.com/2022/gc/cca-open-singles

The 2022 Carol Hayward was played at United Croquet Club on six Tuesdays from 1st February 2022. It was a handicap singles competition for players over 60 years old. One 18-point game was played each morning with a break for morning tea.

The competition was played as a flexible Swiss as players could choose to play each week. Thirteen players entered and the manager played when needed.

It was a close competition with three players on 80% going into the final day. Sue Stott (Edgeware) and Bruce McLay (United) finished with 5 wins out of 6 games (83%). Bruce was declared winner based on the strength of opponents. He also beat Sue when they played each other.

Betty Hall (United) and Alister Newey (Rangiora) ended with 67%. However, Betty played only three games so did not qualify for a place.

Thanks to the players who made the competition enjoyable and to Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village for sponsoring the event.

Full results are at https://croquetscores.com/2022/ac/carol-hayward

The AC Grade Champs were held at United on 26-27 February. The weather was cool but dry and the lawns were slow. The event was combined with the silver badge competition and 18 players competed in four grades, with the premier grade being cancelled due to lack of entries.

The 18-24 grade was won by Betty Hall with 5/6 with Jim Hopley in second with 4/6. Alister Newey beat Bruce Wright for the 10-16 silver badge.

Eight players competed for the 4-9 Grade. In the qualifying blocks on Saturday, Carolyn Fordyce was unbeaten with excellent wins against two lower bisqued opponents. In the other block Steve Costigan was also unbeaten. They were joined in the gold block on Sunday by Owen Evans and Cheryl Hopley who did very well playing off a 9 handicap. The silver block on Sunday was won by Jono Hart, whilst the gold block was very close, finishing with three players on 2 wins. Net points were used as a tie-breaker and Carolyn was the unlucky third, with Owen runner-up and Steve the victor.

The 0-3.5 grade was won by Josh Winter who was unbeaten. His shooting on Sunday was some of the best I can remember seeing.

Many thanks to the United club for hosting the event, Ian Campbell for umpiring over the weekend, Jenny Clarke for helping managing and John Yarrall for making new hoop holes.

Chris Clarke

Full results are at croquetscores.com

The Maud Trainor competition was held at the United Croquet Club during the four Fridays of February.  With thirty competitors, a seventh lawn was formed with four full sized and three 80+% courts.

This is a largely social Golf Croquet event with two timed games of one hour each day.  Rather unusually drawn games are allowed with each player awarded a half point.  

Played as a flexible Swiss event, competitors must be available for at least three of the four days to qualify for a placing.

This format often means the games get tighter as the rounds progress.  Both John Yarrall (first) and Ken Lowe (second) lost one match but John, playing all four days won seven out of eight (88%) of his games beating Ken’s five wins from six games (83%).

The third to fifth prize winners (Geoff Price, Jude Derby and Betty Inglewood) all had a draw scoring five and a half out of eight games (69%) with the placings decided by the strength of their opponents.

Detailed results are here.

This competition was held on Sunday 20 February 2022 at Fendalton Park Croquet Club.

There were 12 teams from 7 different clubs in Canterbury with player handicaps ranging from -5 to 14. The competition was fierce, the lawns were great, the weather was perfect and the sportsmanship was outstanding. There were two Round Robins of 6 teams with the top two from each block playing a semi-final with the winners playing a final for overall winner and runner-up and the losers playing for 3 and 4 positions. Determining the top two teams from each round robin block was a close contest with nothing certain until the final round was played.

The final result was a team of grandfather and grandson winning the trophy. Owen Evans and Patrick Connolly from Cashmere are the CCA GC Doubles Handicap winners. Runners up were Helen Webber and Nigel Grondin from Hornby. Third position went to Jono Hart from St James playing with Emily Marstella from Cashmere against John Borner and Mike Bunce from St Martins. Thanks must go to Bruce Clay for being the referee for the day; to Mike Dawson who was up very early to set up the lawns; and to Esme Burt and her team for the great catering offered during the day.

All in all a very pleasant day with some lovely croquet played.

Vilna Gough-Jones
Tournament Manager

The CCA Open was played from Friday 28 January 2022 over 3 days with 4 entries. There was an initial block (setting positions 1 to 4) followed by Best-of-3 playoffs (1 v 4, 2v 3 then winner v winner, and loser v loser). The venue was St James Park Croquet Club in Christchurch NZ. Lawns ran at 10 s by the end of day 1 and were faster on the following days of fine warm weather.

The overall winner was 19-year-old Josh Winter of the local Cashmere Club. His ability to make long roquets demonstrated the futility of the old idea of a next break strategy at this level, and this (GC derived) skill put him in a class ahead of the other competitors. There were unsuccessful attempts at triple peels and errors by all participants gave opponents opportunities which were not always converted into breaks. Overall it was a good weekend of play even if there were only 4 entries this year.

Full results are at https://croquetscores.com/2022/ac/cca-open

Roger Lane
Tournament Manager

The Don Reyland Stars Regional Final was held in wet conditions at Holmes Park on February 5^th. Six clubs, (Akaroa, Cashmere, Fendalton, Holmes Park, St Martins and United) were represented. There was a late withdrawal from Hornby due to illness. Several games went to the thirteenth hoop.

At the end of the day Josh Winter (Cashmere) was a clear winner, with five out of five wins. Runner up was Maggie Croy (Holmes Park) with three wins. This hung in the balance until the very last hoop of the tournament, when Geoff Price (United) overcame Vilna Gough-Jones (Fendalton) 7/6.

Despite the weather, the tournament was enjoyed by all. Every player had at least one win. Our National Champion Josh prevailed in every game with up to 15 extra turns against him. The least was 8 extra turns. Joshua played with his usual humbleness, and every player so enjoyed the experience of playing against him. Josh will be travelling to Thames to represent Canterbury in the “CNZ Don Reyland Stars Tournament” on the weekend of 26^th/27^th March.

Full results are at https://croquetscores.com/2022/gc/cca-don-reyland-playoffs

Runner-up, Maggie Croy (left) (Holmes Park) with Hanne Le Lievre (Akaroa)

The re-scheduled final day of this tournament was played at Cashmere Club on 15 January in sunshine, after being rained out in November. A full field of 24 players including two entrants from Awamoa Gardens in Oamaru participated.

The tournament was played in 4 blocks of 6 with the top two from each block moving on to play a quarter final, with the winners progressing to the semi-final. Four clubs were represented – John Whyte, Rangiora: Kate Milan, Awamoa Gardens: Jocelyn Partridge, St Martins and Graham Jones, Akaroa. After two hard-fought games the finalists were John Whyte and Kate Milan.

Kate had left her mallet in Oamaru playing the entire day with an unfamiliar mallet so getting to the final was a great effort. John progressed through to the final unbeaten and was hoping to make it one more win.

There were some great shots played by both players throughout the game, however, John managed to continue his 100% record and came away with the win 7 – 3.

It was a pleasure to manage the tournament and look forward to seeing all the players enter many more CCA Tournaments.

9 & 10 October 2021

CCA AC Handicap Singles 2021, Tournament Report

Eight keen and hardy AC players lined up for the annual Handicap Singles Tournament at Holmes Park Croquet Club last weekend.  There were to be 5 rounds, 3 rounds of block play on the Saturday when it was very cool, especially if forced to wait in the shelter for your chance to make progress round the hoops.  Semi-finals and final were held on the Sunday, when the conditions were perfect, a Goldilocks day, not too hot and not too cold.  The lawns were a treat to play on, true if not a little heavy and slow, which can be expected at this time of the year.  Thank you to the Holmes Park club for hosting this event and making us feel welcome.

All the players enjoyed their matches, especially when the result was tight, a number of games only being decided in the last minutes of the 3 hours’ time limit or in Regulation 9.  The winner of the tournament was Levi Franks, a youth player from Cashmere, who only just made into the semis with a net hoop score slightly ahead of the other two single game winners in block play. However, he had two comprehensive wins from there on, “pegging off” himself in both games. Levi retains the trophy he won in this tournament last season.  His opponent Josh Winter, also a youth player from Cashmere had cruised through the block play with three wins, his first game with two bisques only requiring 2 breaks, one of 11, the other of 15 hoops. Quite phenomenal as this is only his 3^rd season of A C. The beaten semi-finalists were Marguaritte Rogers from St James and John Hearnshaw from United.

The tournament was certainly enhanced with the presence of Ian Campbell, being a very capable umpire, who officiated for the whole of the tournament. It was certainly appreciated by the players, who not only accepted a neutral opinion but also learnt some technical issues from him as well.  It was interesting that the new rule on “accidental contact in critical positions” had little effect, with players proceeding to play without the striker ball being marked at all.  Other critical strokes in play were under intense scrutiny from Ian, or players backed off attempting their shots.  Thanks for your attendance Ian, it was much appreciated.

Overall, the tournament was enjoyed by all with the highs and lows of handicap play accepted by the players in this kind of competition. Thankfully, the weather gods shone down on Sunday, and the final result was a cheerful group of players who are always seeking more opportunities of practice and competition in the classical form of the game. It is hoped that the CNZ South Island AC Tournament, due to be held at United prior to and during Show Weekend, can proceed or be postponed when CNZ Covid protocols are relaxed.  Alternatively, might it be possible for the CCA to schedule this tournament as a de facto South Island event on those dates?

Owen Evans

Tournament Manager