2014 AC South West Tour

Association Croquet

The annual AC Tour of clubs in the South West region took place as usual in late July, with one-day matches at the same five clubs as last year. This year the weather gods were in a good mood and the tour was dry, sunny and warm for the whole time. At Swindon the tourists managed to register a 4-4 draw, halting the run of defeats there in the previous couple of years, but could not sustain that form on the next day at Bristol where they lost 4-6.

This year there were more tourists participating than ever before, so the third day at Nailsea was the big change-over day with several leaving after a half tour and others arriving to replace them for the second half. Nailsea kindly accommodated this with a plentiful supply of opponents so that a full 13 games were played on fast and quite tricky courts, every one of which went to the full time-limit, the tourists ending with a healthy 9-4 win.

On day four at Dyffryn the hosts managed to accommodate a full 9 games on only 2 courts, using stripy balls and treble-banking on one court in the afternoon, winning on time in the last game to hand the tourists a 4-5 defeat. Then on the final day at Blewbury with the hosts on top form everything came unstuck for the tourists, losing 0-8 for the first ever whitewash on tour. Better luck next year!

Tour organiser: Mark Homan.

See also the GC Tour.