AC Association Croquet

This Tournament is a one-day Association Croquet singles competition run by the East Anglian Croquet Federation for the winners of club AC competitions in the previous year. It is open to members of EACF member clubs. It is also listed in the EACF diary.

Title: EACF AC Club Champions Tournament
Handicaps: AC:
Date: Saturday 22 April
Capacity: 16
Secretary: Email:   click on link to send an email
Phone: 01923 241582
Address: please ask, or log in and obtain it from the CA member's directory
Manager: Terrey Sparks
RoT: tba
Trophy: A block for the Lynnsport Shield: (current holder: Nick Mounfield)
B Block: (current holder: Heather Bennett)
C Block: (current holder: Bryan Harral)
Entries: Allocation: tba
Closing: 16 April
Those who wish to enter should apply to the EACF through their own club secretary.
Entry fee: tba
Format: AMD Class Singles, depending on entry.
Provisionally 3 independent blocks: Level advanced, B-level advanced and Handicap.
Notes:
  1. Play starts at 09:30, and players must be prepared to play 3 games in the day.
  2. Tea, soft drinks and biscuits are provided free of charge, and a cold lunch will be available for a small fee.
  3. Details of parking and other arrangements will be sent to participants before the event.

Winners L-R: Stuart Stafford, Nick Steiner, Jeff Farrington

Unfortunately, the day's play got off to a frantic start as Nick Archer unfortunately had gone down with an ailment that required a visit to the hospital, and although discharged was understandably resting at home. Simon Hathrell who was acting as the club host and later to take care of the catering and other refreshments agreed to play as a non-counting wild card until mid-afternoon.

However, play although a little delayed got under way on the Watford lawns that were in very good playing conditions, and despite an adverse weather report the day proved to be rather pleasant and which ended in a pleasant spring evening.

Group 1 (Advanced): Although reduced to only three players the overall play was of a high standard as expected, starting with a +22tp by David Marsh over Alison Maugham. This was followed by Nick Steiner winning +3 over Alison, leading to a block play-off between Nick and David. However, in the final game Nick raised his game and put in a fine performance to overcome David, running out the block winner with +17 win.

Group 2 (B-Level Advanced): This proved to be a very competitive block with a large proportion of the games, although finishing in time ran very close to the time limit set at 2½ hours. Jeff Farrington representing the Colchester Club dominated, winning all his 3 games, although he had a bit of a struggle against home club member Geoff Johnson who managed to lose only -2T to finish second in the group.

Group 3 (Handicap): Despite being reduced to 18-point games this proved to be a very close block that ran to the wire, ending with Stuart Stafford (Wrest Park) on 2 wins playing home member David Robinson. Stuart had to win his final game to run out the overall winner; if he failed this would give the manager a bit of a problem in that he would have a possible 2 game block tie between 4 players. Unbelievably, it looked as time had expired that the score was in David’s favour 25 – 24, and having pegged out one ball he looked as he was home and dry. But the fat lady had yet to finish singing and Stuart carried off an unbelievable peg out to run out the overall block winner.

Many thanks to the Watford Club for making their lawns available, and it should be noted that despite all games being reduced to 2½ hours remarkably few went to time.

Click on images to enlarge

All games 2½ hours

Report by Terrey Sparks

Results:

Block ALevel Advanced
Results vs.: NS DM AM WINS NET
HOOPS
Nick Steiner   +17 +3 2 +20
David Marsh -17   +22tp 1 +5
Alison Maugham -3 -22tp   0 -25
Block BLevel Advanced
Results vs.: JF GJ JT DW WINS NET
HOOPS
Jeff Farrington   +2T +15 +17 3 +34
Geoff Johnson -2T   +4 +17 2 +19
Jonathan Toye -15 -4   +9T 1 -10
David Woolley -17 -17 -9T   0 -43
Block CHandicap
Results vs.: SS CF JS MT DR AH WINS NET
HOOPS
Stuart Stafford   +3 +14   +1   3 +18
Chris Frost -3     +2T   +11 2 +10
Jonathan Sisson -14     +6T   +8 2 0
Martin Tunmore   -2T -6T   +4T   1 -4
David Robinson -1     -4T   +8T 1 +3
Adam Huby   -11 -8   -8T   0 -27
WINNERS
Nick Steiner,
Jeff Farrington,
Stuart Stafford
Participants
Name Club H'cap
Alison Maugham Letchworth -1½
David Marsh Wrest Park -1
Nick Steiner Colchester
Jeff Farrington Colchester
Geoff Johnson Watford 3
Chris Frost St. Albans 3
Jonathan Toye Downham Market 6
Jonathan Sisson Norwich 6
Adam Huby Watford 7
David Woolley Wrest Park 9
David Robinson Watford 10
Stuart Stafford Wrest Park 10
Martin Tunmore Colchester 14