GC Golf Croquet

The Tournament is an open two-day Golf Croquet Level Play Singles competition for unrestricted handicaps, staged at Watford as part of CqE's national Open Series tournaments in the Croquet England fixtures calendar.

Open GC Tournament
results by year:

Title: Golf Croquet Open Series Tournament
Handicaps: GC: any
Date: Saturday 30 - Sunday 31 August
Capacity: 16Entries so far: 0
Manager: Simon Hathrell
Secretary: Simon Hathrell
Email: click on link to send an email
Phone: 01923 241582
Address: please ask, or log in and obtain it from the CqE member's directory
Entries: Allocation: 30 June; Closing: 25 August
Those who wish to enter and pay online may do so through the CqE website in same way as entering a CqE Tournament. Alternatively, postal entries should be submitted together with entry fee using the standard CqE Tournament entry form.
Entry fee: £24 (CqE Premium members), others £36.
Pay online (see above) or by cheque to the secretary, payable to "Watford (Cassiobury) Croquet Club".
Format: AMD, provisionally the standard Series format if full capacity.

Exceptions and additions to the standard CqE tournament regulations:

  1. Players must be prepared to play up to 8 games per day.
  2. This tournament forms part of the National GC Open Series.
  3. Tea, soft drinks and biscuits are provided free of charge, and a cold lunch will be available for a small fee.
  4. Details of parking and other arrangements will be sent to participants before the event.

The tournament had a rather precarious existence with no less than 10 withdrawals for various reasons, including one at 11:30pm on the evening before the event. Rather disappointing, especially since the courts were playing at their best following the recent completion of a new automatic irrigation system and an improved maintenance regime. And the weather was warm and pleasant as well.

The final tournament entry was therefore made up to 8 for the first day with the addition of manager Simon Hathrell and Watford member Eddie Chung, which provided an all-play-all block of single 13-point games for a full day's play. Then at the end of the first day a discussion amongst the players led to the conclusion that the second day should comprise just the top 4 players from the first day in another all-play-all block of best-of-3 13-point games, as the other players preferred not to return for a second day given the limited size of entry.

The first day saw Nick Archer emerge as the undefeated day 1 winner on 7/7, followed by Ross Bagni on 5/7, then Eddie Chung and Geoff Johnson on 4/7. However, since Eddie Chung was unavailable for the second day his place was taken by George Skinner, another Watford member, as stand-in.

The second day was therefore contested by Nick Archer, Ross Bagni, Geoff Johnson and George Skinner. Nick once again proved invincible with his - mostly - deadly accuracy, though he was taken to a close finish at the 13th hoop by Ross in one game. Geoff repeated his 2-1 win over Ross in the final of the A-level Series tournament at Watford earlier in the summer, and George also proved himself a worthy stand-in by beating Geoff 2-1, so that Ross, Geoff and George all shared one rubber win apiece.

Report by Simon Hathrell

Tournament entry/draw/results not available.

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