GC Golf Croquet

The Tournament is an open two-day Golf Croquet A-Class Level Play Singles competition staged at Watford, as one of the tournaments in the Croquet England fixtures calendar. It is part of CqE's national A-Level (0+) tournament series.

Open GC A-Level Tournament
results by year:

Title: Open GC A-level (0+) Series Tournament
Handicaps: GC: 0+
Date: Saturday 28 - Sunday 29 June
Capacity: 16
Manager: Simon Hathrell
Secretary: Eddie Chung
Email: click on link to send an email
Phone: 07806 639257
Address: please ask, or log in and obtain it from the CqE member's directory
Entries: Allocation: 26 April; Closing: 21 June
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: £25 (CqE Premium members), others £39.
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 A-Level (0+) 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.

This year's tournament was played in the middle of a late June heatwave, and all the players deserve credit for coping with the heat. The courts were medium-paced and generally green, thanks to a new, automatic irrigation system that had been installed at the club last year. The tournament had been won by a Watford player in each of the the previous 4 years, but this year the entry looked particularly strong, and the chances of a 6th consecutive Watford winner did not look good.

The format was planned as two all-play-all blocks of 8 players on the first day, with the top 4 in each block proceeding to a 3-round best-of-3 knock-out on the second day, and the bottom 4 to a 3-round Plate knock-out, all 13-point games played without time-limits. Since the 3 rounds of knock-out could require as many as 9 games to complete, the hope was to squeeze in the first game of the knock-out quarter-finals on the first day as well; however, the 7 rounds of the block stage took until quite late on the Saturday to complete, too late to fit in another game, so the knock-out format for the following day was revised to a single game in the quarter-finals as well. It was also evident that the slower players had all ended up in the Plate, so the QF round of the main knock-out was played as a 19-point game while keeping the QF round of the Plate as a 13-point game.

In block A Konstantin Yudintsev emerged as the clear winner, losing only a close game to runner-up Eddie Chung, who had lost a couple of other games. Stephen Webb also played well for his 4 handicap, narrowly missing out on the net hoops tie-breaker to Ignacio Gross Ariza and Alex Lake for places in the main knock-out. Meanwhile in Block B Peter Tofield ruled supreme, having beaten everyone in the first 6 rounds to guarantee first place by the time he reached the last round... which he then lost rather surprisingly to Michael Fensome. He was joined in the draw for the main knock-out by Kim Taylor, Andy Jones and Simon Turner, all of whom were playing well and ended on 5 wins each.

The quarter-finals of the main and Plate knock-outs commenced on Sunday morning, with the temperature rising quickly. The accurate long-range clearances of the two top seeded players, Konstantin Yudintsev and a bare-footed Kim Taylor, proved decisive as they both made their way to the final. The only player to run into significant trouble with the heat was Peter Tofield, who started to feel unwell during his semi-final against Kim Taylor, so after losing that contest he withdrew from the third place play-off against Ignacio in order to cool down and recover before a long journey home. The best-of-3 final between Konstantin and Kim was a fittingly close contest with a lot of long clearances, in which Konstantin emerged a worthy winner on the 13th hoop in both of the first two games.

Meanwhile last year's winner Geoff made up for the disappointment of missing a place in the main knock-out by winning the Plate knock-out without losing a single game on the way.

Report by Simon Hathrell, photo by Eddie Chung
Click on photos for an enlargement

Results:

Block A
Results vs.: KY EC IGA AL SW EB GD MJA WINS NET
HOOPS
Konstantin Yudintsev   6-7 7-3 7-5 7-2 7-4 7-6 7-3 6 +18
Eddie Chung 7-6   1-7 7-4 7-3 7-1 5-7 7-2 5 +11
Ignacio Gross Ariza 3-7 7-1   5-7 7-4 4-7 7-5 7-4 4 +5
Alex Lake 5-7 4-7 7-5   4-7 7-5 7-6 7-1 4 +3
Stephen Webb 2-7 3-7 4-7 7-4   7-6 7-2 7-5 4 -1
Edwin Bone 4-7 1-7 7-4 5-7 6-7   7-3 7-3 3 -1
Glynis Davies 6-7 7-5 5-7 6-7 2-7 3-7   7-2 2 -6
Maria Jose Ariza 3-7 2-7 4-7 1-7 5-7 3-7 2-7   0 -29
Block B
Results vs.: PT AJ KT ST GJ MF PG JS WINS NET
HOOPS
Peter Tofield   7-5 7-4 7-5 7-6 4-7 7-3 7-4 6 +12
Andy Jones 5-7   7-5 6-7 7-4 7-4 7-5 7-4 5 +10
Kim Taylor 4-7 5-7   7-6 7-5 7-3 7-4 7-4 5 +8
Simon Turner 5-7 7-6 6-7   7-4 7-5 7-4 7-6 5 +7
Geoff Johnson 6-7 4-7 5-7 4-7   7-1 6-7 7-5 2 -2
Michael Fensome 7-4 4-7 3-7 5-7 1-7   6-7 7-6 2 -12
Paul Green 3-7 5-7 4-7 4-7 7-6 7-6   3-7 2 -14
John Smallbone 4-7 4-7 4-7 6-7 5-7 6-7 7-3   1 -9

Knock-out

QUARTER-FINALS SEMI-FINALS FINAL WINNER
Block A Winner
Konstantin Yudintsev		 Konstantin Yudintsev
(10-7)		 Konstantin Yudintsev
(7-3, 7-6)		 Konstantin Yudintsev
(7-6, 7-6)
Block B 4th place
Simon Turner
Block A 3rd place
Ignacio Gross Ariza		 Ignacio Gross Ariza
(10-9)
Block B Runner-up
Andy Jones
Block A Runner-up
Eddie Chung		 Kim Taylor
(10-9)		 Kim Taylor
(7-4, 7-2)
Block B 3rd place
Kim Taylor
Block A 4th place
Alex Lake		 Peter Tofield
(10-5)
Block B Winner
Peter Tofield
  THIRD PLACE
PLAY-OFF:		 Ignacio Gross Ariza
(w/o)
5th-8th PLACES 5th-6th PLACES 5th PLACE
Andy Jones Simon Turner
(7-4, 7-6)		 Eddie Chung
(7-5, 7-6)
Simon Turner
Alex Lake Eddie Chung
(6-7, 7-5, 7-0)
Eddie Chung
7th-8th PLACES 7th PLACE
Alex Lake Andy Jones
(7-4, 7-4)
Andy Jones

Winner Konstantin Yudintsev
Participants
Name Club H'cap
Konstantin Yudintsev Sussex County 0
Kim Taylor Enfield 0
Peter Tofield Northampton 0
Eddie Chung Watford 1
Alex Lake Newport 1
Ignacio Gross Ariza Surbiton 2
Glynis Davies Northampton 2
Geoff Johnson Watford 2
Andy Jones Phyllis Court 2
John Smallbone Watford 2
Edwin Bone Eynsham 3
Simon Turner Ealing 3
Michael Fensome Phyllis Court 3
Paul Green Sussex County 3
Stephen Webb Watford 4
Maria Jose Ariza [Spain] 7

Plate

QUARTER-FINALS SEMI-FINALS FINAL WINNER
Stephen Webb John Smallbone
(7-6)		 Michael Fensome
(7-5, 7-6)		 Geoff Johnson
(7-4, 7-2)
John Smallbone
Glynis Davies Michael Fensome
(7-4)
Michael Fensome
Edwin Bone Paul Green
(7-6)		 Geoff Johnson
(7-4, 7-5)
Paul Green
Maria Jose Ariza Geoff Johnson
(7-1)
Geoff Johnson
  THIRD PLACE
PLAY-OFF:		 John Smallbone
(5-7, 7-1, 7-3)
13th-16th PLACES 13th-14th PLACES 13th PLACE
Glynis Davies Stephen Webb
(7-4, 4-7, 7-3)		 Stephen Webb
(7-6, 7-5)
Stephen Webb
Maria Jose Ariza Edwin Bone
(7-4, 7-1)
Edwin Bone
15th-16th PLACES 15th PLACE
Maria Jose Ariza Glynis Davies
(7-1, 7-3)
Glynis Davies

Handicap change: Konstantin Yudintsev 0 to -1, Simon Turner 3 to 2

Click on photos for an enlargement