Blewbury AC weekend handicap report

Report by Peter Allan of the Blewbury AC weekend handicap tournament on 11th and 12th August. Six players (Richard Peperell, Jonathan Lambton, Bruce Gallop, Steve Fisher, Kevin Colton, and myself) arrived on Saturday morning looking forward to some enjoyable croquet, but fearing a rather wet weekend as the forecast was not good. Fortunately, there was little rain and none of it was heavy. Everyone would play everyone else, three games on Saturday and two on Sunday, with a pub lunch on Sunday between the two games. At the end of Saturday, I was happy, feeling that I had played well and won all my three matches, but it was still anyone’s tournament. Sunday had two particularly exciting games. Steve Fisher and Kevin Colton were playing. Kevin was ahead by three hoops with 10 minute to go, but Steve was in and looked as though he was likely to catch Kevin. Steve ran 2-back with black to take the lead as time ran out. He then tried for 3-back, but just failed to run the hoop by about 2mm. Kevin now had a last chance to run rover, which he did. The match was tied! On to the golden hoop. At this point we all realised that it was Steve to play and all he needed to do to win was to hit black those last 2mm. He did it! The result of the tournament rested on the outcome of the last match still being played. If Jonathan Lambton beat Steve Fisher, then Jonathan would win the tournament. However if Steve won the game, then I would win the tournament. When I started watching, Steve was well ahead and Jonathan’s black was still for hoop 1. However, Jonathan had shown that he is perfectly capable of taking a ball all the way round in a single turn. Jonathan was making progress, but as time started to run out, thing got tense. It could still go either way. Fortunately for me, Steve won the game, so I won the trophy. Thanks go to Paul Wolff and Nick Butler for organising the weekend. Everyone had a good time and I definitely plan to play next year.   Peter Allan