Croquet Tournament Results

SUMMARY 2020

* detailed results not available

DETAILED RESULTS 2020

AC 3 & Under Singles, 8th - 9th February 2020

The 3 and under singles event was held at Tempe on the weekend of the 8th and 9th of February. You might remember that weekend - it was when Warragamba went from 42% to 65% full.

We had a full field of 15, playing 3 blocks of 5, with the winners of each block and the best second to play knockout semi-finals and final, with other knockouts for lower places. There was a strong field with the top 2 seeds in each block comprising NSW State Team players and the team coach. Competition for the best second as well as group winner figured to be tough.

Saturday we played 4 games with time limits of 2 hours 15 minutes. The weather initially was not too bad, with occasional showers, but the rain set in after lunch - all up Tempe received around 100 mls of rain. At least there was little wind and mid-20s temperature, so we just became wet, but not too uncomfortable. Despite the tricky conditions no games went to time, and the 4 rounds completed easily.

Sunday was rather a different story. It started raining heavily, and became heavier and windier and colder as the day progressed. The battle for qualification was indeed close, as expected. Alison Sharpe and Alan Honey qualified easily with 4 wins in their blocks. In the other block, Jim Nicholls with 3 wins and +29 net hoops edged out Alix Verge with 3 wins and +28 hoops. Was that enough for a best second? No, Peter Landrebe finished second in his block also with 3 wins and +28 hoops... But with 7 more gross hoops. But wait a moment - the last qualifying game was still in progress, and Tim Murphy managed a win to get to 3 wins and +31 hoops, to take the best second position at the death. Alison as top qualifier chose Tim in the semi-final, and Tim eked out a small win in a match where each player looked likely to win at times. In the other semi-final Alan beat Jim in double quick time with a triple peel, his 3rd in 5 matches. In the final, Alan’s form left him and Tim won 26-4. The two Canberra players then headed off in torrential rain for home.

By the time the semi-final and final were played the rain was almost horizontal and very heavy (200 mls in the day). Amazingly, the lawns remained playable throughout, a tribute to the standard of the lawns at Tempe now. A few years ago lawn 1 in particular (where the final was played) would have been unplayable for most of the weekend.

The conditions deterred most of the other competitors from playing on, but Peter Landrebe beat Mike Hughes comfortably for the Y event.

Despite the conditions the event was played in good spirits and at a high standard. Congratulations to the winner, Tim Murphy and runner up Alan Honey, bock winners Alison Sharpe and Jim Nicholls, and winner of the Y, Peter Landrebe.

Mike Hughes
Manager

GC NSW Open Womens Singles Championship, 18th - 20th July 2020

The tournament was held at Cooks River Croquet Club, Tempe, in near-perfect conditions, clear, dry and cool, and, having little aircraft noise and reduced activity at Concordia Club, it was an unusually peaceful occasion.

The Covid19 precautions were fairly satisfactory. A bucket with water/detergent was placed at each lawn and balls and clips were washed between games; games slips were not handed out; except for the first day wipe-down of hoops was done by TR and TM only. In future, it would be better if players brought and used their own pen for completing results sheets and cards.

We were fortunate to have an excellent team of referees, led by Peter Freer (TR), they included Ron Johnstone, Kaye Martin, Rosemary Freeman and Stephen Howes, so that all games could be supervised.

The competition comprised one Round-Robin Block of single 13-point games, followed by X and Y knockouts and a Plate of three players.

The field of 11 competitors (two others had to withdraw just before the tournament) included a good mix of stalwarts and newcomers, and all players had achievements which would have given them great satisfaction.

Sandy Tawa won the Plate, while Jill Sullivan and Karen Bisley both scored some good wins during the tournament. Cheryl Lloyd had some well-fought games to get into the knockout competition. Georgina Carnegie overcame several experienced players to reach the semi-final. Liz Montague performed powerfully in the block, with +25 net hoops, and Ros Johnstone showed her fighting qualities, eventually losing a semifinal to the overall winner. Pamela Barnwell won the Y competition over Gerda Lambeck. Kate McLoughlin had a strong run in the knockout, but it was Alison Sharpe, losing only one game in the entire tournament (to Kate), who proved the champion.

Peter Montague
Tournament Manager

GC Bronze Brooch, 10th - 12th August 2020

Report with photos

GC Division 2 Doubles, 6th - 7th October 2020

GC Division 2 Singles, 8th - 10th October 2020

AC Platinum Singles, 12th - 14th October 2020

The AC Platinum Singles tournament was played at Cooks River CC on October 12-14. The weather was fine and dry and comfortably warm, lawns 1 and 2 were excellent, while lawn 3 had a couple of minor issues resulting from its being shifted a few metres further away from the Concordia Club.

With a field of only 4 players, the competition was a double round robin.

Don Wright of Cooks River was a dominant winner, with 5 wins from 6 games of careful and precise play. Peter Freer was runner-up, with 3 games won and a convincing margin of hoops.

Our thanks to David Stanton for managing on the third day.

Peter Montague

GC Division 1 Pennants, 19th October - 18th November 2020

The 2020 CNSW GC Division 1 Pennants Competition started this week.

Normally, pennants competitions begin quietly with individual clubs hosting other individual clubs to play a Test and the competition builds up to Finals.

But just as many other things have not been quite "normal" in 2020, the Division 1 Pennants followed this trend and began with a bang - Cooks River Club hosting 5 other clubs who completed a total of 9 tests over two and a half days! Definitely going "above and beyond" for hosting by this club, especially as this was the first time they have entered a team in a pennants competition.

The lawns were in top condition, the play was sparkling and the weather was mostly kind (just a bit of rain on the first two days). The test between Newcastle National Park Club and Canberra Club turned into an epic battle on the lawns with all three matches going to 3 games!

The results of all the tests completed at Cooks River are on Croquet Scores. Sydney metro clubs will now arrange individual tests on a "home and away" basis and the 2020 Winners and Runners-up for this competition will be announced as soon as all these tests are completed.

Lorraine Hatfield
Tournament Manager

Report...

Winner: Killara
Runner up: Newcastle National Park

AC NSW Open Womens Singles Championship, 17th - 18th October 2020

This tournament was played at Cooks River CC, Tempe, on 17th-18th October, in warm, dry and calm conditions. As the previous year, the Eva Short and Win Dickinson Trophies were incorporated into the Women’s Open.

The field of eight players was divided into two blocks, playing round robins. The best performing player during this stage (on games and net points) was awarded the Eva Short Trophy. The winner of each block entered the best-of-three final, to determine the Women’s Open Champion. The other six players then completed the round robin as a single block, to decide the Win Dickinson Trophy (see photo).

Kerri-Ann Organ and Rosemary Landrebe dominated their respective blocks (with Rosemary wining the Eva Short title) and contested the final. Kerri-Ann played with outstanding control and precision to win the final in two games 26-6 and 26-0 and secure the Women’s Open Championship.

Barbara McDonald convincingly won the Win Dickinson, winning all 5 games, however the other contestants all played some good competitive games.

GC Champion of Club Champions, 14th - 15th November 2020

Four clubs were represented when this event was held at Tempe in warm and humid conditions over the weekend of 14-15 November

Players were Rob Elliott from Royal Sydney, Robert King from Coogee, Ros Johnstone from Sutherland and Larry Becroft from Taree.

Congratulations to Rob who was the undefeated Winner, and to Larry who was runner-up.

Thanks also to Lynda Toms, Referee for the weekend.

Lorraine Hatfield
Tournament Manager