SCA 20+ Tournament 2011
Meadows, 10 September 2011
On a warm showery morning four players and the tournament manager gathered at the Meadows Club for the SCA 20+ Tournament. It was scheduled to start at 10:30, but with time spent in finding the hoop holes, setting out the lawns and having a warm-up it was just after 11am when the first round of games got under way. The relaxed timing continued throughout the event, but with only three rounds of short games (time limit 1 hour 15 minutes) this was not a problem.
All the contestants were playing in this tournament for the first time. Alistair Malcolm from the Kinross Club had a handicap of 20, and so got eight bisques in each short croquet game; Roger Binks (Meadows), Lyn Gilpin (Meadows) and Andrew Milligan (Edinburgh) were playing off 24 and thus had 10 bisques.
Both the first-round games took the full time allotted. Andrew did peg out in the turn after time was called, to beat Lyn by 7 points, but the game between Roger and Alistair went into extra time, in which Roger used one of his three remaining bisques to score the "golden hoop" and win by 10 points to 9.
After lunch each of the first-round winners played the loser of the other game, and the results were consistent with those of the previous round, Roger beating Lyn and Andrew beating Alistair - though the latter result might have been different with more time allowed, since Alistair still had most of his bisques and had one clip on the peg when time was called.
The final round consisted of a playoff for first place between Roger and Andrew, and a game between Alistair and Lyn for third place. Both games got finished within the time limit, and the results were that Roger took first place, Andrew came second and Alistair came third. The trophy was absent, but three bottles of beer were presented instead to Roger, who generously shared them with those of his fellow-players who were still there.
Fergus McInnes
Results
Roger Binks 3/3: beat Alistair Malcolm +1T (10-9), Lyn Gilpin +8, Andrew Milligan +8
Andrew Milligan 2/3: beat Lyn Gilpin +7, Alistair Malcolm +3T (10-7)
Alistair Malcolm 1/3: beat Lyn Gilpin +11
Lyn Gilpin 0/3