Scottish Croquet Association

West of Scotland Championship 2012

6-7 October 2012, Alexandra Park

At a beautifully sunny though chilly weekend in Glasgow, Alasdair Adam won the West of Scotland Championship - which despite the name is a handicap event - with an unbroken record of five wins, and achieved a welcome reversal in his recent handicap trajectory by going from 20 to 18 at the end of the tournament.  John Surgenor showed that it wasn't just the high-bisquers who could get good results by coming a close second with six wins from seven games and getting his handicap down from 2.5 to 2, and James Hopgood (-2) was also unbeaten, though in only three games since he played on Saturday only.

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Basil Townsend Quaich 2012

22 September 2012, Auchincruive

The inter-club handicap singles competition for the Basil Townsend Quaich was originally planned for the 5th of May but had to be postponed twice - to the 10th of June and then to this date in September.  Eventually, however, it all came together, and on a fine frosty equinoctial morning Fergus McInnes (Edinburgh) and David Houston (Meadows) caught a train to Glasgow, where they joined Robert Lay (Glasgow) for the drive to Auchincruive.  On arrival they took the back way in, as remembered by David from his previous visit, but then encountered a difficulty because the gate between their parking place and the croquet lawn was locked.  Fergus climbed over and joined Malcolm Smith (Auchincruive) in finding hoop holes while Robert and David made their way around the obstacle by other routes.  By 10am the four players were together by the lawn, the draw for the first round was made and battle commenced.

There was agreement in favour of a fairly short day's play, and so the event was played in the form of 18-point games - all clips starting on hoop 5 - with a time limit of two and a quarter hours.  This time proved sufficient for all games to reach a peg-out.  In the first round Fergus won a close game against David (+4) after pegging out David's forward ball, while in a game without bisques Malcolm beat Robert +10.  Winners played losers in the second round; Malcolm notched up a second +10 against David, and Robert beat Fergus by the same margin - though it was looking like a +18 until Robert failed to finish with his second ball and allowed Fergus his first roquet of the game.  In the third round Malcolm had his only loss, -4 to Fergus, and David had a win (+15) over Robert.  So Malcolm and Fergus were tied on games won, and the decision went down to points, on which basis Malcolm was declared the winner.

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Croquet North v SCA 2012

22-23 September 2012, Tyneside

The Scots triumph again and retain the absent Beer Pump Handle.  The match result was CN 4 - SCA(B) 12.

Although the match result after the Sunday morning Doubles had decided the outcome (3-9), after lunch it was decided to play the Singles, but the Doubles between Phil & Dennis v Bill & Jamieson and Roger & Alice v Robert & Hamish were not played.

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Chairman's Rosebowl and Malmet Trophy 2012

15-17 September 2012, Meadows

The Chairman's Rosebowl was contested this year by the same six players as last year:

James Hopgood (dynamic grade 2405, handicap -2)
Campbell Morrison (2029, -1)
Jane Morrison (1836, 1.5)
Martin Stephenson (1735, 1)
Alan Wilson (1664, 3)
Bryan Sykes (1598, 3)

Brian Murdoch was initially on the list, but had to withdraw because of tennis elbow, and Bryan Sykes won out over Fergus McInnes in a close selection decision.  The line-up for the Malmet Trophy was as follows:

Fergus McInnes (1588, 2.5)
Robert Inder (1498, 4.5)
Janice Duguid (1424, 7)
Joe Lennon (1241, 9)
Hamish Duguid (1234, 10)
Jola Jurasinska (1052, 18)

- in which the differences from 2011 were the presence of Fergus and Jola instead of Jamieson Walker (who was away in Jersey, along with Bill Spalding, playing in the European Championship) and Robert Lay.

Each event was eventually won by the highest-ranked player, but not without some upsets - especially in the Malmet, where Joe had narrow wins on time in both his games against Fergus, and it was only Joe's losses to Robert and Jola that kept Fergus in contention, with the winner being decided by a 14-point tie-breaker.  Robert might well have overtaken both Fergus and Joe if he had been able to continue, but unfortunately he was forced to withdraw after the first series of games by a recurrent sharp pain in his arm.

Read more: Chairman's Rosebowl and Malmet Trophy 2012