Scottish Croquet Association

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.

The Chairman's began with an early game played on Friday evening between James (who was unavailable on Monday morning) and Alan, which James won +26tp.  James continued his winning run throughout Saturday, with four more wins and two more triples, though he nearly had a triple against him in his game with Jane: she did all the peels but didn't get position at rover, allowing James to get in and secure a +3 victory.  When the first series was finished (at lunch time on Sunday) the standings were James 6/6, Campbell 3/5, Martin 3/5, Bryan 2/5, Jane 1/5 and Alan 1/6.  Two more rounds on Sunday brought an upset between James and Jane, who won +26 though with no peels, and left it at James 7/8, Campbell 5/7, Martin 4/7, Jane 3/7, Bryan 2/7 and Alan 1/8 - with the possibility still open of a two-way or three-way tie involving James and one or both of Campbell and Martin.

After his loss to Jane, which ended a 31-game winning streak in this event over recent years, James announced "Tomorrow I'm in boring mode" - prompting comments from the other players about how interesting he had been during the first two days.  What he apparently meant was that he wouldn't be attempting any sextuples.  However, his game against Bryan on Monday afternoon turned out to be less boring than James had intended, as he failed to complete his triple, and later, with both balls for the peg, rushed his partner ball into the back of rover and failed to peg out through the hoop, sending the croqueted ball off the north boundary; a three-ball ending ensued, in which Bryan progressed from 2 and 2 to 2-back and 5 before James hit in and finished.  James went on to win a less eventful game against Campbell in the last round (+26tp) to reach a final tally of 9/10.

Jane had a good day on Monday, with wins over Bryan, Campbell and Martin, and ended up in second place, equal with Martin on 6/10 but a long way ahead of him on points.  Campbell had three losses - Martin doing the event's only non-Hopgood triple against him in the morning - and finished on 5/10, and Bryan's win over Alan in the final round brought his total of wins to 3 against Alan's 1.  Bryan was lucky to get the innings in turn 4 of his game against Alan when his shot from B baulk went through penult and hit one of the three balls in the middle of the lawn.

Meanwhile in the Malmet Joe had been doing well, with upset wins over Fergus and Janice - offset by a surprising loss to Jola.  Joe's first game against Fergus was a dour struggle, with some bad errors by Fergus (whose concentration was perhaps impaired by troubles with the management spreadsheet which he was trying to correct between turns) and no big breaks by either player, as reflected in the score of 16-14.  Their second encounter was a much better game, in which Fergus had a ball round to 4-back early on, and did the peel after hoop 3, but then failed hoop 4; there followed a period in which Joe made gradual progress while Fergus missed a succession of long shots, and when Fergus eventually hit in he did less well than before; with two or three minutes to go Joe pegged out one of his balls, with his other ball for 4-back, to go two points ahead, and although Fergus equalised by putting both his balls through penult Joe then hit his 30-yard shot (Fergus having left one ball open when he laid up south of rover) and scored the winning point in the turn after time.  These results along with wins by Fergus in all his other games, and a loss by Joe to Robert, meant that the position after all the scheduled games (minus those not played because of Robert's injury) was Fergus 7/9, Joe 7/9, Robert 4/5, Janice 3/9, Hamish 3/9 and Jola 1/9.  Joe and Fergus therefore had to play a third time, in a 14-point tie-breaker (with lifts after hoops 3 and 5); this time Joe's shooting deserted him and it was Fergus who won (+12) to secure the trophy.

Jane's better-than-expected performance in the Chairman's won her a handicap reduction from 1.5 to 1, while Campbell's losses put him up from -1 to -0.5.  Fergus was up from 2.5 to 3 after the first two days of the Malmet, and although Joe's handicap didn't change he did gain a good number of index points and was now on the right side of the trigger point for 9.

Thanks are due to Campbell, Alan, Joe and Martin, among others, for their work in preparing the lawns and setting the hoops.  The enjoyment of the weekend was enhanced by a good deal of sunshine, a sumptuous Sunday afternoon tea at the club, and a good long session in Cloisters after the close of play.

Fergus McInnes

Results

Chairman's Rosebowl:

Malmet Trophy:

Tie-breaker (14-point game): Fergus McInnes beat Joe Lennon +12