Scottish Croquet Association

Scottish Open 2013

27-28 July 2013, Meadows

Only eight players competed in this year's Scottish Open - the smallest number since 2003.  This meant that the usual preliminary round of single games was not needed and it was best-of-three from the start.  With the top Scottish-resident players (James Hopgood and Campbell Morrison) not taking part, the first two seeds came from south of the Border: Dave Nick from Cumbria, and Sam Murray from Surbiton.  Next in the ranking were John Surgenor from Glasgow and Brian Murdoch from Edinburgh, and four more players from central Scotland made up the rest of the entry.

The first round went according to rankings, with just one slight upset when Brian lost his first game to Bill Spalding.  The match between Brian and Bill was by far the longest, with all three games going to time, and Dave, who was to play the winner, fitted in an extra game (in the Swiss) against Fergus McInnes while waiting for the result - having finished his own first match quite quickly against Bob Darling, with his 100th ranking triple in the first game.

Both semi-finals also went to three games, and the deciding game in each was held over to Sunday morning.  The top seeds came through and met in the final.  Sam took the first game +17, Dave levelled the match with a +17tp, and so there was something to entertain the spectators on Sunday afternoon: a deciding game which turned out to be very close, with a two-ball ending in which Sam made three hoops to equalise, and survived wiring lifts at penult and rover, but Dave eventually hit in and finished (+2) to get his name on the Moffat Mallet for the second time.

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Secretary Trophy 2013

13 July 2013, Meadows

Five players arrived to play 14 point Advanced Association Croquet Games.

The manager was Jamieson Walker.

There were 5 rounds with byes.

A beautiful day, broken with a Standard Lunch.

Jamieson Walker

Results

Alistair Malcolm beat Jola Jurasinska +1 in extra time, Roger Binks +10,  Jamieson Walker +10, David Houston +9
Jola Jurasinska beat Jamieson Walker +4, David Houston +6, Roger Binks +6
Jamieson Walker beat David Houston +5, Roger Binks +8
Roger Binks beat David Houston +1

The winner was Alastair Malcolm and the runner up Jola Jurasinska

14-Point Tournament 2013

20-21 July 2013, Crathes Castle and Albury Sports Centre

When the Crathes Croquet Club joined the SCA as its northernmost affiliated club in 2012, the club's officers were keen to pursue the idea of hosting an SCA tournament during the following season.  The outcome after much discussion and organising was this new 14-point handicap tournament on small courts at the club's two sites - Crathes Castle near Banchory and Albury Sports Centre in Aberdeen.

Saturday was devoted to doubles play, with a block of four pairs at each venue in the morning, and playoffs later in the day for the top two pairs from each block at Albury and for the other pairs at Crathes.  The timing was tight, as we had a civic reception and dinner in Aberdeen in the evening, but it all went nearly to schedule.  Sunday's programme consisted of singles games, with 14 players competing.

The tournament attracted entrants not only from the host club and from elsewhere in Scotland but also from England, and it was three of the players from south of the border who won the trophies - Ian Hall and Tom Ryan from Keswick receiving the doubles quaich (which they filled up with whisky and passed round at the dinner), and Bob Burnett (a distant Crathes Club member, now resident in Somerset) taking the quaich for the singles, though Ian would doubtless have put up a strong challenge for this in the final round on Sunday if he hadn't had to depart for a train at 5pm.

The hospitality of the Crathes Club and of Aberdeen City Council was superb, the croquet was very enjoyable too, and I would highly recommend a visit to Aberdeenshire for next year's tournament, which is yet to be planned in detail but may well be in September.

See also the report, with some additional photographs, on the News page of the Crathes Croquet Club website at www.crathescroquetclub.org.uk.

Fergus McInnes

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Golf Croquet Handicap 2013

6 July 2013, Meadows

Perhaps it was the promise of perfect weather and fast courts which resulted in a welcome flurry of late entrants, bringing the total to12 players for this year's Tournament. The format was two American Blocks of 6 which were populated alternately from entrants ordered in alphabetical order within ascending handicaps. The first five rounds were on an all-play-all basis within each block. The intention was to subsequently play cross-ties based upon final individual standings within the two blocks ie A1 v B2; B1 v A2; A3 v B4 etc. with the winners of the top two ties going on to contest the title. In the end,  this only proved possible for the top four players as, for a variety of reasons, it suited several entrants to call a halt at the end of the block stage.

The set time limit of 50 minutes proved adequate for the vast majority of games. This also allowed the rounds to commence at the same time and, equally importantly, provided time for a convivial alfresco lunch in the sunshine. Thanks must go to Jamieson for sourcing and setting up the luncheon.

At the end of the preliminary rounds, it was to be Jamieson and Lyn topping Block A with George and Hamish qualifying from Block B. In the semi finals, Jamieson and Hamish had an epic tussle which only ended at hoop 13 when Hamish ran the hoop from some distance. In the other tie, both George and Lyn continued their good form but it was to be George who went on to win 7-5.

The resulting final was contested between Hamish and George and, despite playing and losing to George in an earlier round, it was to be Hamish who prevailed to win on this occasion.

Hamish Duguid

Read more: Golf Croquet Handicap 2013