Scottish Croquet Association

Edinburgh Tournament 2021

8-14 August, Balgreen

With only three lawns available this year’s tournament was reduced in size with only four events taking place: the Open, 8+, Doubles and Unrestricted Handicap KO.  22 players took part in one or more events with 9 in the Open, 6 in the 8+, 10 pairs in the Doubles and 8 in the Unrestricted Handicap.

The class events started on Sunday with the main talking point being Alistair Malcolm’s +1T win against James Hopgood in the Open. Other notable results were George Plant’s three wins and Alastair Burn-Murdoch's two triple peels in his two games. Unfortunately Joe Lennon was unable to continue after his first round match in the 8+ and had to withdraw from the rest of the tournament.

Monday saw the start of the Handicap and some games in the Open. It also saw torrential rain making the lawns unplayable with play being abandoned before lunch and only two games completed. As a result the handicap was reduced to a single life event rather than the Draw and Process that had been planned.  Fortunately the weather improved over the rest of the week and Monday’s first round games were completed on Tuesday with other games being rescheduled later in the week.

Tuesday saw the continuation of the Open and 8+ and Alastair again continued with triple peels: a straight triple (including bombarding peelee after 4b) against George and another triple against Rosemary Saunders Robertson.  In the 8+ Rachel Frith gained a second victory to stand alongside Roger Binks but then lost to Roger leaving him in charge of the block.

Wednesday saw the start of the Doubles. Remarkably, despite double banking, only one game went to time although Graham Brightwell and Alan Wilson’s game against Bob Darling was only won when Alan hit in and finished in the turn after time was called. Notable achievements were Alastair scoring 17 points in a single turn by peeling partner Kathy Brown through four hoops and opponents Stefan Colling and Brian Durward through one during his own break from Hoop 1 to peg. His leave had Kathy (for rover) with a short rush to rover and opponents widely separated on the north boundary. They missed and Kathy finished. 

In the second round James got Rachel round to 3-back with bisques still standing and used one himself to complete a straight triple peel to make it through to the final while Rosemary got partner Andrew Milligan round to peg with only two bisques then had to use another two herself to finish. Jola Jurasinska and Jamieson Walker surprised themselves with a victory in the consolation event but then gave their next round opponents a walkover as they were too tired to continue. 

In the third round Bruce Bennet and partner George beat Rosemary and Andrew in the only game to go to time, a rather dour affair with much “Aunt Emma” play. This prompted a discussion as to the gender neutral equivalent of Aunt Emma. Kathy consulted Google and declared Pibling (Parental Sibling) for Aunt and we finally decided on Sam as the first name as other names like Lesley/Leslie or Francis/Frances had gendered spellings.

A fortuitous draw also allowed four games to be played in the class events.

Thursday was a mixture of Handicap and class events with Alan and Rosemary winning through to the Handicap final and James completing a quadruple peel against Rachel in the consolation Swiss then crucially giving Alastair his first loss in the Open. That left Alastair and George both with seven wins so a play-off was organised as a final.

Friday was the final of the Open as well as some other games in both the open and the Swiss.  In the final Alastair’s shooting wasn’t at the level it had been earlier in the week and George took advantage managing three peels in two different turns and finally finishing after it looked as if he might have the game taken away from him.  In the Swiss James beat Roger to take the Milne trophy.

Saturday is traditionally Finals day but, for a variety of reasons only three finals were held. In the morning we had the final of the Doubles and a cagey "Pibling Sam" game was played by both teams with George and James both making the occasional hoop while setting up their partner. There was a lot of good hitting in and separating opponents which did slow down progress. Finally with time getting on and the opponents both for Hoop 6, James took charge peeling Rachel from 5 to 3-back while taking his own ball to Rover. George hit the long shot and made 6 while setting Bruce up with a rush to 6 and Rachel’s ball there as a pioneer. Rachel had to play and hit! She separated George and Bruce’s balls as best she could with time drawing near. Bruce played and he hit too! Before he could do much more time was called so he and George conceded as they realised they could not catch Rachel and James.

In the afternoon members of James Thomson’s family arrived to join us in a cheese and wine event paid for by monies James had left to the SCA to promote more social activities during croquet tournaments. They also got to watch the final of the James Thomson Memorial trophy and the consolation doubles final.

In a very nervy start both Rosemary and Alan had chances but could not get going. It felt like it would be a long afternoon with failed hoops, failed approaches, failed rushes and failed croquet strokes. At last Alan started a good break reaching 4-back. Rosemary countered also reaching 4-back then Alan hit in and took his second ball round before blobbing 4-back. This time Rosemary could not capitalise and a few turns later Alan finished to become the first winner of the “Jacobus” trophy which was presented to him by James’s sister Mairi who also presented Balgreen with a framed photograph of James sitting on his chair, mallet in one hand, poised like a tiger ready to spring into action.

In the consolation doubles final Andrew Symons and Roger Binks never really got going and lost to Brian Cosford and David Houston who therefore won a trophy by winning only one game.

Members of the Thomson family tried out some croquet and all exhibited some good skills. Maybe one of them will win the trophy in the future!

Finally a heartfelt thanks to all those who helped with the tournament in many ways: Balgreen CC for hosting; Campbell Morrison and his team for moving hoops, mowing and white lining; the players who carried out hoops, set lawns and generally got on with things, including some playing 3.5 rounds on Tuesday; Campbell and Brian Durward for helping with refereeing; and, of course Jane Morrison, Charlotte Townsend and Kathy Brown for all their work in selecting wines and cheeses for us to enjoy and all the additional baking they did. A magnificent spread that I couldn’t do full justice to as I was playing. I did try to make up for it afterwards though.

Alan Wilson

Results in full

Event 1: Open Singles (Cramond Cup)

Winner: George Plant

Final: George Plant beat Alastair Burn-Murdoch +14

Event 2: 8+ Handicap Advanced Singles (Silver Jubilee Salver)

Winner: Roger Binks

Event 3X: Handicap Doubles (Norton Wright Trophies)

Winners: Rachel Frith and James Hopgood

Event 3Y: Consolation Doubles (Edinburgh CC Tankards)

Winners: Brian Cosford & David Houston

Event 4X: Unrestricted Handicap (James Thomson Memorial Trophy)

Winner: Alan Wilson

Event 4Y: Consolation Handicap Singles (Milne Trophy)

Winner: James Hopgood