Scottish Croquet Association

Middle Bisquers 2021

12-13 June 2021, Balgreen

With only 9 players available for this event at Balgreen it was agreed that the format would be seeded cross-blocks with a block of 5 and a block of 4. The two best players would then play a final (even if they had already played one another).

Block A:- George Plant,  Rosemary Saunders Robertson, Calum Worsley, Roger Binks and Kevin Wright
Block B:- John Owen, Alan Wilson, Bill Strachan, John Campbell

With the odd number of players one player in Block A had a bye in each round.

The weather was mainly dry but windy with Sunday quite sunny. The courts were reasonably fast with newly set hoops causing some problems for players.

After Saturday the leaders were John on 3/3, George 2/2, Rosemary 2/2 and Alan 2/3.  The first round on Sunday saw John beat Rosemary and Alan beat George in the turn when time was called.

Round 5 then had the top seeds playing one another. If John beat George he was in the final playing the winner between Alan and Rosemary. If George beat John then tie breaking criteria would come into play. Fortunately for the manager John and Rosemary both won convincingly leaving them to play one another again in a winner takes all final.

The final itself was somewhat scrappier than most of their other games but as John got close to a finish so the standard rose. Rosemary hit in and began to catch up. For a while it was nip and tuck with good play from both players until finally John scored rover with his back ball and pegged out.  A well deserved victory from John who had played some of the best croquet over the weekend.

Handicap changes: Roger Binks and Kevin Wright both reduced their handicaps from 9 to 8

Alan Wilson

Results

(also on Croquet Scores)

Final: John Owen beat Rosemary Saunders Robertson +10