Scottish Croquet Association

Wilkinson Sword 2026

1 August 2026, Knightswood

There were teams from Aberdeen, Balgreen and Glasgow, with a Wanderers team from two different clubs, for this annual handicap doubles tournament, held at Knightswood. The weather was cool and breezy with only a few very light showers. The lawns were rather bumpy in places, with some sanded areas, but were definitely playable.

Dave McLaughlin was managing and had decided on 18-point traditional doubles (unless both teams agreed otherwise) with 2.5-hour time limits, though he was persuaded to increase this to 2.75 hours to increase the chances of games finishing. In the end, four of six matches finished within time.

Aberdeen played the Wanderers first, conceding 3.5 bisques and playing traditional doubles. John took black to 4-back in an early break, but Bill couldn’t get going with blue. Alan was happy to bide his time and let Dave take the turns for a long while, making some progress. John then took black to peg and tried to set up breaks for Bill, but by the time Bill got going and made three hoops, it was too little too late, and the Wanderers won 14-11 when time ran out.

The first game of the day for Balgreen against Glasgow settled down after an early comedy of errors. In turn 3 Stefan hit the west boundary red tice towards hoop 6, but, in re-arranging the three balls, scattered red nearer to B baulk. Roger accepted the short roquet on red for more rearrangement. Soon afterwards, Roger returned the favour by absentmindedly attempting to take the half bisque (which belonged to Glasgow) having shot at and missed blue and black on the east boundary. Steady progress was made by both sides, Roger having peeled Phil through 4-back.  Stefan went to peg with a few minutes to spare and was promptly pegged out from about 10 yards after a long hit in by Roger before Phil went on to finish the game. Glasgow were "tchaikovskyed" (18-12).

In round 2, Balgreen (with 4½ bisques) faced Aberdeen. Phil started a break with one bisque, but used two more to overcome failed hoops, ending at 4-back. Roger's subsequent attempts to score a hoop and regain the innings with remaining bisques were insufficient. John patiently waited for Bill to get blue to 4-back then intended to take black round and do a triple peel. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get blue into position for the first peel, so had to be content to take black to the peg with a good leave. Bill then finished off to give Aberdeen an 18-5 win.

Meanwhile, Glasgow quickly used their one bisque against the Wanderers. Stefan then contented himself with advancing a hoop or two at a time, leaving Mike a rush to his hoop and the opposition a lengthy shot to hit in. With Stefan for the peg, Alan took a ball round in the hope of pegging him out, but broke down. With time running out, Dave had to make up ground, but repeatedly failed to hit in, leaving Glasgow to win 14-12.

In Aberdeen’s final game against Glasgow (who had 4½ bisques), Stefan hit the red tice on turn 3, but Mike had to play the next shot, as the teams had agreed to play Alternate Stroke Doubles. Unfortunately, Mike didn’t move the croqueted ball (red) in the take-off, so his ball was replaced next to red. It then being turn 4, John couldn’t play with red, but managed to hit in with yellow from A baulk, and Aberdeen got round to 4-back. After Glasgow made some progress, Bill shot with red at a narrow double target near the boundary. Bill went through the middle, but when red was replaced on the yard-line, it was realised that one of the other balls was misplaced inside the yard-line area; had it been in the correct place, there would have been no gap for Bill to go through. The Referee of the Tournament’s opinion was that this was a minor misplacement, and the stroke was valid. Glasgow, acknowledging responsibility for the original misplacement, generously decided to deem their next shot so that Aberdeen could make the roquet anyway. After a while, yellow was on peg but Glasgow took blue to peg, then pegged out yellow and (accidentally!) blue, leaving black on rover and red on hoop 6. In the one-ball ending, Aberdeen got red through three hoops and Bill hit black, which was by then for the peg. They set up for 3-back with black removed to a spot near hoop 1 wired from the peg. However, Stefan hit in from 15 yards, and Glasgow won 18-13.

Balgreen, with a half bisque, went into the last round against Wanderers with one win each. Balgreen had the innings for much of the match, which included Phil's first competitive partner peel at 4-back. Later, after some difficulties in the final approaches and a missed peg point, Phil completed the peg-out for a win of 18-7.

Balgreen and Glasgow both had two wins, but the tie-breaker gave Balgreen the Sword, as they had beaten Glasgow.

Results