West of Scotland Championship 2010

2-3 October 2010, Glasgow

As has happened before in recent years, the last SCA tournament of the season was also the best attended.  With a few days to go, there were 20 entrants, and one more player ready to enter if a space became available.  After some withdrawals we ended up with 18 players, ranging in handicap from James Hopgood at -1 up to Tamar Shorten, playing in her first Association Croquet tournament, at 20.  Two late starts were therefore on offer on Saturday (given lawn space for 16 players at a time), and they were taken by Hamish and Janice Duguid, who thus travelled through from Edinburgh for 10:30am instead of 9:30.

The system of time limits introduced at the Summer Weekend was used again this time: three hours plus three minutes per bisque.  But in stark contrast to the Summer Weekend, when more than half the first day's games went to time and the commonest score was +1T, on this occasion every game reached a peg-out and the most frequent score, occurring 12 times in the weekend, was +26.

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20+ Tournament 2010

20 September 2010, Meadows

This year’s 20+ was contested by Jim Carden, Brian Cosford, George Geis, David Houston and Joe Lyske.  David had withdrawn earlier as his handicap had come down to 18 but was encouraged to play since there were only 4 entrants; then Joe put his name down.  It was decided that David could still play, if he wished, as the format is short croquet so everyone receives bisques according to their handicap.

Time limits were set at 1 hour 15 minutes, which proved generous as most games finished well inside the time.  The format was all play all which meant there was enough time for a playoff if necessary.  Despite all players having bisques three of them managed to lose 14–0 erroneously believing their opponent wouldn’t take their second ball round and finish.

Joe Lyske proved the player in form winning all his games, although George Geis could have beaten him with a little more luck.

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CA v SCA 2010

4-5 September 2010, Middlesbrough

The sun was shining on another beautiful weekend at Albert Park Middlesbrough as the SCA, fresh from their journey south, sought to prise the quaich from the CA.  Lawns were true and hoops were set to a tight standard.  Saturday morning’s games witnessed a narrow 2-1 Scottish victory in the doubles.  However, this score line could easily have gone the other way.  In the final doubles game to be completed that morning, McInnes and Stephenson edged past McDermott and Errington; the CA pair had equalised during time but failed to pull ahead during the normal extension period, eventually losing by one hoop.  After lunch the SCA extended their lead with numerous impressive performances.  Both Wilson and McInnes won both of their singles fixtures for the SCA.

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