Scottish Croquet Association

Wilkinson Sword 2023

5 August 2023, Knightswood

There were teams from Aberdeen, Auchincruive, Glasgow and Meadows for this annual tournament, held at Knightswood in Glasgow. All arrived on time despite real and ficticious road closures due to the UCI world cycling championships. We were fortunate that Storm Antoni headed across England, and Glasgow escaped relatively unscathed, with just a few afternoon showers.

Aberdeen’s first game was against Auchincruive, and it was agreed to play Alternate Stroke Doubles (this ended up being the only match of the tournament to use ASD). Aberdeen took their first ball all the way to the peg and Auchincruive did likewise, aided by Kevin spectacularly running 2-back from near 1-back. Their plan was to peg out the Aberdeen ball, but after that wasn’t possible, Aberdeen turned the tables and pegged out the Auchincruive ball, leaving two balls against one, which allowed Aberdeen to complete a 18-13 win.

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Basil Townsend Quaich 2023

23 July 2023, Auchincruive

The weather was kind, with a little rain first thing, but some welcome sunshine in the afternoon. All games finished within time, which reflected the good standard of play. The winner of this year’s tournament was Malcolm Smith, who convincingly won all his games, thus winning the trophy for The Incorrigibles.

Read more: Basil Townsend Quaich 2023

Scottish Golf Croquet Championship 2023

3 June 2023, Balgreen

Alastair Burn-Murdoch won the Scottish GC Championship at Balgreen in his first ever GC ranking tournament. 16 players took part, including all 8 of the women’s team travelling to Co. Cork later on in June to play against the CAI women. Of these, Rosemary, Kathy and Kim all progressed to the championship blocks, along with Alan, Kenny, Stefan, Alastair and Mark. Stefan and Alastair won these blocks convincingly, winning all three games, and went on to contest a competitive best of three final. Stefan took the first game in the late evening sunshine but Alastair took the next two and the championship.

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European Golf Croquet Championship 2023

Budleigh Salterton, 25-28 May 2023

The event was won by Rachel Gee from England beating Aston Wade in a repeat of last year’s final but with the result reversed.

32 players from 12 different countries were represented: 5 each from England and Spain; 3 each from Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Wales and Switzerland; 2 each from Germany and Norway; and 1 each from Czech Republic, Latvia and Scotland (with myself David Fell representing Scotland).

Read more: European Golf Croquet Championship 2023