Scottish Open 2018

23-24 June 2018, Meadows

The Scottish Open was played in glorious sunshine on the fast and occasionally challenging lawns at Meadows. The single game first round produced the first upset with Bob Darling beating seventh seed John Surgenor. The second surprise came in the best-of-three quarter final when Alastair Burn-Murdoch took the first game off reigning world champion Paddy Chapman from New Zealand. Paddy had laid up for a sextuple with a cross wire around hoop one but Alastair hit the tea lady and finished with a 26-6 score. Paddy then completed two triples to win the match. The semi-finals saw Paddy complete another couple of triples to beat Richard H Smith and James Hopgood beat Mark Ormerod.

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East v West v North of Scotland 2018

2-3 June 2018, Meadows

Sadly North could not field a team, so the format reverted to a two-way competition. After some late cancellations, a total of 17 played over two days.   56 games resulted in 960 hoops scored.  The games were singles, either AC Short Croquet, AC 14-point full lawn or 13-point GC full lawn.  

Day 1 attracted some visitors and enjoyed reasonable weather.  Day 2 was less conducive, but improved as the hours went on.

Progress from results was remarkable close and the end result was more wins for East, 29 to 27, although 10 more hoops for West.  Thus on balance, East retain the trophy.  North has promised to return next year, hoping to win it back.

Roger Binks

Read more: East v West v North of Scotland 2018