Scottish Short Croquet Championship 2024

16 June 2024, Balgreen

On a damp Sunday with extra downpours to keep us on our toes, eight players from all the Edinburgh clubs assembled at Balgreen, with handicaps from 4-20. Welcome to Soma Orehóczki, a new member at the Meadows playing in his first Scottish tournament.

The format used was Swiss with a 1 hour time limit.  After five rounds a clear winner had emerged with Roger Binks winning 5 from 5 playing very well and consistently throughout. Following closely on his heels were Mark Shanks on 4 wins, and Bruce Bennet and Soma Orehóczki on 3 wins each.

Congratulations to Roger.

Read more: Scottish Short Croquet Championship 2024

Wilkinson Sword 2024

3 August 2023, Knightswood

There were teams from Aberdeen and Crathes (ACCC), Auchincruive, Balgreen and Glasgow for this annual handicap doubles tournament, held at Knightswood in Glasgow. The weather was generally fine, with just a few refreshing showers. The lawns were generally in good condition, though some repairs were needed at hoop 6 on one lawn due to damage by birds.

Defending champions Aberdeen were playing against Auchincruive first up, and it was agreed to play Alternate Stroke Doubles (all other matches used traditional doubles). The game was quite cautious, and more than once the damaged hoop 6 caused a break to end in grief. Auchincruive were making reasonable progress with their bisques, but unfortunately had to use another one when Steve Rivett failed to move a ball in a croquet shot (he is a good golf croquet player but is relatively new to AC). Eventually, the bisques ran out and Aberdeen won 18-12 with just a minute left on the clock. On the other lawn, Glasgow’s father and son team of Stephen and Reuben Barnett had a tough time against Balgreen, losing 4-18, but it was Reuben’s first AC game for around three years.

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Meadows C Level GC Open

28 June 2024, Meadows

MCC is the National Centre for Croquet in Scotland and hosted the only C level GC level tournament in Scotland.  Many thanks to Brian Cosford for organising and John Graham for managing. Jill Black was a worthy winner and played her socks off to beat her friend Kim Dalland in the semis and Martin Howorth in the final. The other fab semi finalist was Angela Napuk - sorry for absence of photos! Commiserations to MCC member Judith Mann who narrowly lost out on getting in to the semi-final on a net hoops/who beat who basis.

Janet Brunton

Read more: Meadows C Level GC Open