Sussex County Annual Tournament

The third 1st this year was the decision to trial running a golf croquet event at the same time as the association competitions. This was advertised around the South East Croquet Federation clubs as a trial and attracted 10 entrants. The intention, subject to final agreement by the Committee is to continue this event next year and a trophy with an interesting and longstanding connection with the Club - the Jellicorse Cup - has been allocated. Like the Abbey Challenge and the Daldy Cups, this is one of the earliest trophies belonging to the club and all have some well-known names on them.

The full results of all the events can be found below.

Golf Croquet - the Jellicorse Cup

To provide sufficient play for the weekend this competition was run as an initial single American block. The same participants were then seeded into an 8 player knockout, with those being knocked out having consolation games as required. The top 4 players from the block stage were Roger Sutton, Jonathan Isaacs, Keith Webb and Richard Brooks in that order. The knockout stage and overall winner was Richard Brooks who beat Keith Webb in the final 7-6. Congratulations to him.

Association Croquet

Abbey Challenge Cup

Six competitors contested this event which was played as an American Block. Some high-class play, particularly from Luc and Cliff. Both suffered setbacks though: Luc was beaten in one round by David Boyd (h/c 2 to Luc's -1) and Cliff went down to Chris Roberts after persistent trouble with hoop 2 and a white ball (eventually checked and found to be oversize!).

The final round was effectively the final, between Luc and Cliff, with Luc emerging the winner. Congratulations to him.

Scott Cup

Eight players contested this trophy arranged in two preliminary blocks with cross-over sem-finals and finals. Daphne Gaitley and Brian Havill were placed first in their respective blocks and also emerged in the knockout stage as the finalists. Trailing through much of the game, Daphne fought back with an excellent break but eventually succumbed to Brian's higher hit-in rate. Congratuations to Brian Havill who won all his 5 games in the weekend.

Daldy Cup

Eight players contested this trophy arranged in two preliminary blocks with cross-over sem-finals and finals. David Gaitley and Clive Hayton were placed first in their respective blocks and they too contested the final. Both players had played some excellent croquet throught the competition and their meet in the final was worth watching; although Clive was ahead for much of the game, it was a match that could have gone either way until a tactical error by David in pegging out one of Clive's balls quickly handed the latter the victory. I believe this is Clive's first open tournament win so special congratulations to him.

Results

GC Jellicorse Cup

Consolation games:
Maggie Webb beat Linda Gavigan 7-2
Tony Jolly beat Des Taylor 7-5
David King beat Jonathan Isaacs 7-5
 

AC Abbey Challenge

AC Scott Cup

AC Daldy Cup

Play-offs for both:

Additional consolation play-off games in Scott and Daldy cups:
Neil Coote beat Chris Coote +17
Caroline Denny beat John M Taylor +14
Caroline Denny beat Liz Farrow +23
Neil Coote beat John M Taylor +5

Phil Dunk beat Frances Colman +15
Arthur Lindley beat John Gosney +11
Chris Rolph beat Ray Hall +1
Phil Dunk beat John Gosney +4
Arthur Lindley beat Frances Colman +1