Sussex Open GC Championship September 5th - 6th

This Championship is part of the Croquet England Open Series of tournaments. We had a maximum entry this year of 32 players. There was a good sprinkling of Overseas plays making it an international event, and this is a great compliment to the club for offering such good facilities.

The field was split into four block for the Saturday each player playing 7 games.

Block A was dominated by Dominic Nunns and Albie Willett who both had 6 wins out of 7.

Block B was a closer affair with Luis de Alarcon our Spainish competitor and Alex Aiton coming out on top.

Block C was won by Gabrielle Higgins with 6 wins followed by Richard Brooks who had 5 wins.

Block D was a clear cut win for Peter Payne, our Swiss competitor, who had 7 wins out of 7 followed by Sam Murray.

On the Sunday the players were split into 4 Knockouts: 8 player in each of the Championship/Bowl/Plate and Saucer. The winner and runner up from the Blocks went into the Championship knockout where they played a 19 pt quarter-final and best-of-three semi-final and final.

I'm pleased to say that after hard fought matches the final was played out by our two Sussex County competitors, Gabrielle Higgins and Dominic Nunns, with Gabrielle coming out on top, wining 7-4, 7-2.

The consolation prizes were as follows: The Bowl was split between Chris Roberts and Miroslav Havlik, last year's winner; they ran out of time and therefore their final was tied.

The Plate was won by Andrew Hobbs who beat Davide Cogrossi in the final and the Saucer won by Gerald O’Brien.

All in all there had been a good account made by Sussex County players in both the championship and the consolation events.

Roger Sutton