Southwick advanced weekend

[<<] [>>] by Nick Harris at Southwick
1st October 2000 (AC)

The wide range of comestibles on offer for lunch at Southwick was on a par with the weather they also provided -excellent on both days. Firm hoops and beautifully prepared lawns encouraged good croquet from the 27 players entered for the seeded Advanced Knockout Tournament.

Paul Smith, undaunted by being drawn in the top half of the draw, won +26TP in the first round, +11 in the second and came back +3 in two turns from 4-back and 4 against Peg and Rover to go through to the semi-final against the
Number 1 seed, Dave Kibble. (Round 1, bye; Round 2, +22; Round 3, +26TP). Here Paul, despite only managing only 1 peel of his TP, took full advantage of a couple of Dave's errors to win +16 and prevent a repeat of last year's
all "ibble" final.

In the final Paul got a ball round to 4-back but Lionel Tibble, the number 2 seed, having won through +26, +17, +6 and +13, continued on his winning ways with a +17TP.

Simon Tuke's astute management of the wide range of Handicaps in the Consolation Egyptian gave everyone winning opportunities resulting in a 3-way tie between your reporter, John Lowe and David Kibble. David sneaked
the resulting one ball play-off with a 7 hoop break to 2-back and then finished from 4-back.