[<<] [>>] by Robin Brown
24th October 2000 (AC - Championships)

Day 1

The 2000 Chairman's held at Colchester featured two previous winners (Dawson and Goacher) and six debutantes. Conditions were relatively easy but readjusting to Jacques Balls caused more than a few bizarre croquet strokes on day 1. The hoops were also on the generous side although one player was heard to excuse his sticking in 6 because the hoops were 'too wide'.

Early leaders were Robin Brown (egged on by the Kenilworth Supporters Club) and Jeremy Dyer with four wins out of four, two clear of the field. David Goacher on the other hand had a poor day with no wins.

Day 2

Game of the morning was the top of table clash between Brown and Dyer. It proved to be tense with both players putting down perfectly good triples. Brown eventually got in with what looked like a neat finishing turn before over-hitting the rush to the peg from beside Rover which trickled up and made contact with its last roll. Plus one to Dyer.

Unfortunately for Dyer, leading the field didn't seem to agree with him and he lost the next three whereas Brown won his next three, including a Quadruple against Duckworth, to finish the day two games clear.

Patrick Hort with three wins moved up the field drawing level with Dyer in second place. David Goacher had a complete reversal of form to win four out of four and move within striking distance.

Day 3

The vagaries of the schedule had a repeat of previous days top of table clash and result with Dyer again overcoming Brown. With only one win all day, Brown failed to consolidate his lead but, fortunately for him, the other leadership contenders also had indifferent days with one or two wins only. Man of the day was Ed 'the Duck' with four wins out four moving into joint second place.

By the end of the day with two rounds remaining, there were still five players in contention although Jeff Dawson needed a very specific sequence of results ending in a five way tie. Brown still led the field with 8 wins, Dyer, Duckworth and Hort close on his heels with 7.

Day 4

Early in the day, it looked like the tournament was opening up when Chris Farthing went round on third turn and was looking good for the fifth turn triple but inexplicably over-hit an easy approach to 2-back letting Brown back in. Farthing's forward ball was duly pegged out and Brown finished a little while later.

Elsewhere the 'title eliminator' between Hort and Duckworth was struggling along. The game included many errors which may have been related to the clubbing the previous night. Duckworth eventually prevailed to set up a virtual decider against Brown. Elsewhere, Dyer kept up his challenge by beating bottom of table Dave Kibble.

Duckworth got in first against Brown with a good break but it swiftly unravelled with each approach being further away from the hoop than the last ending in inevitable breakdown at hoop 4. This effectively ended the Duck's title challenge as Brown finished with a break and triple.

Dyer did what he needed on the last day by winning two out of two but results elsewhere failed to go his way. Kibble finished with a win to complete his one win per day schedule.

Final Standings

Brown 10
Dyer 9
Duckworth 8
Hort 7
Dawson 6
Farthing 6
Goacher 6
Kibble 4

Brown won simply through making fewer errors and being more clinical in completing triples. The triple count in general was low with only 18 including a QP and two TPOs. Concerns were expressed by players that we might not beat the count from the Ell!. In the event honour was satisfied with the Ell achieving 15.

All the usual hearty thanks must also go to Colchester for hosting the event and to Pat Hetherington in particular for keeping us all line.