[<<] [>>] by Mark Hamilton at Ramsgate Golf Croquet Club
8 Jun 2008 (GC - Championships)

Reg Bamford won the Ramsgate Golf Croquet Championship, beating Rutger Beijderwellen 7-4, 6-7, 7-2

Both Rutger and Reg reached the final without dropping a game, and the Ramsgate members were rewarded with a great final. With some fine hoop running, clearing shots and positional play from both players, Reg took the first game 7-4 and in the second game Rutger come back from 6-4 down to take the game 7-6. Reg finally took the upper hand in the third, winning 7-2.

With sixteen players taking part, there were two seeded blocks of eight with the top four players from each block going thought to the quarter finals. The competitors played two 13-point games, all-play-all, to decide the blocks. The highlight of Saturday's play was local lad 15-year old James Goodbun playing in his first major golf tournament. Not only that, his first match was against Reg (a daunting task for a seasoned player) and he proved himself worthy of playing in this company. He won some good games, notably beating Richard Thompson 2-0 and took a game off Chris Sheen amongst his five wins in the blocks. All the players look forward to seeing more of James' play in the future.

Rutger Beijdewellen beat Chris Sheen 10-3 to reach the final. David Dray put up a brave fight in the other semi final but was unable to get past the in-form Reg Bamford.

With players from Holland, South Africa and Belgium, the Ramsgate Golf Croquet Championship attracted a number of player from overseas with handicaps ranging from 0 to +6.

Cold and wet weather on Saturday morning greeted competitors at Ramsgate. Due to the amount of rain fall that Ramsgate had received over the last few days the worms had decided to have a party on the lawns on Thursday night only for the party to be broken up by Freddy the lawn mower on Friday morning, so towels were the order of the day for a bit of ball cleaning in between shots.

On Saturday evening Ramsgate members put on a dinner for players and guests which went down very well with all. Sunday the weather forecast was a little better with the sun coming out at the start of the quarter finals

Results

Quarter Finals

Rutger Beijderwellen beat Bill Arliss 10-7
David Dray Beat Richard Thompson 10-8
Reg Bamford beat Don Beck 10-6
Chris Sheen beat Mark Hamilton 10-8

Semi Final

Rutger Beijderwellen beat Chris Sheen 10-3

Reg Bamford beat David Dray 10-6

Final

Reg Bamford beat Rutger Beijderwellen 7-4 6-7 7-2

Plate Final

C E VilianX1111 Beat R Harris 7-6