Duncan Hector won the National Veterans' Championship

[<<] [>>] by Nigel Graves at Southwick
21st June 2011 (Other News)

At the National Veterans' Tournament at Southwick there were twelve contenders for the Veterans' Championship, playing in two American blocks of six. The a best-of-three final between the block winners was won by Duncan Hector, who beat Dave Mundy +4TP -25 +14 to become holder of the Rothwell Challenge Cup.
The Over 75 Class consisted of a single American block of six players. John Hobbs won all his games, and is the new holder of the Pidcock Mallet. What could be more appropriate?
The Felixstowe Cup for the third advanced class was played as a five round Swiss for eight players, with John Gosney emerging as the winner, being the only player with four wins. As we entered the fifth round there was a distinct possibility that the manager would be faced with the nightmare of six players with three wins each; to achieve such a result the manager would have needed to win his last game, but he was comprehensively beaten by John Gosney, and counted an increase in handicap a small price to pay for the avoidance of lengthy analysis of quality of wins.
The Meredith Cup for the unrestricted handicap event was won by Pat Jackson, in a final against husband Richard. Pat used he seven bisques to get both her balls to rover, but Richard, perhaps as a result of over-cautious play, was unable to catch her up in the time remaining, leaving Pat as winner by 3 on time.
In the Handicap Doubles the Sussex Trugs were won by Neil Chalmers and Harry Bruford, who beat Jack Davies and Janet Pascall +10 in a three ball ending. Neil had somewhat foolhardily taken his ball to rover early in the game, and Jack duly accepted the invitation to go round and peg him out, but Harry kept his nerve admirably to run his remaining hoops. The Gilbert Spoons were won by Gene Mears and Joyce Slawson, beating Richard Hoskyns and Quiller Barrett by 5 in the final of the consolation Y event.
The weather on Monday and Tuesday was fair, but deteriorated thereafter, and the class events were played in a mixture of rain and heavy blustery winds. When we left the club on Friday evening it was raining heavily and there was standing water on the lawns, but next morning the sun was shining, and all the lawns were playable, though it was still blowing half a gale.
The hospitality of the Sussex County Croquet Club was as usual admirable, with excellent catering and immaculate lawn preparation.