Terry Mahoney won the Colchester B-Level Tournament 11 May 2014

[<<] [>>] by Colin Hemming at Colchester Croquet Club
19th May 2014 (AC)

Terry Mahoney won the Colchester B Level Tournament with New Zealander Jarod Coutts coming second.

Shock! Horror! Unknown Aussie beats Fulford +26! Well, not entirely unknown, but certainly not in the first rank of croquet players, Bill Humphreys beat Fulford in the second day of the tournament. Susan Fulford, that is, helping us out by filling in for one day to replace a late withdrawal, and playing her first ever level-play singles match. Watch out, she will get much better.

One star of the show was New Zealander Jarrod Coutts, currently living in England, who set the courts alight by playing A-class croquet off a B-class handicap. He won 7 games out of 8, including 4 triple peels, and setting a new record for the number of matches on day one: 6, beating George Woolhouse's old tally of 5.

Jarrod's star was eclipsed, however, by old stager Terrey Mahoney, playing only as many matches as he needed to, but making sure he won all of them (including the one against the young Kiwi, whom he beat in fine style +8). He has used this strategy before, and has now notched up 3 wins for this tournament, matching that of the manager and your correspondent, who is currently barred from this event by too low a handicap. [ Hmmm . . . maybe next year ]