£3,400 raised for Cancer in Croquet Tournament

[<<] [>>] by Kevin Carter at Surbiton Croquet Club
10 May 2015 (Other News)

This year's tournament was won by Andrew Killick - the furthest traveller to the Surbiton final, representing Middlesbrough and playing off 1.5. He won an engraved crystal decanter.

430 players participated in 29 heats and the provisional figure raised for Bowel Cancer UK was £3,400, plus £800 in Gift Aid. This is a truly magnificent total. Thank you to all players, heat organisers and the host club for the final: Surbiton.

In nine runnings of the Charity tournament we have beaten the previous year's total every time and cancer charities have now benefited by over £20,000.

This year we saw a dazzling display by David Nicholson (playing off -4 and from Winchester) as he won his first six games, including an all-round break against a bemused Steve Stuart-Mathews (3.5, Guildford & Godalming), to win a bottle of fizz. However, his next two opponents, Andrew Killick and Elizabeth McKenzie-Gray (11, Woking) had the measure of him. By winning the ninth and last round of the swiss, against Liz Farrow (2.5, Southwick), David secured second place, with Elizabeth third. Both received engraved crystal glasses.

Just failing to make the prize list but playing admirably were Connie Anderson(20, Roehampton), Rosanne Creighton (20, Hurlingham), Ian Morrison (12.5, Kington Langley) and Tom Wills-Sandford (20, Hurlingham).

Meanwhile, Andrew was working his way through the field - dropping two games but securing a place in the play-off round, by which time his shooting and long hoops were superlative. With 7/9 he drew on games with David Nicholson but won the who-beat-whom tie-break.