[<<] [>>] by Ian Vincent
2nd August 2002 (AC - Championships)

The Eastern Championship was hosted by Hunstanton on a weekend of almost uninterrupted scorching sunshine, though even that could not compete with the warmth of their welcome. The groundsman had gone to considerable effort to dampen down the lawns, but they were still pleasurably fast compared to many this season and the one affected by the building work had recovered well. The hoops were firm and consistently set to the regulation 1/16th.

The format was a knockout, played best of five for the last three rounds;
three of the four quarter finals went to the fifth game. That, followed
by stout resistance by Phil Cordingley in his semi-final with Jeremy Dyer,
meant that the final did not start until Sunday lunchtime and finished
well after most of the players had left. However, a small but appreciative
gallery saw an excellent finish to the final between Jeremy and the
holder, David Maugham (who was under some self-imposed pressure, having
failed to bring the trophy!).

The TP by Maugham in the third game was not entirely straightforward, as he could only just hit, through penultimate, the croquet stroke to send the peelee to rover, leaving it peg high. A longish straight rover peel stuck, but he escaped by jumping clean over it, hitting the deep escape ball, rushing the other one back to about three yards north of rover and cannoning the peelee through, leaving himself a good rush to the peg.

Game 4 was a routine(!) fifth turn TP by Dyer, after Blue to the peg, Red to 2nd corner, Black hitting Red and going to 4-Back and Yellow missing balls near the East boundary from A baulk.

The decider looked to be going the same way until Dyer's Blue just ran Rover doing the Irish Peel, leaving nothing to hit except one of two deep balls. It missed into baulk, leaving Maugham an easy break to 4-Back. He left Black in the jaws of hoop 4, but Blue went through hoop 2, leaving an open shot at Red on the West boundary. David eventually sent Yellow off in the 2nd corner. Dyer hit Red with Blue and left his ball a couple of yards out of 3rd corner. Maugham shot at partner in 2nd corner but missed. Dyer took his wiring lift with Black, but missed the peg-out with the forward ball and pegged Black out. Maugham went to peg, leaving Blue near 1st corner and his balls near the third. Blue shot at the peg, missing it by less than an inch and almost curled onto one of the balls, but that was his final shot.

Results

R Tribe bt R White +17 +17
JP Dawson bt D Mundy +17 +19tp

DB Maugham bt S Symonds +11 +16
DJ Kibble bt AK Gregory +24tp +26sxp
R Brown bt J Allen +26tp +24
JB Gibbons bt L Bradforth +15 +12tp
JS Dyer bt IG Vincent +2 -26tp +24
R Beijderwellen bt TJD Wilkins -26tp +23tp +23tp
P Cordingley bt JC Williams +17 +8
R Tribe bt JP Dawson +7tp +2

Quarter-Finals

DB Maugham bt DJ Kibble +25tp +13 -24 -3tp +17tp
R Brown bt JB Gibbons +8tp -24 +21stp -13tp +16
JS Dyer bt R Beijderwellen +24 +20tp +14
P Cordingley bt R Tribe -17 +24tp +26tp -3 +10

Semi-Finals

DB Maugham bt R Brown +17 +26tp +17tp
JS Dyer bt P Cordingley +25tp +2 -18tp +12

Final

DB Maugham bt JS Dyer -3 +17 +16tp -26tp +1

The Hetherington Salver (Plate Event) Final

JP Dawson bt R Beijderwellen +25 +13tp