Six English Players in last Sixteen

[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent at Wellington, NZ
7th February 2018 (World Championship)

All but two of the remaining English players survived the first day of the knock-out of the AC World Championships being played at Wellington, though several of their matches had that never in doubt feeling. John-Paul Moberly never really got going against Stephen Mulliner and Jonathan Powe also lost in two against Reg Bamford (South Africa), after playing the wrong ball to end his only break. Christian Carter won in straight games against Joe Hogan (New Zealand, a former winner) but the others all went to three games. James Death beat Stephen Richards (Australia) with a TPO in the first and TP to finish; David Maugham beat Jenny Clarke (New Zealand) after hitting the last shot to finish with a TP; and Samir Patel survived a couple of close games to win +26 in the third against Harps Tahurangi (New Zealand). Pete Trimmer was last to finish, after some of us had returned from the Mayor's reception in the Begonia House in the nearby Botanic Garden, finally overcoming Kevin Beard (Australia).

Tomorrow, Thursday, David Maugham faces the top seed Reg Bamford (South Africa); Pete Trimmer plays Simon Hockey (Australia); James Death is up against Jose Riva (Spain); Christian Carter plays Greg Bryant (New Zealand); Stephen Mulliner plays another New Zealander, Aiken Hakes; and Samir Patel is drawn against Greg Fletcher (Australia). It will be interested to see how they fare: only two are seeded to win.

If you want to read more about the organisation of the event (and particularly the profiles of many of the players) go to http://www.sporty.co.nz/2018acworldchampionships

If you want to follow the progress of the championship in near real-time go to https://croquetscores.com/2018/ac/wcf-world-championship/main-ko; indeed if you click on the commentary button you can follow play of the some of key matches as they happen. Hope you enjoy it.