Peter Adams won the Watford GC B-Level 2nd May

[<<] [>>] by Geoff Johnson at Watford
6th May 2022 (GC)

This was the 13^th year of this event at Watford, and two days before it we had a full field of 16 players. However, no less than 3 competitors had to withdraw at the last minute for a mixture of reasons, and only one emergency reserve could be found.

With 14 players no practical blocking arrangement could be devised for a one-day tournament, so the manager fell back on the trusty "Flexible Swiss" format, with a minimum 6 games to qualify.

This worked nicely as the field quickly sorted itself into 4 or 5 players in serious contention, another 4 or so possible contenders, and the rest too far behind to be realistic challengers.

As we neared the 6^th and 7^th rounds, Peter Adams, Kim Taylor, Peter Tofield, and Kevin Connolly could all be the victor, but at the death Peter Adams won his last game to clinch the title with 6 wins out of 7. Kim Taylor was a close second, just edging out Peter Tofield into third in a shoot-out decider as all other winning criteria ended up identical!

Everyone seemed to have a very enjoyable days croquet, and the weather, whilst not stellar, at least avoided the traditional Bank Holiday Monday downpours!

As the manager of this tournament for the past six years, I can only say the standard of play across the field was very high indeed, and has shown continual improvement almost every year we stage it.