Men's & Women's Championship

[<<] [>>] by Jane Morrison at Surbiton
21st June (AC - Championships)

The Men's and Women's Championships was held at Surbiton Croquet Club for the first time ever but surprisingly attracted quite a small field of players, especially in the Men's. The players who did enter were treated to four days of unseasonably wet and windy weather, improving quite a bit for finals day. The Surbiton lawns were in very good nick and the Quadway hoops were challenging but not unreasonable.

The Mixed Doubles was played over the first two days with Jenny and Chris Clarke winning both the draw and process. Louise Bradforth and Rick Harding came closest to taking a game from them in a marathon pegged out game but lost -2. The Y doubles was won by Beatrice McGlen and James Death. Jenny also won the Women's Championship defeating 3^rd seed Annabel McDiarmid in three games. The Men's Championship final had Samir Patel up two games to one at lunchtime, but James Death obviously benefitted from lunch and wrapped it up with two more triples.

The plate semi-finals line up was completed on Sunday morning with a crowd-pleasing shoot-out at the peg between Mark Ormerod and Tim Wilkins, with Mark not only winning this but going on to win the Du Pre with a win over an in-form Louise Bradforth in the final.

The catering at the event, provided by Surbiton's crack team of chefs, was truly superb. Dessert of the week was (for me) the Filo Cheesecake, with serious competition from the Banoffee Pie, the Trifle, the Tiramisu, the Pavlova and the Eton Mess. Evenings were spent either with pizza and wine at the club or at a local restaurant although Martin Murray had a brush with the law while driving home late one evening. With both Maughams rolling about in the back of the car clutching a half empty bottle of wine, he was pulled over by the police. They refrained from breathalysing him but advised him that he really should drive with his lights on.

Many thanks to James Death for his cheerful and efficient management. James also won the shot of the week prize where the blue ball left the lawn, entered the clubhouse and jumped into the marmalade box. Thanks also to Alison Maugham and her team of volunteers for livestreaming the event.