Douglas Shand won the GC B-Level Series final

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Douglas Shand receiving the trophy from Jeff Dawson

The 'B' level finals were played at East Dorset Croquet Club over the weekend of 21^st September. 17 players had both qualified to play in it and had indicated that they wished to do so, so from the outset the numbers were rather awkward to manage. This was the first time more than 16 players had had to be accommodated in the finals. We played two qualifying blocks of 8 and 9 players respectively. This meant a relatively easy 7 rounds for B block, but 9 rounds for A block because of the added byes with each round having one player sitting out. The aim was to play 8 rounds on Saturday, leaving 1 round for Sunday morning. However the A block quickly fell behind, which meant that the manager had to put a 1 hour time limit on all A block games, and for the last 2 rounds of the day a 50 minute time limit. Even so play was not completed until it had gotten quite gloomy around 7:25 that evening.

One player indicated at lunch time on Saturday that he would like to pull out, but was persuaded to play to the end of the block if that could be done on the Saturday (I understand an issue had arisen at home which he had to attend to). Play was re-arranged so that he had the final round bye and hence should be able to complete his block (which he eventually did). However things were further complicated when another player indicated he was not feeling well and withdrew from the block (and the event) at 6pm with 2 of his games left to play. I understand he tested positive for Covid the next day, so I wish him well.

Sunday morning dawned with torrential rain, which meant that when we arrived at the club to resume play at 9am on Sunday, all the lawns were waterlogged and unplayable. Fortunately the rain eased by around 9:30, and one lawn became playable again around 9:50. This lawn was used to complete the unfinished block A games. The manager had to apply the matchpoint system to work out the final positionings in the block (since 2 games could not be completed due to the absence of the player who had withdrawn). However this proved not to be critical in determining final playing order. By about 11:30 the other 3 lawns became playable, and we were able to proceed into the knock-out stages of the competition. These were played through to completion, but only by making each round of the main knock-out time limited single 19 point games, which wasn't ideal.

Douglas Shand came out as the well deserved winner, winning the final against Trevor Smith 10-5. Congratulations Douglas!

There was quite a bit of discussion about the format of the competition, and it was generally considered that in future it would be preferable to limit the final to 16 players, which might mean reducing the number of qualifying competitions, or amending the criteria as to who qualifies to play (so that winning a qualifying competition would not automatically guarantee a place). Something for the organisers to think about perhaps.