25TH LANCASHIRE GC OPEN 26TH‐27TH APRIL
PENDLE AND CRAVEN CROQUET CLUB By Libby Dixon Twelve individuals competed for the 25th Lancashire Open GC Tournament managed by Paul Rigge. It was an international affair, with 2 players from Lithuania, 1 from Ireland and 1 from Malta. The start was on Saturday with a dry but cool windy day in prospect. The contestants were from Leighton‐Linslade through to Penrith despite many other GC events taking place on the same weekend. For two players it was their first ever tournament. A good number of observers included partners as well as Pendle and Craven Club members who supported and cheered on good play. The first day’s play was slow with the players coming to grips with fast lawns and tight hoops. One game took 1hr 40mins to complete which gave Paul a few extra grey hairs on his head. The manager had hoped to complete the cross blocks and get the quarter finals started by the end of the first day, but the cross blocks only finished at 6.08pm.
The final gave excellent watching for all the observers, who took up positions in front of the pavilion. The final was the best of three, 13‐point games. Both players showed their skills in long range clearance shots and delicate positional shots. Every hoop was fiercely contested every hoop. The ultimate winner was Ross B who won through 7‐4,7‐4. The presentation of prizes was held at 4.15pm. The manager began by thanking all those present for their support for the 25th Lancashire GC Open Tournament. He commented on the excellent standard of play and
thanked the Pendle and Craven ground staff (Paul Dowdall and Team) for the superb standard of the lawns and the hoop setting. Players had mentioned how tight and firm the hoops were from the first game on Saturday, and on inspection on Sunday none required resetting. Paul also thanked the management of the Club on the facilities provided and the excellent catering from a team of dedicated members. He also noted the helpful attitude of all players to the new GC players, where some even went so far to advise which shot to play. Gabby was happy to be the winner of the Wooden Spoon as she now has a D grade and can enter further tournaments. Gabby thanked everyone for their support.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny with elevated temperatures expected. The day’s play started at 9.10am after a brief warmup. The manager decided the quarter‐finals would have to be single games of 19 points to enable the final to start not too late in the afternoon. The quarter‐finals were between Sarah C and Ged S (10‐6), Chris H and Ted F (10‐ 3), Ross B and Mike B (10‐4) and finally Howard B and John A (10‐6) The semi‐finals saw Ross B beat Howard (7‐5, 3‐7, 7‐5) and Chris H overcome Sarah (7‐5, 7‐6) to reach the final. Meanwhile the Plate competition was taking place as a block, with many close games.
Overall winner of the Tournament, Ross Bagni, received the Lancashire Trophy to great applause. Ged Smolskas took the Shield with Andrew Gould winning the Plate. The Plate result involved a countback over all games played by David Beddy and Andrew Gould as they had 3 wins each in the block. Sharon de Maine, chair of Pendle and Craven Croquet Club thanked the manager, Paul Rigge for his excellent management of the Tournament and presented him with a bottle of wine.
With the warm conditions taking their toll on players and exhaustion from the number of games played, some decided to sit out and watch the games for the Shield semi final. One exciting game was the playoff between Sarah C and Howard B for 3rd and 4th place. Sarah had been 5‐3 up but Howard fought back and took the game to the golden hoop. Sarah was the first ball up with black but her second ball ended up hampering its shot on the hoop. Going for the win, Sarah hit the black only to see it bounce off the wire. Howard stepped forward and won the game 7‐6. Sarah was philosophical, saying “I was fourth seed and ended 4th”
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