LIONEL TIBBLE WINS WREST PARK GC OPEN
By Richard Keighley
Warm sunshine greeted a full field of 16 compe7tors for this 2‐day tournament in the Na7onal Series. Block A featured top seed, Lionel Tibble (Northampton) who duly qualified with 5 wins but lost to Helen Reeves (Ramsgate) and Lynn Pearcy (Roehampton). He was be8ered by Andy Loakes (Camerton & Peasedown) who had 6 wins. They were joined in the main knockout by Helen and Mike Bilton (Gainsborough) with 4 wins each. Block B was won by Guy Scurfield with 6 wins, closely followed by Peter Tofield (Northampton) with 5 wins. Richard Brooks (Sussex County) duly qualified with 4 wins but the real drama was to work out who was to progress out of the 4 players with 3 wins each. Hoop count put paid to the hopes of Glynis Davies (Northampton) and David Thirtle‐Wa8s (Hunstanton) but Kim Taylor (Enfield) had to rely on having beaten Edwin Bone (Eynsham) as both had iden7cal net hoops.
Picture by Peter Tofield Lionel Tibble enjoying his victory
Sunday 1st June dawned fair again and there was a li8le breeze which provided more comfortable playing condi7ons. In the Quarter‐Finals, Kim made the most of his fortunate qualifica7on by bea7ng Andy Loakes (7‐5, 7‐5) and Mike pipped Guy in a deciding game (7‐6, 4‐7, 7‐5). Meanwhile, Helen and Lionel won in two games against Peter and Richard respec7vely. Helen won her Semi‐Final against Kim, both games by a margin of 7‐6. Her reward was to meet Lionel, who had beaten Mike in 3 games, in the Final to see if she could repeat her win of the previous day. It was not to be as Lionel recovered from being 4 hoops down in their second game to win by 7‐6, 7‐6 in front of an apprecia7ve crowd of spectators. Richard Brooks won the Shield and David Thirtle‐Wa8s returned to Hunstanton with the Plate. Prizes were presented by the Manager and Lionel kindly thanked him for his efforts and also George Collin, the groundsman. Richard Brooks kindly acted as RoT supported by an unusual number of 6 other referees. Finishing Order: 1. Lionel Tibble 2. Helen Reeves 3. Kim Taylor 4. Mike Bilton YORKSHIRE CROQUET FEDERATION INAUGURAL D LEVEL By Michael Franklin COMPETING WITH PEERS
who might be in their first tournament. In the event, only a few matches went beyond the 45 minutes. A'er 4 rounds Jill
This level of tournament was introduced this year by Croquet England to encourage more people to play more croquet. D level is seen as a natural progression from club play, through friendly matches and as an introduc7on to tournament play. Ripon Spa Croquet Club hosted the tournament which a8racted 6 players; 2 from Fylde, 2 from Ripon Spa and one each from Sheffield Parkhead and Bishop Monkton. The handicaps ranged from 10 to 14. The weather was very kind, with a gentle breeze relieving some of the heat. It was an all‐play‐all arrangement. The games were not 7med so that there would be no extra pressure on players
(Bishop Monkton) and Ted (Fylde) each had 4 wins and they met in round 5, where Jill got off to a strong start. Ted ba8led on but never regained the lost ground. Jill won 7 – 4 to take the trophy. Ted and Barbara from Fylde came second and third. All players declared that they had enjoyed the day for various reasons, not least because they were compe7ng with their peers.
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