STUDENT CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 CONTINUED A&er a heroic day of play, all 8 students re6red to a local pub, The Royal Oak, to rehydrate. With losers of the day’s games unapologe6cally declaring the winners are morally obliged to buy them a pint, it was not long before shouts of a pub crawl were being heard across the table. With J & J & J
determined to sample Oxford’s nightlife, the evening culminated in a 3am return home and alarms set for four hours later. As Sunday morning rolled around, 8 bleary‐eyed zombies once again returned to the lawns for the doubles final, the singles final and the plate final. With each match as rive6ng as the last, Oxford University was lucky enough to come home with both the doubles and singles trophies. We were also fortunate enough to have interna6onal croquet legend, Harry Fisher, present the trophies to the winners a&er an excellent speech about the history of the tournament and the significance of the trophies.
All in all, the tournament was a great success, and it was wonderful to see so many young players travelling from around the world to play some Associa6on Croquet.
ROSS BAGNI EMPLOYS TELEKINESIS TO WIN HIS FIRST AC TOURNAMENT
PETERBOROUGH AC HANDICAP – 14TH/15TH JULY 2025
Twelve players from nine different clubs competed for the Ken Hope‐Jones Shield in Peterborough Croquet Club’s AC Handicap Tournament on 14th and 15th July 2025. The event was played as a four‐round Egyp6an, with the third‐round games pegged down at 7pm on the Monday evening. The resumed games neatly produced two players – Colin Spencer of Downham (10) and Ross Bagni of Leighton‐ Linslade (11) – on three wins out of three. The two undefeated players met on the ‘show court’ (the lawn borrowed from the bowls club in front of the clubhouse) in Game Four. Ross, in his first ever AC tournament, outplayed Colin to win +18 in well under two hours. The moment he took most delight in came in an earlier game, when his ball was heading two feet to the right of its intended target, and he said Go Le&, Go Le& – and it did! He later spo7ed someone in full biohazard gear and with a spray tank on his back not far from the courts, and pointed this out to the tournament manager, Adrian Kirby. Adrian said he’d called the guy in from Ghostbusters to exorcise Ross’s demonic powers.
The three runners‐up – each with three wins, having only succumbed to Ross – were Ken Knock of Pinchbeck (6), Alex Lever of Hampstead Heath (6) and of course Colin Spencer. The wooden spoon went to Mar6n Russell of Hunstanton (8). At tea, Adrian presented Ross with the Shield and a nice bo7le of Chilean Merlot. Ross thanked the manager and also the club members – Inga, Janet and Sue – who had looked a&er the players so well, laying out the sandwich lunches and providing lots of tea6me treats.
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