Make mine a Double

The Ranelagh Cups, Surbiton Croquet Club, 27 & 28 August 2005

Report

Ashby Croquet Club had three members playing in the English National Golf Croquet Doubles Championship at Surbiton, competing to win the Ranelagh Cups. Derek and Eileen Buxton played as a pair, having faithfully supported this event for the past few years. Tim King partnered Roy Ware from Canterbury, following success in their first ever event as a pair, the Open Doubles earlier in the season.

This year was the first when the National Doubles Championship has been for a whole weekend (rather than a single day) and, furthermore, without any qualification rounds. As a result, the number and quality of pairs appears to have increased. Unfortunately, the final number of pairs was 15, which meant an unequal division into two blocks for the first day of play. Both pairs of Derek and Eileen and Tim and Roy were in the block of eight pairs. Each pair played every other. With games played to a time limit of 55 minutes, draws in the block stages were possible (after playing eight strokes after the calling of time).

At the end of play Saturday, the first round block results determined who would then play in both the winners and losers blocks. The top four from each block played in the winners block. Tim and Roy had a very solid first day, winning six out of seven games and drawing the other. Unfortunately, Derek and Eileen were not able to win a single game. Their worst score (2-7) was against Daphne Gaitley and Mark Hamilton, who were perhaps the best chance for Derek and Eileen to get a win. Against some much stronger pairs, Derek and Eileen had some very good results.

When moving to the Sunday blocks, each pair took forward their results against those other pairs that went into the same block. These results replaced the need to play those pairs again and, thus, the games on Sunday were just against the qualifiers from the other Saturday block. With two wins and one draw carried through from the Saturday, Tim and Roy were already in a good position to qualify for the semi-finals and eased off their best form, scoring one win, one draw and two losses in the winners block (for a total of three wins and two draws out of seven games). These results were enough to qualify for the semi-final between the second and third placed pairs. This became a crunch match because Tim and Roy had previously drawn with their semi-final opponents Nelson Morrow and Shane Davis. Meanwhile, Derek and Eileen scored their sole victory of the weekend in the losers block, although they felt under pressure to rush their last game in order to watch the final.

In their semi-final, Tim and Roy had little difficulty in easing to a 6-4 lead. However, they then met dogged resistance and failed to close out the game on both the eleventh and twelfth hoops. Thus, a nervy thirteenth hoop ensued but Tim and Roy had just enough gas to get past the line.

The other pair in the final was no surprise in that David Hopkins and Craig Oakley had won every previous game over the weekend, including a 7-5 victory over Tim and Roy on the Sunday morning. The format for the final was slightly different in that instead of the conventional best of thirteen hoops, a two-hoops ahead requirement was added if the scores were level after the twelfth hoop (the nineteenth hoop being a decider if necessary). In the end, Tim and Roy demonstrated such control of the final that there was never any prospect of getting to the thirteenth hoop. Craig played with the aggressive intent that had been so destructive for the rest of the weekend. However, he probably was suffering from nerves and started to miss some crucial clearances. Tim and Roy improved on their earlier Sunday performances and eased to a 7-3 victory. This was a tough experience for the losers who had been so previously consistent over the weekend but well done to Tim and Roy for winning the games that mattered. The Ranelagh Cups are a pair of quite large silver trophies, originally awarded in 1913 to winners of an Association Handicap Doubles event.

Results

Tim King & Roy Ware

First round block (all play all)

7-5 Daphne Gaitley & Mark Hamilton

7-6 Chris Daniels & Julie Hudson

7-3 Derek & Eileen Buxton

7-3 Ed Dymock & Alan Pidcock

6-6T Dick Strover & Jack Wicks

7-6 Bill Arliss & Derek Old

7-4 David Dray & Tom Weston

Winners block (play qualifiers from other block)

6-5T Ivor & Richard Brand

4-7 Chris & Roderick Sheen

6-6T Nelson Morrow & Shane Davis

5-7 David Hopkins & Craig Oakley

Semi-final

7-6 Nelson Morrow & Shane Davis

Final

7-3 David Hopkins & Craig Oakley

Derek & Eileen Buxton

First round block (all play all)

3-7 Bill Arliss & Derek Old

3-7 Tim King & Roy Ware

5-7 Chris Daniels & Julie Hudson

3-7 Ed Dymock & Alan Pidcock

5-7 David Dray & Tom Weston

2-7 Daphne Gaitley & Mark Hamilton

4-7 Dick Strover & Jack Wicks

Second round losers block

7-3 Roger & Tom I'Anson

5-6T Simon Carter & John Gibbs

1-7 Don Beck & John Moore