ASHBY ANNIVERSARY SHIELD

Annual two-day club tournament, 26-point Association Croquet handicap.

ASHBY ANNIVERSARY SHIELD Previous winners:

1995* Adrian Page
1996* Gary Norman
1997* Brian Taylor
1998* Brian Taylor
1999* Jeremy Staley
2000* Tim King

2001* Tim King
2002* Evelyn Martin
2003+ Mick Haytack
2004+ Jeremy Staley
2005+ Tim King
2006 Ray Mounfield

2007 Mick Haytack
2008 Rachel Rowe
2009 Derek Buxton

* Played as a Short Croquet handicap tournament up to 2002.
+ Played as a 14-point level-play tournament 2003 - 2005

2009 REPORT Sat 27th & Sun 28th June

With seven players, the tournament manager Mick decided to try the new format of a flexible Swiss to reduce the field from seven to four. On Saturday everyone played at least four full games, Richard and Will managed five! The four players with the best record qualified for the semi-finals on Sunday.

In semi-final 1 Derek beat the holder Rachel 26-23 in a very close game. The other semi-final between Jeremy and Arthur was even closer. Both players had more than one chance to close out the game and when time was called both had clips on penult and peg. However, Jeremy still had a turn and he successfully ran penult to win +1 on time.

In the play-off for third and fourth Rachel continued with her remarkable form against Arthur in this competition and won 26-1 in just over an hour.

The final lasted rather longer, neither player made much progress in the early stages but Jeremy got his nose in front after around 90 of the 210 allocated minutes with clips on 4 and 5 against Derek's 1 and 4. Derek eventually found his form and took Yellow round from 2 to peg which proved to be the decisive innings. With 15 minutes to go Derek had an 11 hoop lead but Jeremy then found form and put together a good break. With the clock ticking away he missed a crucial shot and Derek had won by +6. This was the first time Derek had won this trophy and it was good to see his form return after an indifferent spell.

For the record Richard was 5th, Will 6th and Mick a poor 7th. Hopefully next year we will be able to play on three lawns and accommodate more players. The winner declared that this was the best Association tournament the club had held yet and with a total of 18 games played over a day and a half it certainly set the record for games played in one event.

Report by Mick

Results (handicaps in brackets): 1st Derek Buxton (10), 2nd Jeremy Staley (10), 3rd Rachel Rowe (6), 4th Arthur Rowe (7), 5th Richard Sanville (10), 6th Will Gee (-1), 7th Mick Haytack (9)

2008 REPORT

Played on Saturday 28th June (3 games) and Sunday 29th June (2 games). Manager: Mick Haytack Rachel – competing in her first Anniversary Shield – was the clear winner, with 4 wins out of 5.

	Derek	Arthur	Richard	Rachel	Mick	Jeremy	Wins	Hoop diff
Derek Buxton (8)		3-26	20-15	11-26	12-26	24-16	2	-39	5th
Arthur Rowe (10)	26-3		26-15	12-26	26-1	16-25	3	+36	3rd
Richard Sanville (10)	15-20	15-26		17-19	15-26	16-21	0	-34	6th
Rachel Rowe (9)	26-11	26-12	19-17		13-26	26-4	4	+40	Winner
Mick Haytack (9)	26-12	1-26	26-15	26-13		12-26	3	-1	4th
Jeremy Staley (10)	16-24	25-16	21-16	4-26	26-12		3	-2	Runner-up

3 hour time limit. Event decided on: 1. Number of wins; 2. Who beat whom; 3. Hoop difference; 4. Hoops scored; 5. Shoot-out (5 shots each then sudden death)

2007 REPORT

Played on Saturday 30th June (3 games) and Sunday 1st July (2 games). Manager: Mick Haytack Last year’s winner Ray started well, winning his first two games, but then his record of never having lost a 26-point game of Association Croquet then came to an end with a resounding 5-26 defeat to Mick. Mick won all 3 of his games on the first day, and then faced Richard on Sunday morning in what turned out to be the closest game of the tournament, both players having chances to win, but Richard made a complete hash of what should have been an easy an easy peg-out and lost the game 25-26. In the final round of games, Jeremy found his form and prevented Mick from getting a clean sweep of wins. However, 4 wins out of 5 was enough for Mick to claim outright victory and the trophy. Many thanks to Mick for running the event, and to Derek for setting the hoops.

	Jeremy	Ray	Richard	Noel	Derek	Mick	Wins	Hoop diff
Jeremy Staley (h'cap 10)		14-18	19-23	26-11	8-26	22-16	2	-5	5th
Ray Mounfield (14)	18-14		15-23	26-8	18-17	5-26	3	-6	4th
Richard Sanville (11)	23-19	23-15		26-7	9-26	25-26	3	+13	3rd
Noel Penn-Davis (4)	11-26	8-26	7-26		11-26	5-26	0	-88	6th
Derek Buxton (11)	26-8	17-18	26-9	26-11		18-20	3	+47	Runner-up
Mick Haytack (11)	16-22	26-5	26-25	26-5	20-18		4	+39	Winner

3 hour time limit. Event decided on: 1. Number of wins; 2. Who beat whom; 3. Hoop difference; 4. Hoops scored; 5. Shoot-out (5 shots each then sudden death)

2006 REPORT

Played on Saturday 1st July and Sunday 2nd July. Manager: Mick Haytack

Six players competed in the club's inaugural 26-point tournament. We had originally intended this to be just a one-day competition on the Saturday, with the final scheduled for the Sunday, but it was instead agreed by everyone that an "all-play-all" format would make a much more satisfactory tournament, so we had 3 games on the Saturday (sparing us the tension and anguish of having to watch the England match!), and the final 2 games on the Sunday. There were lots of very close games throughout, but the clear winner with a 100% record was Ray – usually a golf croquet specialist, but clearly Ray is now also an Association player to be reckoned with, adding the Anniversary Shield to his One Ball success earlier on in the season.

Many thanks to Mick for running the competition. Everyone seemed to be happy with the new format (at least I didn't hear of any major complaints!) so hopefully it will become a regular fixture in the calendar. Report by Richard

	Derek	Noel	Ray	Richard	Tim	Mick	Wins
Derek Buxton (h'cap 11)		17-16	11-12	17-11	17-23	16-17	2	4th
Noel Penn-Davis (4)	16-17		11-23	15-23	1-26	1-26	0	6th
Ray Mounfield (16)	12-11	23-11		20-15	19-16	20-15	5	Winner
Richard Sanville (10)	11-17	23-15	15-20		6-26	12-23	1	5th
Tim King (5)	23-17	26-1	16-19	26-6		12-26	3	3rd
Mick Haytack (12)	17-16	26-1	15-20	23-12	26-12		4	Runner-up

3 hour time limit. Event decided on: 1. Number of wins; 2. Who beat whom; 3. Hoop difference; 4. Hoops scored; 5. Shoot-out (5 shots each then sudden death)

The coach loads of supporters have arrived!

Our resident pied wagtail

Ray lines up a shot

Ray receives the trophy from Mick

2005 REPORT

2005 marks the tenth anniversary of the Ashby Anniversary Shield, which was originally presented by Gary Norman in 1995 to mark the tenth anniversary of the Club. Originally the Anniversary Shield was a short croquet handicap tournament, but this is the third year of its reincarnation as our 14-point level play tournament.

Seven players competed in the 2005 Anniversary Shield on Saturday 30th July. No major surprises this year: the two highest-rated players, Noel Penn-Davis and Tim King, won their respective groups and made it through to the final. Tim was on top form, giving his opponents very few chances, and had an easy 14-3 win in the final against Noel. Tim wins the trophy for the third time. Many thanks to Mick for organising the event so efficiently - even finishing by 5.30 pm!

Group A

	Mick	Richard	Noel	Marilyn	Wins
Mick Haytack (14)		14 - 2	8 - 14	9 - 2	2	2nd
Richard Sanville (12)	2 - 14		14 - 9	3 - 6	1
Noel Penn-Davis (4)	14 - 8	9 - 14		8 - 6	2	1st
Marilyn Murray (10)	2 - 9	6 - 3	6 - 8		1

Group B

	Geoff	Tim	Jeremy	Wins
Geoff Ellott (18)		6 - 14	11 - 9	1	2nd
Tim King (6)	14 - 6		14 - 2	2	1st
Jeremy Staley (10)	9 - 11	2 - 14		0

1 hr 15 min games (+ 5 mins for double-banked games)
League positions decided by (a) number of wins; (b) who beat whom; (c) hoop difference.

Semi-finals
Noel Penn-Davis 14 - 1 Geoff Ellott
Tim King 14 - 4 Mick Haytack

Final
Noel Penn-Davis 3 - 14 Tim King

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Page last updated 29/06/09