On Sunday 2nd July, we staged an internal Golf Croquet (GC) tournament for twelve members, playing fifteen doubles matches on both lawns, from 2pm to 6.30pm.
Self-appointed team selector Steve gave each player a seeding so that the top seed was paired with the lowest seeded player, and so on. This nearly worked but we forgot to include Geraldine, and then Hugh did turn up, so we had to do a little bit of a jiggle of teams 5 and 6.
The teams were as follows:
- Simon and Pauline
- Roger S and recent recruit Sue
- Steve and Louise
- Tom and Peter
- Hugh and new member Gary
- Geraldine and Pat
Roger S had found and selected the best permutation of games to be played, so that each team had to play at least one game on the small lawn, and everyone was clear who played whom and when. This certainly meant changeovers ran smoothly and we were able to conclude the tournament in a timely manner this time around.
Each game was timed to last 35 minutes maximum, and of course the main lawn was double-banked so some delays were inevitable. Once time was up, each player could have two more turns each. It was good to rest up from time to time, and to catch up on the cricket score and the controversies unfolding at Lords.
There were some close games including a draw, which ultimately prevented one team from winning the tournament. Three points were awarded for a win, two for a draw, and one for a loss. Everybody stayed the distance and there were no walkovers.
The final league table looked like this:
| TEAM | PLAYED | FOR | AGST | DIFF | POINTS |
| Geraldine & Patrick | 5 | 28 | 16 | 12 | 12 |
| Roger S & Sue | 5 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 12 |
| Steve & Louise | 5 | 29 | 21 | 8 | 11 |
| Simon & Pauline | 5 | 20 | 26 | -6 | 9 |
| Hugh & Gary | 5 | 17 | 29 | -12 | 9 |
| Tom & Peter | 5 | 21 | 26 | -5 | 7 |
So Pat and Geraldine were declared the winners by virtue of a better hoop scoring difference (DIFF column above), Roger and Sue were in second place, and Steve and Louise came a creditable third. Tom and Peter came sixth but had the role of giant-killers, winning 5-3 against the eventual winners. Pat’s spectacular long hoop run to clinch the draw against Sue and Roger S, was the shot of the tournament.
Here are some photos from the day:
