Peter Earnshaw and Paul Scruby came in ahead of three other pairs tobe presented with gluggable winnings by manager Michael Goodman

John presented with the cup by Tim Dutton

John Reddish won the first tournament of this year, beating Ken Cooke in final marked with early season errors. The holder Mark Ormerod was unable to compete this year as he was detained in New York by ash cloud trouble, but we still had 11 competitors with two vistors from London clubs, and one far country member from Cheltenham.

John Reddish winning the Elsie King April 2010

On a week-end of constant spring sunshine, Tim Dutton managed us all in his usual relaxed style, and found time to barbeque our lunch as well, with Simon Whiteley as his sous-chef. A splendid way for everyone to get their season under way.

On Saturday 3 October the weather was cool and uninviting and manager Michael Goodman had to drop out. This left  six high bisque Club members  to compete in 3 shortened AC games each. Honours were fairly even but, by a narrow margin, Eric Driver added a new name to the cup - the first for several years.  Acting manager Ken Watson presents the trophy.

4 teams took part on a warm sunny day for this tournament where Peter Nash and Val Subsaeng have (almost) acquired rights over the cup- the question was who could best challenge them in the 18 point 2 1/2 hour games?

The participants

First up was John Reddish and Rob Laver who went down fighting -3 on time, on a fast lawn with firm hoops making for challenging conditions. Meanwhile David Collins and Michael Goodman overwhelmed Simon Whiteley and Eric Driver +12 with some steady play from Michael and accurate shooting from David.

The second round saw Peter and Val winning +1oT over David and Michael while Simon and Eric improved on their morning by beating John and Rob +12.

For the third round Pierre Beaudry substituted for John Reddish and Pat substituting for Michael to maintain the Goodman family interest in the partnership with David. At this stage any of Peter and Val, David & Goodmans and Simon and Eric could have snatched the trophy. In the event David and Pat won their game over Pierre and Rob +3T, while Simon and Eric won a close game, with cautious pay and few mistakes togther with accurate shooting on both sides,  against Peter and Val +2T, leaving all three pairs on two wins.

Peter and Val being presented with the cup

Peter and Val retained the trophy based on aggregate net points scored.

Mark Ormerod continued his strong run this year by winning The Badger with a convincng 5/5 wins, with John Reddish the runner up on 2/4. The Ormerod home must now be short of space for silverware having won both the Elsie King and Ayling cups earlier this year. In practice three of the wins were very close (+3, +1T, +1T) so it was less one-sided than the scoreline would suggest- well done to Mark for holding his nerve with these close games.

Mark Ormerod being presented with The Badger by Michael Goodman

8 players played on both days with 3 others doing one day only. James Benson was playing in his first ever tournament and was unlucky that his first opponent was Simon Whiteley on strong form- who took his first ball to Rover on turn 3 and eventually won +13, conceding 7 bisques. James recovered to win his next game, and was one of Mark’s close matches for the third.

James Benson in play

Full results are:

Mark Ormerod 5/5, John Reddish 2/5, Ray Hall 2/2, Ed Brookfield, Julian Stair 1/2, Simon Gibbs 2/5, James Benson, Rob Burns, Michael Blair 1/3,  Simon Whiteley 1/4,  David Collins 0/1

Eight players with handicaps ranging from -1 to 3 made a strong field for the Ayling Cup advanced association croquet tournament, including Mick Belcham visiting from Tunbridge Wells. Playing in hot sunshine all week-end made for a fine start to High Summer croquet. Peter Nash was the man to beat and started with convincing wins over Farooq and David Collins, +23 and +24, while Simon Whiteley started with a +26 win also over David. By 6pm Mark Ormerod had to leave his game against Peter to go to the theatre but returned at 9am to find himself down to one ball, Peter having pegged out his forward ball in his absence. Unfortunately he had rushed Mark’s ball on to the peg, ending his turn with 2 balls in the middle of the lawn and conceding a contact. Mark still needed some good early morning shooting which he managed with several successive hit-ins to peg out without Peter making any more progress- +8 to Mark.

The lawns by this time were speeding up in the hot sunshine, with Lawn 1 playing as well as ever, and newly re-laid Lawn 2 flat but bobbly with the grass still to fill in properly. Peter picked himself up from his loss to beat Mick Belcham +26 with a convincing triple peel, and looked like repeating that against Simon with 2 peels completed, including a spectacular pass roll penult peel from the north boundary, while rolling to his hoop 5 pioneer slightly misplaced midway between hoops 4 and 5. However he then stuck in 1-back, while Simon was for 2 and 4-back. Simon got going with a well-controlled standard triple peel to snatch victory +8, completing his first ever triple.

David Collins, John Reddish, Mick Belcham and Farooq had a number of close games and were a little unlucky to emerge with only 7 wins between them. Meanwhile Pierre Beaudry and Mark Ormerod had been going steadily and after 5 games these two plus Peter and Simon were in contention for the cup, with one game to play. This could have proved managerially embarrassing, requiring all sorts of complicated comparisons to determine the overall winner. Fortunately (for the manager), Mark Ormerod won his final game against David Collins, while Simon lost to Pierre, leaving Mark as the deserved overall winner on 5 wins out of six, with Peter, Pierre and Simon joint 2nd on 4 wins each. Mark has now won three successive club tournaments this year and is clearly the man to beat!