Category: News

Report by Peter Allan

The 2026 AC Champion of Champions tournament was held at Hamptworth on Sunday 29th March. Each club in the federation is invited to sent the winner of their club AC handicap competition from the previous year, or a different representative if necessary, and 12 clubs did so.

On the day, the weather was cloudy and a bit windy, but fortunately the rain mostly held off.

My intention was to play a five-round flexible Swiss, but after a day of spirited play and an excellent lunch, we had only finished round four by 5 pm. The conditions were deteriorating and there was a groundswell of feeling from those not in contention that they had had enough. The three player still in contention wanted to play one more round, so we had Gabriel Furse (on 4/4) against Steve Woolnough (on 3/4) and Andy Meikle (on 3/4) against Ken Donnelly (out of contention). I think we all expected Gabriel to continue his good form, but Steve won 14-1. Andy also won, so we had the manager’s nightmare of three players on 4/5 wins, and no time left to play ‘proper’ games. Who beat whom was no help, and a 2-ball break starting at corner 4 is unfair in a handicap competition, so we had a shootout at the peg with all the contestant moving one foot in from the west boundary for each handicap point they had. At the third attempt, Andy hit the peg, so he is the winner. All three finalist can be justifiably proud of their play, but there is only space for one name on the trophy.

The Armada one-ball tournament was played at Winchester this year on the 23rd of July (almost to the day the 437th anniversary of the original Bowls match!).

A field of 9 entries, mainly from Winchester and Littleton with one from as far away as Phyllis Court, played an eight-session Block Draw. The winner for the second year running was Nigel Cox of Winchester and Blewbury, with Artur da Costa of Winchester running him a close second.

Nigel (on the right) receiving the Armada Trophy from Peter Fry, Winchester chairman.

This was won by Russell Robinson of Phyllis Court. He was presented with the trophy.

This years event was won by Neil George of Caversham. He received the trophy on the day.

This event attracted 15 entries – unfortunately Carol Jamieson had a problem with her shoulder and had to drop out rather early on. The rest played a Swiss with six rounds. It was slightly disappointing that the entrants were all local, with High Wycombe as the most distant club represented.

Deirdre Cochrane provided an excellent lunch and the rounds continued.

Duncan Sinclair (Blewbury) won all six games and so won the tournament. David Long (Blewbury) was just behind with five games and then Rick Lilley (Phyllis Court) with four.

Duncan received the Armada trophy which he will keep for the year and yet another Blewbury glass to add to his growing collection.

Ryde LTCC had the pleasure of hosting this doubles competition on a lovely sunny day with a gentle breeze. The competition was contested by 8 pairs, four from the “North Island” and four from the Isle of Wight (“South Island”). Combined handicaps varied from the allowed minimum of 6 up to 24. The preliminary rounds consisted of two blocks of four, North & South, all-play-all.

These results determined seeding for the Knockout rounds, which took place after lunch. Unexpectedly the top seeds both fell at the first hurdle, leaving the way clear for a North v South final between the two second seeds Johannes & Mark Hamann (East Dorset) and Joan Grove & Jim O’Keeffe (RLTCC). A close final ended with a 7 – 5 victory for the oldest pair in the competition, Joan & Jim.

CONGRATULATIONS TO
Advantage League winners Phyllis Court D
on beating Ryde C (11-5) and Phyllis Ct C (9-7)

Doubles League winners Eynsham
beating Thames Valley (6-2) in the Final

The A-Level league has been won by High Wycombe. They had the same points as Aldermaston and had won the same number of games but High Wycombe won the match against Aldermaston.
The B-Level league has been won by Hamptworth. The runner up was Oxford University with the same number of points but less games.
The Northern Handicap league has been won by High Wycombe with Caversham as runner up and the Southern Handicap league has been won by Ryde with three wins and a draw. The second place goes to Winchester with the same number of points and games as Hamptworth but Winchester won the match between the two teams. There is one result yet to report between the two lowest placed teams: Littleton and Aldermaston. The final, between North and South, was played at Blewbury on Sunday 24th October and was won by Ryde.
The Short Croquet league was only contested by two teams. Blewbury won. Unfortunately neither club was able to send a team to the national finals because of the rather extreme handicap limitations. It is expected that these restrictions will be eased next year.

The Armada reborn: for Drake read Pegrum!

After an enforced one year delay, the SCF Armada Trophy tournament took place at Winchester CC on 15 June. Previously an AC doubles event, the Armada has been re-cast as an AC “one-ball” tournament with the aim of attracting more players.

Sixteen players from nine clubs participated, ranging from experienced players to “first-timers” at this variant of AC. In a busy day of five rounds of handicap one-ball in “Swiss” format one player won all his matches – five out of five and so became the first winner of the re-born Armada: Chris Pegrum (h’cap 12) from Caversham CC is a recent graduate of Lincoln College, Oxford but has learned his croquet under College auspices rather than as a member of OUACC. He will be changing jobs shortly and moving to Amersham, so will come within the orbit of High Wycombe CC – a talent to be watched!

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The runner-up with 4/5 wins was Ian Harrison (-2) of Basingstoke and Winchester who was pipped at the peg by a stunning 12 yard peg shot by Glynis Hassell (15) of Dogmersfield and Winchester. Just to prove that it was not a fluke, Glynis repeated the feat in her following game against Artur Da Costa (10) on the other court!

The weather was glorious and the day was greatly enjoyed by all the participants, including those for whom it was a fairly steep learning curve. Hopefully, Armada one-ball is here to stay.

Ian Harrison

This event was held on the 13th April at Hamptworh in fine, sunny but chilly weather.

It was organised as two blocks of seven competing for the annual GC Champion of Champions Trophy on the 14th April at Hamptworth playing seven point handicap games.. These were winners or representatives of their club handicap GC competitions.

The final had two players from Hamptworth both of whom had 5 wins. Tim O’Donnell beat Dudley Blundell at the golden hoop.