Croquet Tournament Results

SUMMARY 2023

DETAILED RESULTS 2023

NSW AC 3 & Under Singles, 4-5 February 2023

This event was held at Mosman because of the extended period required for renovation of the courts at Tempe. You will see that Ron Buist played in the blocks, but was replaced by Ted Woodley in the Y knockout. Ted was originally expected to play on both days, dut after a brief hospitalisation during the preceding week was not well enough to play on Saturday. Thanks to Ron Buist for agreeing to fill in for Ted at short notice.

The weather was great both days, if a trifle hot by the end of each day. Many thans to all at Mosman CC for making the event such a success, specially their President, Cali Craig, Games Captain Penny Paterson (Assistamt Tournament Manager), Ron Hympherson (referee) and the catering and grounds staff. The courts were mown three times in the 5 days before the tournament, and the result of this extra mowing was obvious. Lawn speed was better than I have seen at Mosman for some time. Lunches were available for purchase both days, alomg with a plentiful supply of biscuits, buns and cakes to go with tea and coffee.

In a very tight competition, no player was able to go through undefeated. Two of the 4-player blocjs were decided on net hoops, with 3 players on 2 wins each.

Alison Sharpe was a worthy winner after an excellent final, where she beat Trevor Bassett 26-8, in a game which went doen to the wire, the c;pseness of the battle not properly reflected in the score.

David Stanton
Tournament Manager

Detailed Results

NSW 5 & Under Mixed Doubles, 18-19 February 2023

Detailed Results

NSW GC Men's Open Singles Championship, 31 March - 2 April 2023

Venue: Canberra, 31 March - 2 April 2023
Tournament Manager: Kate McLoughlin
Tournament Referee: Adrienne Fazekas
Number: 20 players

Held in Canberra as part of their regular schedule of at least 2 Croquet NSW events a year. Canberra was able to organise and supply all referees and Tournament officials. There were 21 entries, with 1 late withdrawal (the event attracted 22 entries in 2022). We had one entrant from WA, who was visiting family in Sydney.

The event was run in 3 blocks of 7,7,6 people; with the first 2 and the 2 best third places in the X knockout finals, the bottom 2 from each block in the Plate, and the middle 4,5 and last third fighting out the ‘Y’ event.

Results

As in the Women’s GC event we have a new champion: Mark Scruton who defeated Peter Freer in the best of three final: 7-5,3-7,7-4. Peter Landrebe was third and David Woods fourth. Malcolm Powys came fifth, Derek Bull won the ‘Y’, David Scott the ‘W’ and John Gartner the Plate. Play was of a high standard, with spectators from Canberra and Sydney enjoying the quality of the competition.

Full results are on Croquet Scores.

Management

Overall the event went smoothly with fine mild conditions, and no rain eventuating. Players kept to schedule: with the Assistant Tournament Managers keeping the lawns full, and players making good time. Particular matters were:

1. Matches were notionally untimed, but the refs started clocks for 50 minutes , with the option to apply 15 minutes to any bogged down game. Time limits were applied to 3 games, with only one 19 point game finishing before the winner reached 10. Quarter finals and Finals were untimed. There was one situation where a player did not understand the timing conditions, and tried to play a golden hoop conclusion before the 15 minutes was up.
2. Three way play-offs were not needed to determine the third place in each block, but were used to decide the best 2 third places to go through to the Knock-out. David Hanbidge, Stephen Burns and Malcolm Powys fought out the 3 hoop play-offs, with David Hanbidge and Malcolm Powys going through. It was high pressure contest, which was exciting for the onlookers.
3. The Y event and the Plate were played as 19 point games, as the withdrawal of 1 player and two other players electing not to play on gave us more time. There was some confusion about the correct order of hoops for 19 point games, and some uncertainty about the timing limitation of 60 minutes.
4. Canberra Club members provided sandwich lunches for $7.50 and morning and afternoon teas were free. Club members and players helped to set up the lawns and put out the tent and chairs. The large tent, purchased with Club Hub funds proved useful for morning tea, and as potential shelter if rain had eventuated.
5. The condition of the lawns was very good, although there was one wet spot on lawn 1, and some corner damage to be avoided. Overall the lawns played very well.
6. Scoring was updated onto Croquet scores as quickly as possible, as well as onto the Tournaments spreadsheet. The latter has some great features, but was challenging to use when players did not continue in the Tournament and for the 3 hoop playoffs. If this spreadsheet is to be used by other Tournament Managers it would be useful to simplify and/or provide some initial training. The integration of the various spreadsheets with other tournament documents and with Croquet Scores would make life a lot easier for Tournament Managers.
7. Handicaps: three players triggered to a different handicap and brought this to the attention of the Tournament Manager.

Referees

Thanks to Adrienne Fazekas, Tournament Referee, we had 4 referees from Canberra each day, who were supervising. There were some calls of crushes which surprised some players.

Otherwise there were no major refereeing incidents, with players conducting themselves well.

Conclusion

Positive comments were received about the efficient organisation of the event, and the good standard of hospitality. The event finished before 4pm each day, with the Presentation being made about 3.30 pm on the Sunday. Many players had left by this time, but the local onlookers appreciated the conclusion to the final between two Canberra players.

Kate McLoughlin
Tournament Manager
April 2023

Detailed Results

NSW GC Women's Open Singles Championship, 31 March - 2 April 2023

I volunteered to be Tournament Referee (TR) for this event, and agreed to also be Tournament Manager (TM) for Sat & Sunday since David Stanton was only available on Friday 24 March. It was a juggle being TM and refereeing, but this worked thanks to Ron Johnstone who came on Friday afternoon & Sunday in addition to his negotiated Sat stint as a referee.

Results

We have a new Women’s GC Champion, Jill Sullivan, who persevered to win against new talent Sue Sellers in a very close bo3 match, after Sue won the first game 7-3;

Pauline Markwell similarly came back from an initial 3-7 loss against Gerda Lambeck, to win in 3 games and come third.

Liz Montague won the Plate, defeating Karen Bisley 2-0 in their final.

Full results are on Croquet Scores.

Management

Overall the event went smoothly due to threatened rain holding off on all three days & players keeping the schedule moving. Particular matters were:

1. we played a single block of 11 players, so that every player played each other, and this was received well despite one player having a bye each round;
2. we used 3 courts at Cooks River on Friday & Sat, but switched to all 4 courts on Sun so that we could single bank all matches & speed up the schedule (we finished at 1500, ahead of the rain);
3. I did not start any match timed, but we kept an eye on time after warning players that we would apply 15 minutes to any bogged down game. No game had time applied - several games went well past an hour, but most finished well under an hour (some much more quickly). Players were happy not to be under the clock;
4. we had a 3 way play-off to decide who got the last place in the KO, after Liz Montague, Ruth Mulvaney & Gerda Lambeck all finished on 6 wins (as did Pauline Markwell, but the CoP specified that only players lying 4th or worse would play off). This was played as starting from Corner 2 to H2, then H3 & H4. Gerda Lambeck won 2-1 against Ruth Mulvaney, and then 2-0 against Liz Montague (who had the bye as the player with best net hoops). Entertaining, and better than just going by net hoops (although Liz Montague might differ);
5. following an earlier discussion with David Stanton about the benefit of Plate players playing bo3 matches for experience, I misread the CoP and played all rounds of the Plate as bo3 when the initial round & the Plate Y should have been single games. No player complained, and they enjoyed the chance to play bo3 matches.

Referees

Thanks to Lynda Toms (Hurstville), Kaye Martin (Coogee) and especially Ron Johnstone (Sutherland) who refereed on all three days.

Referees were Supervising, and this worked well.

There were no major refereeing incidents, and the minor ones provided discussion fodder for the referee debriefs at the end of each day.

Topics included:

• even players at this level get out of sequence relatively often (especially after promotions), and referees need to be vigilant;
• the need to explain to players that oppo has a choice of leaving all balls where they end up, or replacing all balls, after a fault;
• the need to explain to players (even at this level) what happens in a ball swap vs replace+replay (several players needed confirmation about which ball plays next after each of these options);
• whether it is necessary to call a referee for a jump shot that is not impeded? I ruled that it was not essential, provided a player was in good position to make a call; but several players preferred to avoid any friction by having a referee watch a jump (and most of us referees like watching jump shots);
• several cases where it was not possible to decide by eye if a ball had run a hoop, so the hoop was declared as run under Rule 7.7.2;
• avoiding surprises by asking players to call the score after each hoop (or the referee when possible, even while supervising); and
• the need to educate players that any deflection of a ball that starts in a hoop, or very close to a leg, is indication of a possible crush.

Regards
Peter Freer
0412 178 254

Detailed Results

NSW AC Bronze Singles, 11-13 April 2023

This event was played at Killara Croquet Club as a single block of 7 players playing a round robin. Games were all ordinary level play – 18 point games as set out in Law 51.2.1 (starting from hoop 5). All games were played with a time limit of 2 hours, and all games were double-banked. All games were refereed by qualified umpires and referees. Thanks to Ron Buist (Killara) and Maria Morton (Warrawee) for taking on these duties.

Players were Robert Barrie (Cammeray), Margaret Craig (Killara), Fiona Gale (Holroyd), Mary Lambert (Killara), Lucy Rees (Cammeray), Jeremy Tenison-Smith (Killara) and Fidye Westgarth (Mosman). It was particularly pleasing to see two new players, Robert and Jeremy, playing in their first CNSW tournament.

The weather was predominantly fine, with just a few brief showers on Thursday. The morning were quite warm, but the afternoons were pretty cold. Killara provided a good array of morning and afternoon tea cakes, slices and buns, and players provided their own lunch.

Peter and Liz Montague assisted with the tournament management on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Ron Buist assisted by setting the courts up on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as repairing mallets and refereeing. The usual Tournament Manager at Killara, Susan Howland, was not able to attend as she is recovering from a hip replacement.

Mary Lambert won 5 of her 6 games to win the event. Margaret Craig and Lucy Rees each had 4 wins, with Margaret edging out Lucy on net hoops to take the runner-up position. All players had at least one win, and special mention should be made of Robert Barrie, who won 3 games, including his first two games in a CNSW competition.

David Stanton
Tournament Manager and Tournament Referee
13 April 2023

Detailed Results

NSW GC Open Singles Championship, 21-24 April 2023

Detailed Results

NSW AC Men's Open Singles Championship, 28-30 April 2023

Detailed Results

NSW AC Silver Singles, 3-4 May 2023

Detailed Results

NSW Ricochet Open Doubles, 26-27 May 2023

Detailed Results

CNSW Women's Open Singles, 26-28 May 2023

Detailed Results

NSW Ricochet Open Singles, 28-30 May 2023

Detailed Results

NSW AC Platinum Singles, 5-6 June 2023

Detailed Results

Beryl Chambers State Handicap, 9-12 June 2023

Detailed Results

GC Division 3 Pennants Finals, 22-25 May 2023

Detailed Results

GC Division 2 Pennants Finals, 5-8 June 2023

Report

Detailed Results

GC Division 2 Doubles, 15-16 June 2023

Report

Detailed Results

GC Division 2 Singles, 17-19 June 2023

Report

Detailed Results

GC Advantage Doubles, 28-30 June 2023

Report

Detailed Results

GC Advantage 2 Singles, 30 June - 2 July 2023

Report

Detailed Results

NSW GC Open Doubles Championship, 7-9 July 2023

Report

Detailed Results