Photo Philip Harris: LtoR Standing: Roy Hubbard, Kelvin Dent,Sue Dent
Sitting: Winner Penny Ball, Pam Bowra, Rob Baylis, John Coombes
Penny Ball won the Sidmouth Croquet Club Association Handicap competition on Saturday 25 May. The full game of Association Croquet is to run 24 hoops, 12 hoops with each of one’s two balls, and then ‘peg them out’ by playing them onto the peg to end the game; and hence the euphemism came into being in the late nineteenth century. For this competition 1 hour 30 minutes was given for a 14 point game i.e. 6 hoops for each ball and the peg-out.
Eight players entered the competition and were split into two ‘American’ blocks of 4. An American block simply means ‘all play all’ in their block and the play-off against the other block winner.
In Block A Kelvin Dent won the block by winning all 3 games. In B Block both Penny Ball and Rob Baylis had two wins. Thus, the block winner was decided by ‘who beat who’ and Ball duly played Dent in the final.
The final between was a tends game with neither player managing to get a break together to run several hoops in one turn. The lead changed a few times but when time was called Ball was ahead by 1 hoop and won by the ‘infamous’ ‘plus 1 on time’.
Dent and Baylis both hit trigger points on the Automatic Handicap System and their handicaps reduced.
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