Sidmouth Herald published 1 May 2015
Photo: Haste Cup winner Chris Roberts receives the trophy from Amanda Haste
Sidmouth Croquet Club was the venue for the Haste Cup, a Croquet association Open Golf Croquet Tournament, writes David Butler.
Sixteen top class players (handicaps from minus one to five), from as far afield as Dyffryn in Wales, Northampton and Sussex came to play, many using it as an excuse for a weekend in Sidmouth!
A player from Budleigh was the only one from this area and unfortunately noone from the host club took part this year.
The players were divided into two ‘blocks’ of eight, each player playing a 13-point game against the other players in the block.
Most of the block games were played on Saturday, some in the increasingly cold and wet weather. By the end of play on Saturday it was fairly obvious which players would go forward to the semi-finals.
The semi-finals were contested on the Sunday with Chris Roberts (Henley) taking on William Ormerod (Swanage) and Richard Brooks (Sussex) meeting Tony Forbes (Cheltenham). These matches are the best of three 13 point games.
Forbes needed three games to get the better of Brooks whilst in the other match Roberts needed just games to get the better of Ormerod.
In the final, again the best of three 13-point games, zero handicapped Roberts and one handicap Forbes produced some excellent play.
It was the accuracy of the long shots from Roberts that was the difference and he sealed victory in two games to be a most worthy winner.
The Cup was then presented to the winner by Amanda Haste, a ‘country’ member of the croquet club, now living in France. Amanda donated the cup for the tournament when if was first held a few years ago.
The dates were announced for 2016, and hopefully all the players will return next year.