The British Opens

Heralded as "the most competitive tournament in the world" (Brian Cumming, national champion), the British Opens were my first experience in a major international tournament.

I traveled to Fairford (a town 45 minutes from Cheltenham) with Paul Bennet to stay with Ron's relatives on the cheap. Ron introduced us to his kind aunt and uncle and then sent Paul and I off to stay with his less than accommodating curmudgeon of an uncle who terrorized him as a child. Gee, thanks Ron.

Playing in the Opens was an eye opening experience, I was finally able to meet the juggernauts of the game (Fulford, Bamford, Mulliner, Death, etc.) whom I had heard and read so much about. David Maugham organized a creative opening round format; a swiss in which six wins or six losses decided whether you made the playoffs. The best players ended up with a difficult road as they continued winning, and those with losing records fought tooth and nail to get closer to that winning record and that chance at the best of three, single elimination knock out. The doubles was a simple best of three knockout.

Paul and I continued our fruitful partnership and started against Samir Patel (top 20 in the world and eventual singles finalist) and his partner Louise Bradforth. We played on a court with some character (about half of the courts had some unique rolls) and played a quick clean match winning +23, +26tp (my triple).

This put us up against compatriot Danny Huneycutt and David "the Goat" Goacher, known for his off-whites, slow pace, and unique technique. David bends at close to a right angle, rarely stalks the ball, plays with a very spread standard grip with his top hand hinging near his chest. He lines up his accurate shots with a few hundred casting swings and occasionally refuses to shoot; opting to back off, scratch himself, and line up once again. These antics proved great basis for drinking games late in the day as we watched David run patient breaks around in the twilight.

Our match was an epic four day encounter stopping and starting with rain delays and having to be pegged down several times in the rain and dark. Despite my very delayed (first peel after hoop 6) triple in the second game, Paul and I were defeated +25, -20 tp, +15tp (Danny's triple). Danny and the Goat (feel free to sing their name to the theme of Benny and the Jets) managed to scrape out some amazing victories only to be defeated by the heavily favored Fulford and Death in a best of 5 final. The last few rounds that Fulford and Death Played were quite interesting as Robert could not miss, hitting in 3rd or 4th turn nearly every game and leaving it to James to finish. Normally this would be entirely standard and boring, but Robert insisted that James not drink in the final rounds. James was markedly uncomfortable, and maybe it was just the pressure, but many speculated the sobriety was not helping his mental state.

The singles swiss was hard to organize (and David Maugham did an amazing job; taking a half hour or less to figure out each round of 40 pairings) but eliminated so called "dead games" which often occur when people know whether they have made the knock out or not and have to play their somewhat meaningless remaining games. The swiss was seeded to start with leaving #2 in the world against 17 year-old James LeMoignan, son of Tony LeMoignan who is an established world-class player from the Isle of Jersey. James had yet to play a top level tournament, and this was one of his first away from home. Tony had soberly told James not to expect to win any games, let alone against Fulford. After a failed sextuple and a failed quadruple peel, James managed to hit in and score a triple peel against #2 in the world! James went on to qualify for the knockout before Tony did. So much for Tony's preditction.

I started off with two quick losses to David Foulser and WCF persident David Openshaw -19tp and -3tp respectively. I managed to beat my former host, Ian Vincent +19, and take down a young upstart Chris Chambers +26dp. I had to face my compatriot Stewart Jackson, but I managed to dispatch him +17tp. Having worked my way to a winning record, my competition heated up. Now I faced #5 in the world James Death, who would go on to win the doubles title. James set up for the sextuple peel and I got extremely lucky and hit in. It would be pretty hard to build a break, so I set a nice leave giving James a 26 yard hit in chance. Wouldn't you know it, he hit in and got the sextuple peel anyways. I got lucky in that my next two opponents hit in first, but both missed shots after making hoop 1. I beat Martin Murray +25 and Tony LeMoignan +23. At 5-3 I had a chance to qualify without that stressful win or go home game.

I had to play Jack "Wicksy" Wicks, a 20 year-old kid who has been mentored a bit by Fulford. I played against him in the East Midlands where I managed two clean 6th turn triples. Wicksy hit in first and went around. I managed to hit in, but I couldn't get the break. Eventually I got that ball around and managed to get my three peels. The last peel was a straight rover, leaving me no shot on the wicket. Wicksy only got one hoop on the ensuing turn and set a leave. I calmed my nerves and hit in from 18 yards, but after making rover, I worried so much about getting my partner ball staked out, that I missed the 4 yard return roquet! Wicksy ran into trouble around hoop 6 leaving me one last chance. I watched as my 42 foot shot stayed on line and hit, dead center. I had two balls for the peg while he was for hoop 6 and penultimate. My partner ball was near corner two, nd I couldn't get a rush on it to peg out. I set one last leave, but Wicksy hit in as well. He managed to get his double peel and win by 2. I recovered poorly, missing a few easy hoops in a 24 point loss to Ian "Digger" Burridge.

That woke me up. I had to play Sam Tudor in a game to go. We were both 5-5, so this game decided one of the last spots in the playoff. We were on the showcase court right in front of the clubhouse at the end of the day. There was quite a crowd to watch us young guns go at it. I went East of hoop 4, while Sam played the Duffer tice. Knowing I needed to focus, I shut out the peanut gallery and hit the 18 yarder. I managed to turn it into a third turn break around, giving Sam the 3 ducks leave. He missed, and in front of some o fthe best players I've met, in a win or go home situation, I ran the second 5th turn triple of my career.

We Americans did well, with Danny and Paul qualifying in only 10 games and David Bent qualifying in a nail biting game against his doubles partner Ron Lloyd. I've been told that there had never been four Americans in the Opens Knockout. We didn't get much furthur than that.
I went down -17tp, -26tp to Mark Avery; Danny lost to Robin Brown; David lost to David Maugham; Paul did the best, losing in three games to Jonothan Kirby.

There were two separate consolation events: an official plate and a Z-event to allow people to play as much as they would like. I was able to win a few games in the plate, but was knocked out by Richard Jenkins by way of a triple. In a few extra games I managed my first tpo. When it came to the semi-final, there was a bit of uproar over the random top four seeds. The random seeding put Robert Fulford and Reg Bamford in the same half and up against eachother in the best of five semi-final. I really wanted to watch the match, as did my opponent Peter Trimmer. I was glad to allow him time to watch as I got my third ever 5th turn triple. We were able to watch the most impressive display on a croquet court I could have imagined.

Reg played first, and missed the third shot. Robert hit on fourth turn, set the sextuple leave, and ran a 6th turn sextuple for game one. Reg only missed two shots, one of which was 28 yards or so. In game two Robert played first, hit third turn and got a 5th turn triple. Reg only missed one shot. Game three was a repeat of game one, except Robert also hit on second turn and spread the balls out. All in all, Robert beat #3 in the world allowing him only 5 shots, 2 of which were tea lady shots. Robert went on to win against Samir Patel in the final. I was knocked out of the Z-event by a sextuple, meaning of the three events (the knockout, plate, and z-event) I was knocked out by three triples and a sextuple. At least my opponents had to perform to beat me.

I left England a few grade and index points ahead, a U.S. team event and a major WCF event under my belt, and a 23-18 record. It was an amazing adventure and I feel it was a formative time in my croquet life.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Brits?

Our Solomon Trophy test match started as a MacRobertson Shield format with 6 players per team, each player playing 2 singles matches (best of 3) and the three doubles teams playing each of the other three teams. The doubles partnerships fell into place for us as Ron and David had played together before and Paul and I had played often in the West, leaving Danny and Stewart as our best ranked team.

[I get a bit verbose here, reporting the first few rounds in detail. This only attests to the excitement in play, while many games were triples to form, some had amazing back an forth and a few had 6 (or more) peels.]

(The bowler turned US croquet player
topiary was named George Bush)

We started with a bit of ceremony and a day of doubles matchups. Ron and David were quickly overpowered (possibly thanks to their late arrival and lost bag) by Jonathan Kirby and Ian Lines with two +26tp games, impressive. Danny and Stewart fared slightly better, but only slightly. Ian "digger" Burridge and David Maugham won with a +25tp, +26tp match. Meaning Danny and Stewart got a wicket! Paul and I were matched up with Keith Aiton and Tony LeMoignan who dispatched with us +26tp on the fifth turn of the first game. We didn't get to take croquet. In the second game, Paul failed to hit on third turn and Tony hit a 20 yarder to get going, but he missed 3-back! Paul took the first break around and while I failed ot get any peels, Keith missed the hit in allowing Paul to finish a +18 game putting the Yanks on the board! With our spirits high, we watched an instant replay of the first game as Keith ran another fiifth turn triple for the +26tp win in which we did not take croquet.

(These four beautiful courts were immaculate
and fast, thanks to Paul Rigg)

After round one we were 0-3 in matches 1-6 in games and 27-156 in wickets. Ouch.
Round two saw Burridge and Maugham beat up on Ron and David, but Ron did take a nice 9 hoop break around bringing the scores to +26tp, +17tp. Danny and Stewart took a game off of Keith and Tony but still lost +26tp, -26, +17.
In our match against Kirby and Lines, Paul played the archtypal hero. In the first game, Paul hit in on fourth turn only to miss wicket 2. After Kirby ran a beautiful break, Linesy missed a hampered shot after just dribbling through wicket 6. Paul took his ball around to 4-back and willed Jonathan to miss for me. I was working on a delayed triple, getting the first peel before wicket 6, but only jawsing the penultimate peel before making 4-back. I failed to get Paul into peeling position at rover and asked if he minded me trying a post-humous peel (peeling rover after I had already made the wicket myself). Paul replied, "I don't see why not." Only to watch me jaws the peel and follow with, "I guess that's why not." I spread the balls out and staked out my ball (in retrospect, a bad decision since they were both for wickets that allowed us balk line lifts). After hitting in, they set a nice leave and Paul was playing one-legged. Paul decided to put his hero hat on and hit a 21 yarder; but alas, after making rover, he had no shot on any ball (hampered). Paul decided to go for the peg from 7 yards, through the wicket. Sure enough, he hit giving us the +11 victory. The second game was quite defensive with the first three hit in's resulting in only two wickets, but I was able to set a trap and make my way to 4-back. After the missed lift shot, Paul ran a form delayed triple until he was left with a horribly angled peel at rover. Having yet to hit the near ball at rover, Paul decided to try an Aspinall peel (while jawsing peelee, one lats the sriker ball roll cannon the ball through on the same shot) that Jim Bast had showed us the day before. It worked wonders and Paul secured our first match +11, +25tp!

We all enjoyed a wonderful cookout at David Maugham's house in and the brits offered to change the format. We were so ahead of schedule we could play best of 5 singles matches or each have three best of 3 matches. After a bit of back and forth about what served us best (trying to win the test match or playing more games and developing) we decided to each play three singles matches.

Our first singles matches had some predictable results as the British team had much more depth. The lowest ranked Brit (Burridge) was ranked #38 in the world (our best, Danny, was #42) while our lowest ranked player (Ron) was #90.
Paul put up a great fight, but lost -10tpo, +24tp, -8tpo to Tony. Digger had a straight triple in game tow beating David +3tp, +23stp. Jonathan Kirby didn't give Ron much to play with winning +25, +26tp. Stewart had a close one with Linesy, but lost +26tp, +9. My match against David "the Beast" Maugham started well as I managed a very delayed triple +25tp. After ruining my first break chance in game two he decided to Popp (peel me through 1 and 2) my ball in the so I was for hoops 3 and 4, very small chance of getting a triple. It proved overkill as I missed the lift shot and he finished +21tp. In the third game he tried to sextuple, but only missed 3-back after getting four peels. I took a ball around only to watch him hit in and win in two turns, -25tp, +21tp, +17. Danny proved to be the best prepared as he battled with Keith (#4 in the world at the time) and won +13, -6tp, +25tp!

(The Solomon Trophy with our mascots)

Danny continued to take down giants. He played in a near perfect match against the Beast -26tp, +26tp, +26tp as well as taking down Linesy -17tp, +17tp, +25 for a perfect 3-0 record! Paul, Ron, and David were all defeated, while David got a nicce +26tp victory over Tony LeMoignan.
Keith rebounded from his loss to Danny by beating up on me +11tpo, +26tp. My last match against Ian was most unusual.
In the first game, I managed to take the first break around only to watch him hit in and do the same. His second break didn't go so well as he missed position at 2, and after getting it going again he could not get any peels. After a missed lift shot he managed to blob 4-back! I could either play the front ball with an easy break to the peg or play a leave for the back ball. I chose to go to the peg, but he hit the leave and pegged two balls out. Now it was 1v1 with him for 4-back while I was for hoop 1. He actually managed to make 4-back before I made hoop 1, but he had to be careful making punultimate with me around wickets 2 and 3. I managed to get nice close position at 3 as he "deemed" (passed) in corner 2. I decided to be coy and I played into the jaws, then more than halfway through the jaws at three while he waited in corner 2, deeming all the while. I was able to "turn the corner" with three well played shots; making 3 while setting up at 4, making 4, and getting decent position at 5 all in one turn. As I prepared to do the same through 5 and 6, I got him to shoot at me in the jaws at 5. When I eventually set up at 1-back he played to the middle of the north boundary, only 10 yards away! Just the opportunity I was waiting for. Of course, I missed him, allowing him to make penultimate, put me back on th enorth boundary and get position at rover. I had no play but to hit him, now 24 yards away, so I did. I got poition at 1-back and he went back in front of rover. With no margin for error, I made 1-back, hit the 9 yarder I had at him, and ran the sloppiest 2-ball break around to penultimate. I had no rush to rover, so I took off and made rover and escaped to the East boundary. He took position at rover and I could play north of the peg, or shoot at him... I hit him from 13 yards and won, having overcome a 10 hoop deficit in one-ball.
The second game was much more ordinary. I was able to run around on the third turn (three-ball breaks are much easier than two ball breaks, let me tell you). And he missed the lift shot at my three ducks-in-a-row. While I braved multiple heavy downpours, I managed to get my three peels and as I rounded 4-back, a camera crew arrived and was taping me. Not wanting to bore them with ordinary footage, I put my first ever 5th turn triple at risk by just barely running penultimate and having to get Danny to ref a 5 yard sweep shot. I thought, "Just great, the Brits can watch me miss on the news." Thankfully I hit and finished the triple giving me a +2, +26tp victory over #7 in the World.

(The British team, left to right: Ian Lines,
David Maugham, Tony LeMoignan, Ian Burridge,
Jonathan Kirby, Keith Aiton and officiant Colin Irwin)

Meanwhile, Stewart had the most eventful matches against the Beast and Keith. David Maugham showed Stewart Fulford-like perfection with a +26 sxp, +16tp victory. As the matches finished and an actual crowd appeared, Stewart had to take on Keith Aiton. In a scrappy game 1, Stewart gave us something to cheer for with a +19 win over #4 in the world. But Keith took charge with a delayed sextuple ending with a straight triple (rush peeling through 4-back after making 3-back). Stewart started out well in game three, but missed 3-back. Just when we thought we'd seen it all, Keith started the third game with a very wierd play, double loading 3. We all wondered if he would try a quadruple peel out, but Danny said, "Uh-oh, he's gonna do an octuple!" Sure enough, we five Americans sat together watching a near perfect octuple which ended up ahead of Keith's sextuple as he peeled penultimate on the way to 4-back. As Keith pegged out we five students of the game, lead by our team captain, Danny Huneycutt, walked out to the bounadary string and bowed to the master.


While we lost the match 21-6, we played well and learned a lot. We also gained a new US team supporter, a British defecter:

(Our newest fan)

Croquet Calendar

I'm trying to create a comprehensive calendar of North American croquet events. I would love to have it as an open forum for people to post and edit and 9-wicket, American, Association, or Golf Croquet tournaments.
I have had trouble in the past finding out which tournaments are overlapping or how I could travel to an area once and play in more than one tournament. Hopefully this helps croquet players to better organize their schedule.
Nothing against the USCA's list or Stuart Lawrences schedule or even the Croquet Calendar, but Something that includes all events might be helpful to all players.
With that in mind, check out this Google Calendar.
Or just scroll down as I embedded it at the bottom of this blog.