Bury Croquet Club - 2007 Season.

BURY are Double '07 NW League Champions!!

29th September 2007 - Bury Club Finals Day

Bury's Internal Competitions drew to a close today with Golf, Hcp and Advanced all played to conclusion.
Graham Saunders (right) having taken the 14point Short Lawn Title Last Weekend

Golf - Barbara Young beat Geoff Young 13 - 4 & 7 - 6 in best of three.
26 Point Hcp - Justin Brightmore beat David Barratt 26 - 4.
26 Advanced - David Barrett beat Paul Rigge 26 - 15.

All pictured here receiving trophies from Club Chair - Margaret Anderton

22nd & 23rd September 2007 - CA Heaton Park Advanced Weekend

Bury member Paul Rigge beat Southport's Bob Burnett in a best-of-three final +3 +17.

In the first game he went for a TP but was perhaps unlucky that the rover peel was only half successful, the striker's ball overrunning into the wire. Bob took B, 4b ball and pegged out Y, with K for 1, and almost held out in the two-against-one.
In the second game Paul eschewed peeling and got a steady win. He also secured a handicap reduction to scratch.

The Egyptian was won by James Hopgood of Meadows (Edinburgh).

Full results:

Round one
J Hopgood bt Sylvia Steer +18 TP
Richard Griffiths bt Peter Wilson +20
P Rigge bt Liz Wilson +4
Ray Lowe bt Michael Steer +11

Egyptians
Alan Pidcock bt Andrew Winn +8 TP
Bob Burnett bt David Barrett +3

Round 2
Winn bt Hopgood + 17 TP
Burnett bt Griffiths +17
Rigge bt Pidcock +17
Lowe bt Barrett +6

Egyp P Wilson bt S Steer +13
L Wilson bt M Steer +11

Round 3
Burnett bt Winn +24 TP
Rigge bt Lowe +4

Egyp Hopgood bt Griffiths +13
L Wilson bt S Steer +5
P Wilson bt M Steer +21
Barrett bt Pidcock +13
P Wilson bt Hopgood +8

Final Rigge bt Burnett +3 +17

Egyp Griffiths bt Winn +11
L Wilson bt P Wilson +10
Hopgood bt M Steer +3 (T)
Barrett bt S Steer +24
Pidcock bt Lowe +14
Barrett bt P Wilson +23
Hopgood bt L Wilson +15
Pidcock bt S Steer +12
Winn bt M Steer +14
Griffiths bt Lowe +21

8th September 2007 - CA Northampton C.C. Grass Roots

Bury member Pam Hunter in her First Year made the Final!
The weather was dry but cloudy and cold for spectators. Players travelled from as far afield as Watford, Herts. And Southport, Lancs.
Three lawns were used and the first rounds were played as timed doubles v singles on a round robin basis. The top 4 players then played timed semi-finals.
The final and third/forth play off was a 13pt game.
The North had only two representatives, Pam Hunter from Bury and Mary from Southport, both doing well to finish second and third of the top four.
The overall winner was Nick Archer from Woodall Spa, Lincs.
* Personal from Pam.- Having allowed for a possible delay on the journey my husband and I arrived at about 10.05, fairly early for an 11.00 o’clock start. I was surprised to find that I was first and the courts had not been set up. People soon arrived and I practised with Mary from Southport. We were fortunate with the draw and played our first match as a pair winning the game 5-3. It set the tone and we both progressed through to the last four. I played my semi-final against Dennis and beat him 6-4. Mary lost to Nick. I was applauded by the spectators during the final when I shot a hoop almost from the previous hoop. However I lost the game 3-7. All in all, a good day for Lancashire.*

3rd September '07

Bury members extended the playing season with practice under floodlights long into a very fine dry night!

1st September 2007 - NW Federation, Bury CC - Handicap Fun Doubles

Clean sweep for Bury Club members in both high & low handicap events.

The day lived up to it's billing, with all participants playing at speed and in very good humour.
This suburb of Manchester again failing to fulfil the 'Rainy City' tag, in this, the wettest year since records began.
The food was well up to the standards we have come to expect at Coronation Park - this is one for your diary for next year!

Low handicap group
1 Graham Saunders 4.5 wins, 52 hoops [ seen here receiving trophy from Bury CC Chair - Margaret Anderson ]
2 Barbara Young 4.5 wins, 49 hoops
3 = David Barrett, Geoff Young each 4 wins, 54 hoops

High handicap group
1 Jean Hargreaves 6.5 wins [ seen here receiving trophy from Bury CC Chair - Margaret Anderson ]
2 Joan Langridge 5 wins
3 Jean Oldfield 4 wins

13th & 18th August 2007 - CA Nottingham C.C.

Success again for Bury Club members Geoff and Barbara Young as they won the Handicap Doubles in this week long event.

11th & 12th August 2007 - CA Crake C.C. Advanced Weekend

Bury Club member Paul Rigge won, overcoming the Gazette editor Gail Curry in the final.

Paul was the beaten finalist at this event last year and took the extra step required this season to lift the 'Rock Clock' - The Lord Cavendish Clock, in so doing he becomes the first Bury member to win an event at this level.
The only loss he suffered, during the round-robin stages, was at the hands of a previous Bury member - now a Scotland National player - Chris Dent.

29th July 2007 - Annual Bury NW Federation Event, FUN DAY

Bury basked in warm sunshine,Yes Sunshine! as players came from all over the NW to contest for the three trophies available - if they could master the speed and slope of the lawns.


Excellent refreshments were provided by members, taken as lunch and tea (you can't play all day, can you?) with volunteers nobly running the kitchen full-time. Some two dozen players were kept on their toes by the pressure of ten-minute croquet.
The winner being Barbara Young and the runner-up being Bowdon visitor Joan Spilsbury.
In the Flamingoes chance-card variant some also were kept on one leg (hence the name).
This was won by Joan Spilsbury and Graham Saunders.
The Clock Golf was won by David Barrett.

22rd July 2007 Ashby - CA Event, Longman Cup

Bury team, again lead by Malcolm Hardman Narrowly Lost 5-2

The teams were;
Bury - Paul Kenworthy (7), Justin Brightmore (11), Malcolm Hardman [Cptn] (14) and Graham Sanders (16)
Ashby – Tim King [Cptn] (4.5), Jeremy Staley (10), Richard Sanville (11) and Geoff Ellott (16)
Full Results, Bury players first
MH & GS vs RS & GE -13
PK vs JS -4t
JB vs TK +14 (1 - 2) down at Lunch

PK vs TK -9, JB vs JS +22, MH vs RS -3t & GS vs GE -3.
The seven game format proved, as so often, to provide an exciting day of croquet and the Ashby courts once again demonstrated excellent drainage properties with having no ill effect from recent downpours, although slightly less grass would have been ideal. The weather co-operated and the participants only endured a very few spots of rain. During the day, Brightmore played the best croquet for Bury and when he won in the afternoon, this took Bury back to one behind at 2-3. All the attention turned to the matches of Sanville-Hardman and Ellott-Saunders, both on the same court and with plenty of changes of innings. Saunders was in good shape, having built a strong lead of nine hoops with both balls on rover. Ellott, however, began finally to discover some form and claw back, although Saunders did manage the first of his rover hoops. Meanwhile, Sanville had established a lead but Hardman began his recovery. For twenty minutes or so, Bury began to look good for a victory from behind. Ellott though sealed the win for Ashby despite being pegged out and a little later time ran out for the Hardman recovery to give a slightly generous scoreline for Ashby.

So that the end for Bury's Cup challenge this season, attention can now focus back on the leagues!

HEATON PARK HANDICAP WEEKEND 23 - 24 June 2007

Bury Croquet Club were delighted to stage this NEW TOURNAMENT at Heaton Park.
16 competitors with Handicaps from -1 to 24 came to brave the Manchester summer weather – rain was forecast, but didn’t arrive until round six, late Sunday afternoon.
Runaway winner was John Crossland, in his first tournament, rewarded by the trophy and a handicap cut from 20 to 14 for winning six out of six.
On five wins was Bury member Graham Saunders (reduction from 18 to 16).
6 wins John Crossland (20 to 14) 5 wins Graham Saunders (18 to 16) 4 wins Paul K (8 to 7), Lee Hartley 3 wins both Andertons, both Fosters, both Steves 2 wins DB, Len, Maggie, Betty

9th June 2007 Bury - CA Event, Longman Cup

Bury team lead by Malcolm Hardman WON 6-1

The teams were;
Bury - Paul Kenworthy (8), Justin Brightmore (12), Malcolm Hardman [Cptn] (14) and Graham Sanders (18)
Nottingham – Michael Finnigan [Cptn] (9), Don Martin (10), Bob Thompson (10) and Janet Booker (16)
Bury Lead 2-1 at lunch and the afternoon session bought wins in the singles for all Bury Members to give final score of 6-1.
Full Results, Bury players first
MH & GS vs MF & JB +6t
PK vs DM -8
JB vs BT +10t
PK vs MF +8, JB vsDM +2t, MH vs BT +23 & GS vs JB +20.
The lawn was fast, very fast, the sky was blue, perfect conditions - but a bit humid!

19th & 20th May 2007 Chester - NW Federation Millennium Hcp Weekend

Bury team member Justin Brightmore ended the weekend the overall winner

Here seen receiving his award from Barry Keen, Chairman of the NW Federation

This was the second time that Chester has hosted the event. Thirteen players from five North West clubs, Bowdon, Bury, Chester, Fylde and Southport, took part in the competition. Each participant played three 3 hour full lawn matches on Saturday and two 3 hour matches on Sunday. After a grey, chilly and blustery start on Saturday morning the weather improved during the afternoon and evening and playing conditions on Sunday were ideal. Three competitors won four out their five matches and the final result was determined on points. Justin Brightmore of Bury, playing off a handicap of 12, achieved first place and David Guyton of Chester, with a handicap of 14, came second. Barry Keen, Chairman of the North West Regional Federation of the Croquet Association, presented the awards at the end of the tournament. He complimented the winners and Chester Croquet Club for hosting the event and contrasted the pleasant conditions this year with the cancellation caused by heavy rain last year.

20th May 2007 - Mary Rose CA Cup run

Bury team lead by Paul Rigge traveled to Bowden to meet in Bury's inaugural outing in this advanced level club competition. Bury were always going to be the underdogs and so it proved with the final result for the day being a loss 2-5.
The teams were;
Bury - Paul Rigge (1), Barbara Young (4), Ken Anderton (4) and Paul Kenworthy (8)
Bowdon – Andrew Winn (1.5) David Walters (1.5), Mike Sandler (3) and Sylvia Steer (4)
Bury’s two points coming from “the Ken’s” – Ken Anderton & Paul Kenworthy.
So that ended our interest in this event for 2007 but such was the enjoyment by all concerned, we will try again next year!

1st May 2007 - Progressive Golf Doubles

In glorious sunshine, 14 members took part.
The event was managed with the players in 2 blocks of 7 people each.
Each played 7 games playing with a different partner for 6 of the games in their block and playing as solo for 1 game.
Also each person played against the other players in their block twice.
At the end of the 7 games in each block the 4 highest played a semi-final in each block
Colin and Marie played against Sheila and Jean (Oldfield); David (Dean) and Len played against Joan and Brian (Giller).
The final was between Colin and Marie against Len and David. It was a very tight game ending in a win for Len and David 6-5 on time.
An excellent day was enjoyed by all concerned.

The Lancashire International Open Golf Croquet Tournament won by Ian Lines (Bowden)

April 14-15 2007 Heaton Park Commonwealth Facility

Hosted by Bury CC

Mangaged by Bury member Geoff Young.

Lines bt King 7-6 7-5 5-7 7-5 in final

The Neil Williams Advanced Tournament, 'A' won by Ian Lines 'B' won by Ray Lowe (Southport)

March 31/April 1 2007 Heaton Park Commonwealth Facility

Hosted by Bury CC

Mangaged by Bury member Geoff Young.

Lines 6/8 Lowe 6/6