NDCC Advanced Play Finals & Ladies Semi Finals - Sun 10th Oct 1999

Advanced Play Competition

The final game in this competition, between the club’s two top players, ALEX LEGGATE and KRISS CHAMBERS, ranked 35th and 39th respectively in the British and Irish rankings, was played on Saturday. KRISS had already beaten the outsider, PETER DYKE, by 15 points, whereas ALEX had surprisingly lost to the unranked player by nine points. This meant that ALEX needed to win the game by 12 points to win the competition, and to win the game by four points to beat PETER. In previous encounters KRISS had beaten ALEX by two games to one. The scene was set for a fascinating final game.

Early in the game both players made mistakes and the innings kept on changing hands. Hoops two and seven (same hoop, opposite direction) seemed to be causing particular problems. Eventually, however, KRISS took the yellow ball round to hoop ten finishing with a good New Standard Leave (NSL). ALEX missed the lift shot. KRISS scored hoop one with red, but broke down at hoop two, blue’s hoop, using blue. ALEX took blue to hoop ten and black to the peg. This time he did a weak diagonal spread leave, but KRISS shot and missed. ALEX took blue to the peg and attempted a long pegout. He missed so he pegged out one ball leaving his partner ball by the peg. KRISS took a 15 yard shot at black and hit. He sent black near corner one and laid up by hoop two. ALEX played black to the west boundary giving himself a 13 yard shot at the peg. At this point KRISS needed to score only five more points to win the competition, but he stuck in the next hoop. Alex shot at the peg and missed by the narrowest of margins. KRISS did a four hoop break, but was unable to get a rush to his next hoop so he laid up. Again ALEX missed the peg and KRISS scored one more point. Over several turns KRISS scored no more than a hoop at a time, sending ALEX’s ball into one corner and laying up diagonally opposite. ALEX had several long shots at the peg, but missed each time. At one point KRISS took the opportunity to take the yellow ball to the peg. Eventually KRISS reached the eleventh hoop with the red ball. For once he failed to get ALEX’s ball into a corner and did a poor approach shot for his hoop. He attempted a difficult angled hoop, but stuck in the jaws. On this occasion ALEX shot at the yellow ball and hit and the two players mutually agreed to abandon the game at this point. ALEX had won the game, KRISS had won the competition, but who had come second? By abandoning the game at that point, the pair had left the Competition Secretary with a problem. If ALEX finished his turn there is little doubt that he would have pegged out and won by the four points required to put him in second place. However, he didn’t peg out and they stopped the game with ALEX only three points ahead, which would put ALEX and PETER equal on wins and equal on points and PETER in second place by virtue of ‘who beat whom’ between the two players. Perhaps this is a problem for the Croquet Association Laws Committee to consider! However the game itself was excellent, between two very well matched players and had been scheduled as an exhibition game last weekend. It is unfortunate that because of the poor weather conditions and the state of the lawns that the game could not have been played last week when the two players would have had far more spectators.

Results

KRISS CHAMBERS  beat  PETER DYKE +15

PETER DYKE  beat  ALEX LEGGATE +9

ALEX LEGGATE  beat  KRISS CHAMBERS +3 (game unfinished)

1  KRISS CHAMBERS, 1 win, +15, -3, total +12 points

2  PETER DYKE, 1 win, -15, +9, total -6 points

3  ALEX LEGGATE, 1 win, -9, +3, total -6 points

Ladies Singles Semi Final

In comparison, the Club’s Ladies Singles Semi Final was disappointing. MARY BARNES used her handicap advantage to establish an eleven point lead early in the game. PAT LONG was unable to find her best form and scored only five points. MARY kept her lead and won by ten points on time. In this two life event, MARY has already reached the final in the other half, having beaten PAT in the other semi final, and is therefore the overall winner.

Results   MARY BARNES  beat  PAT LONG  +8T,+10T