National Triumph
Billy Cooke pulled off a phenomenal win during the week to take his second national Golf Croquet ‘C’ Level title of the 2024 season.
Billy followed up on his victory at Bury in May, by winning the Woking GC ‘C’ Level Series on Thursday (13th June).
As many will know, Billy only took up Golf Croquet in the summer of 2023. In April, he narrowly missed out on victory in the Watford GC ‘C’ Series after being beaten in the final.
Billy’s day opened with a crushing defeat at the hands of six-handicap Howard Railton, who won the Block A match with a resounding 7-1 scoreline.
In his second match, Billy bounced back after winning a tight battle with Martin Birch, 7-6.
Billy went on to beat Ian Richardson 7-3 in the first knockout game, followed by a resounding win over Pam Please in the semi-final, 7-1.
In the final, Billy met Howard Railton again. Howard had beaten Billy 7-1 earlier in the day.
The final was much tighter and Billy finally took the title after taking Howard to the 13th hoop and eventually winning the game 7-6.
Billy told me “I somehow managed to win the thing despite losing my first game 7-1 to Howard.” Billy told me “Howard was a six-handicap who was much better than that.”
Well done Billy.
BROADWAS SINK AT BRISTOL
Report by Jeff Faulkner
Broadwas played their first ever match in the South West Federation 5+ Level Play League this week, away against Bristol, the reigning champions.
The Broadwas team consisted of playing Captain Jeff Faulkner, Eileen Holt, Gill Richardson, Howard Freeman and Billy Cooke.
This was always likely to be an inauguration of fire, but as Bristol had surprisingly lost their first league match of the season, they were more than fired up for this one and were SO red hot that they raced into a 6 -2 lead after the first two rounds of doubles, where only Billy and Eileen could muster a narrow win.
In the first round of singles, only Billy was victorious.
The Broadwas team was struggling to come to terms with the fast Bristol lawns, which although looking very level, had a lot of subtleties around the hoops, which the home team proved adept at using to their advantage.
Broadwas must have been fortified by their lunch, as there were two quick wins by Billy and Jeff to raise spirits but unfortunately Howard and Eileen suffered narrow defeats in the other two singles in the round, so Broadwas were trailing 8-4 with two rounds of singles to go.
Billy and Gill were quickly dispatched by a Bristol team scenting victory, in the third round of singles, but Broadwas hung on with Eileen having an easy win and Howard managing to take the 13th hoop in a close encounter. After that it the match stood at Broadwas being 6-10 down with just four singles games to go.
In the last round, Jeff was soundly beaten and Gill just lost out 7-6, but Howard and Eileen were now fully in the groove and secured good wins to make the final score of a 12-8 defeat for Broadwas, almost respectable.
Jeff Faulkner
And Finally…There’s A Winner!
Friday Rollup Maestro Chris Croft had no choice but to give away one of his treasured bottles of Champagne this week to one of the club’s youngest members, Emma Laws.
Emma was awarded one of the much-coveted Champagne Moment awards from Chris after Barry Kirby recommended her for the accolade after Emma scored an incredible hoop from the opposite side of the court, in a previous rollup.
