Sixteen qualifiers from 24 local tournaments, countrywide, met at Southport Croquet Club on 7th and 8th October to compete in this year’s All England ‘B’ level, Golf Croquet final, including David Boyd, from Chester, who qualified with his win at Bury in July.
Scoring was based on the number of wins in an all plays all competition, with everyone playing 8 games on Saturday and 7 on Sunday. The start of play was very soon followed by the start of the rain, which lasted on and off all Saturday resulting in 3 of the 4 primary lawns becoming un-playable. Fortunately Southport has the luxury of having additional, secondary lawns, where play continued.
David Boyd finished on Saturday with 5 wins out of 8, trailing the pack leaders by one. Thankfully no waterproofs were required for Sunday and as the day progressed speculation about the eventual winner grew and it wasn’t until late afternoon that David emerged as a ‘contender’. Having lost just one game on Sunday he finished with an overall total of 11 wins equal with the other top scorer, Paul Durkin of Long Eaton, Nottingham. However, Paul took the trophy beating David, into second place, on hoop difference.
