On Saturday, 17 May, Chester hosted a National C-Level Golf Croquet tournament at its Westminster Park Croquet Club. Early sunshine was promising but that chilly NE wind kept jumpers and gloves as necessary accessories. Twelve players came from Crake Valley in the Lakes, Bury, Llanfairfechan in North Wales, Budleigh Salterton in Devon and Chester, to compete to win the tankard and a place in the National All-England final at Eastbourne in September.
From the start the two strongest players showed their form and quickly established a commanding lead. Both Sandy Grievson from Chester and John Bowes from Crake Valley won all their games in the initial Block competition. The chasers were Brenda Duplock from Budleigh Salterton and Simon Attwell from Bury. Brenda Knight and Karen Bowes, both from Crake Valley were also in contention.
But the leaders were not to be thwarted and Sandy Grievson and John Bowes played out their destinies in a thrilling final with Sandy racing to a 7 to 3 victory and the winner’s tankard. Bury’s Simon Attwell overcame Devonian Brenda Duplock to take third place.
On the following day, Sunday, 18 May, eight players assembled to compete in the new National D-Level Golf Croquet tournament. The sun shone again but the chilly wind blew.
After Saturday’s tournament it was expected that the better players would again make an early showing and this was the case in the first games with Christine Fryer and Gail Thomas, both from Chester, leading the field. But after lunch the knock-out phase changed the outlook with David Mann of Chester and Ursula Walker from Fylde near Blackpool (both on the lowest 12 handicap rung) beating the favourites in the semi-finals. David and Ursula’s final match was played as a a first-to-ten, longer game and proved to be a high tension battle with David just beating Ursula by one hoop to win the tankard. Ursula took the engraved runner-up plate back to Fylde and everyone took a bottle of wine home to toast their success or drown their sorrows.
