East v West of Scotland 2006

3-4 June 2006, Meadows

The annual East-West match, instituted in 2003, has always been a varied event, with a mixture of level advanced and handicap play, and usually a few one-ball or 14-point games thrown in.  This year it became still more so with the addition of Golf Croquet, which widened its appeal to include some newish Meadows Club members who had never taken part in a tournament before.  The remainder of the tried-and-trusted recipe was retained from previous years: no entry fee, no counting of results for index points, plenty of food and drink and a relaxed convivial atmosphere.

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Scottish Masters 2006

27-28 May 2006, Meadows

New Winner of Scottish Masters Shock!

Well, not really.  In the previous fifteen years of its existence there have been eleven different winners and since only one of them was taking part this year the tradition was quite likely to continue.  Very unfortunately the tournament, as sometimes in the past, clashed with the CA's Inter-counties weekend, and this meant the absence of several home-based and Northumberland-based players (including previous winners Gail Curry and Bruce Rannie) who might otherwise have been expected to play, as well as virtually eliminating any chance of attracting low-handicap visitors from further south of the border (like previous winners Ian Bond and Strat Liddiard).

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SCA v CA of Ireland 2006

20-21 May 2006, Meadows

Six Irish players came to Edinburgh at a cold showery May weekend to defend the Appleton Trophy, which they had retained last year with a home win at Carrickmines.  The Scottish team was weaker on paper, with higher handicaps at the middle four places in the order, and an analysis based on handicaps would have predicted a 20-10 win for the visiting side, but upsets in such circumstances are not unknown...

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Basil Townsend Quaich 2006

27 May 2006, Auchincruive

Alan Hawke (Edinburgh) won with 3/3 wins.
James Hopgood (Meadows) second with 2/3; Duncan Reeves (Glasgow) 1/3, and Malcolm Smith (Auchincruive) Handicap from 10 to 11!

Malcolm Smith

Croquet North v SCA 2006

6-7 May 2006, Tyneside

This year's version of the annual contest for the porcelain beer-pump handle (the Newcastle Breweries' trophy) took place in generally fine weather on Tyneside's more than adequate lawns in Exhibition Park, Newcastle.  It was therefore disappointing, and rather indicative of the overall standard of play, that half of the twenty matches went to the time limit of 2½ hours.  Only Derek Watts (at 3 the lowest handicapped player involved) played consistently well in winning – and pegging out in – all his singles matches, though Phil Errington in winning three of his four singles and both his doubles also showed his quality from time to time.

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