Scottish Croquet Association

Chairman's Rosebowl and Malmet Trophy 2013

14-16 September 2013, Meadows

There were 12 players available for this year's SCA invitation events, and so they all got places and both events were fully populated - though two of those in the Malmet were absent on the third day and played some of their games early to compensate.  The line-up was:

Chairman's Rosebowl:
James Hopgood (handicap -2, dynamic grade 2351, world ranking 32)
John Surgenor (0, 1877, 231)
Brian Murdoch (0, 1863, 243)
Bryan Sykes (1.5, 1654, 448)
Fergus McInnes (2.5, 1623, 470)
Alan Wilson (3.5, 1561, 531)

Malmet Trophy:
Janice Duguid (6, 1414, 691)
Jamieson Walker (7, 1366, 718)
Bob Darling (7, 1365, 720)
Hamish Duguid (8, 1297, 755)
Joe Lennon (10, 1260, 769)
David Houston (14, not in rankings)

Both trophies were won by the respective highest-ranked players, with James remaining undefeated; Janice lost two games to Bob, but still came out ahead and got her handicap down to 5.

In the Chairman's there were some upsets on the first day, when John lost to Alan and Fergus, and Fergus also won a low-scoring game against Brian.  (After running hoop 1 in the turn after time, and failing to approach hoop 2, Fergus began clearing the balls off the lawn before realising that the scores were level and they would have to play on for a "golden hoop".  Brian then had a chance to win, but ran 3-back the wrong way, giving Fergus the innings and an eventual winning score of 11 points to 10.)  The day finished with James on 4/4, John and Fergus and Bryan trailing on 2/4, and one game pegged down between Brian (0/3 so far) and Alan (1/3).

The pegged-down game was resumed on Sunday morning - in very different conditions, windy and rainy after Saturday's fair weather - with seven minutes on the clock, and was won by Brian on time.  Brian also won his next two games, but lost to James, to end the day on 3/7, equal with Fergus and behind James (7/7) and John (4/7), with Bryan and Alan on 2/7.  James had two triple peels and one sextuple (against Bryan on lawn 3, the usual location for such feats at the Meadows) to add to his two triples on Saturday.  Two eighth-round games were started but pegged down: James v Alan, and Brian v John.

Monday morning started sparsely with just one game in the Chairman's (Fergus v Bryan), as John and Brian had arranged to resume their game later in the morning and James was absent until lunch time.  Fergus managed another upset, which like his win over John was achieved after pegging out one of his opponent's balls.  In the resumed game John beat Brian to remain in contention on 5/8, though he would need to win his remaining two games and have James lose his last three to force a tie-breaker.  His hopes were put to an end by a loss to Bryan, but would have been extinguished anyway by James's next result, +25QP against Fergus (who had his chances but made very little of them).  The afternoon's results were a mixture except that James maintained his winning streak.  James and Alan completed their pegged-down game after round 10, and it left James with 10 wins, well ahead of John and Brian with 5 each.

In the Malmet, the early games left Jamieson and Janice undefeated on 3/3 and 1/1 respectively, Hamish on 0/1 and David on 0/3.  David did better on Saturday with wins over Hamish and Bob; Janice won all her games, inflicting Jamieson's first defeat by one point on time in the third round of the day.  At the end of Saturday, with three games pegged down, Janice was on 4/4 and Jamieson on 5/6, with the rest far behind (David 2/6, Joe 1/3, Hamish 1/4, Bob 0/3).  Sunday was a much better day for Bob, who won four games (against Joe, Jamieson, David and Hamish) and achieved the only pegged-out finish of the tournament in the second of these - in fact with three balls pegged out, as he put Jamieson's forward ball out of the game.  Janice remained undefeated on Sunday night, on 8/8, and was now assured of the title since Jamieson, the nearest contender, had finished his 10 games and won only 7 of them.  Only five games remained to be played on Monday: Bob continued his run of success by beating Janice twice, while Hamish had two wins over Joe, and Bob had his seventh consecutive win, also over Joe, at the end of the day to finish equal with Jamieson on 7/10.

The Malmet results brought three handicap changes: Janice came down to 5 and Hamish went up to 9 at the end of Sunday, and Joe went up to 11 at the close of the tournament.

Fergus McInnes.

Results

Chairman’s Rosebowl

Malmet Trophy

Sunshine after the storm on Sunday (and a scattering of debris on the lawn); John Surgenor in play.

Spectators look out from the relative warmth of the pavilion.

Brian Murdoch approaching penult on lawn 2 on Sunday afternoon.

The aftermath: Brian's ball stuck in penult, and his opponent Bryan Sykes on the lawn.

James Hopgood lines up his last peg-out.

James receives the Chairman's Rosebowl for the fifth year in succession.

Janice Duguid receives the Malmet Trophy.