Jackson and Jelly progress to national final
With all South West Federation League matches cancelled due to COVID-19, Bath Croquet Club have been running a limited number of internal tournaments to provide some competitive matches.
On September 5 the club held an internal tournament heat of the National One Ball Competition in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. 16 players enjoyed a day of croquet in socially distanced surroundings and many wore something green to reflect the charity’s main colour.
After six rounds, Tony Jackson emerged as the winner, with Richard Jelly as the runner-up. These two players will now go on to represent Bath in the National Final.
Last Saturday the Bath Croquet Club lawns at the Rec were bathed in glorious late summer sunshine for this year’s Finals Day, the culmination of a league competition which had kept a total of 42 club members busy for the past two months. Between them they had played 112 matches of Golf Croquet and 64 matches of Association Croquet.
Tony Curson and Clare Fletcher, the GC League finalists, played their best-of-three match in the morning, watched by about a dozen club members, carefully socially distanced.
Game 1 was won by Fletcher after an exciting and very hardglad fought contest, but the match winner overall was Curson, fighting back in Games 2 and 3 with a welcome resumption of form to win 5-7, 7-2, 7-3.
He was presented with the Bath Salver by BCC Chairman, Andrew Willis.
In the afternoon Bob Hart and Nigel Dawson Cocks, the AC League finalists, played an extremely long, close game, full of inter-reactivity, before Hart emerged as the winner with a beautifully constructed and skilfully played final turn – a worthy winner of this year’s League Salver, presented by Philip de Glanville, Finals Day manager.