Katikati Croquet Tournament
In the afternoon Stableford haggle the round of the week was scored by Murray Butterworth with a staggering 48 points! Way back in second place was Wayne Brierly with a normally winning score of 41 points. Next were David P. Campbell and Chris Hale both with 39, while Jason Baldwin had 38. Mark Bryant and Graeme Parkinson both finished with 37 points.
The Katikati Refrigeration and Airconditioning Levels Croquet Tournament held over the weekend of October 7-8 was a success in various ways.
Despite rainy conditions being predicted we managed to get through all the matches in sunny conditions with only the last hour of play on Saturday striking some wet weather.
The tournament included some wonderful matches. The singles highlight of the tournament was between local Clive Taylor playing against former NZ representative Angus Coulter in the final round of the day in Division 1.
The match went to a play-off on the 13th hoop and Clive Taylor, using a very smart shot to bump up his own ball to a runnable hoop position, was able to take the match. The long roquet shots from all parts of the court kept the spectators delighted. With Clive taking this match, Angus’ loss to Neil Constable earlier allowed Neil to take the runner-up spot pushing Angus into 3rd place. Another local Elaine Robertson won the third division and George Wilks was runner-up in the second division. Both players started the day a little below par, but both picked up as the day progressed and made some stunning hoop shots. The second division was won by Graham Giles of Tauranga who made a clean sweep, winning all six matches.
The Doubles on Sunday was tightly contested with many of the matches going over an hour to complete. Most competitive matches generally take 40-60 minutes.
The singles winner Clive Taylor teamed up with Te Aroha player Alan Wilks to be runner-up to Bryan Christy and Bryan McMurray from Mount Maunganui.
Division 2 doubles was a close fought competition with Kevin Hughes and Dave Sherriff edged out by another Mount Maunganui pair Gavin Hall and Richard Goodall. However, Dave and Kevin combined so well together they pushed the top seeds Neil Constable and Cherie Baunton into 3rd place. Division 3 was a battle of the locals with Peter Jenkins and Trevor Williams taking the title and Grace Gilroy and Margaret Rawlins finishing in second place.