EARLY in May Camerton and Peasedown CC hosted a Croquet England National Tournament for B-level players. This was the first match of the B series tournament which runs all through the summer month.
Players, holding handicaps of 3 or higher, came to Camerton and Peasedown from clubs as far distant as Cheltenham CC, Budleigh Salterton CC and Swindon CC. Bristol CC and Bath CC were also represented.
The winner on the day was Steve Pearson (Sidmouth CC) and he will proceed to the national finals when they are held later this year at East Dorset CC. Also earning points in the competition were Tony Mayer (Swindon CC ), Steve Durston (Nailsea CC) and Martin Strange(Winterbourne Valley CC). CPCC’s own Des Back won the plate competition.
On May 9th in the Golf Croquet (GC) High Handicap League Camerton and Peasedown were away to Bath CC where they lost 15 points to 5. However, the final tally did not reflect how close the day’s games had been. Ten of the games were won or drawn at the final hoop and seven of these were decided at the 13th hoop. Patricia Naish was CPCC player-of-the-day winning four of the five games in which she played.
In the Golf Croquet Level play League for players of Handicapers of 5+ CPCC A were drawn against CPCC B in their first match. In this needle match the CPCC 'A' team was captained by Phil Hendy, and CPCC 'B' was captained by Jill Shaw; the result was a 10 all draw.
As the day played out, the games advantage swung first toward the A team and then back toward the B team but in the end there was nothing to separate the two Camerton and Peasedown teams. Top players in the A team were Robin Oldland and Phil Hendy. In the B team Charles Fingleton was top player.
In their first match of the season the CPCC top level Golf Croquet players hosted Taunton Deane. The morning rounds went well, and Camerton and Peasedown led 7-3 at lunchtime, but the team eventually lost the day 9 points to 11. David Milford had a notable success defeating Stephen Custance-Baker (Taunton), but sadly Colin Britt and Andy Loakes did not fare as well.
Camerton and Peasedown High Handicappers played at Llandaff (Cardiff) on May 20th. The final score was CPCC 7½ points to LLandaff 12½ points .