Croquetwest

Today saw the conclusion of the 2024 WCF GC World Championship event. In a seesawing match, Blake Fields ruled supreme in the 5th game, after earlier winning the first two games. with a bevy of fine shots. Robert did well to fight back by winning games 3 and 4 to force a decider. The skills shown by both players were incredible.

Full results can be found on Croquetscores.

Earlier in the day, James Galpin won the Plate 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 after surviving an amazing comeback from Patricio who was down 2-6 in the third game.

Yesterday, Sherif Abdelwahab was successful in the Bowl with Edmund Fordyce winning the Shield.

Jeff Soo, the Tournament Manager and his helpers, Eileen and Rocky worked tirelessly throughout the event.

A special thanks also to the referees and volunteers who also worked non stop through the event.

Yesterday saw the conclusion of the quarter-final stage of the Championship knockout, and the opening rounds of the Bowl and Plate KO events.

There were certainly some exciting matches. Blake and Brian finished in the dark on the 13th hoop and Tom and Khaled also finished their 5th game on the 13th hoop. If you haven’t had the chance yet, make sure you watch the last three hoops Khaled made. Talk about clutch.

In the earlier matches, both Robert and Euan played brilliantly and dominated their opponents.

Order of Play for today

The Championship

Court 13: Robert Fletcher vs. Euan Burridge
Court 14: Khaled Kamel vs. Blake Fields

The Bowl

Semi-finals and final.

Court 15: Jenny Clarke vs. Andres Alvarez-Sala
Court 11: Sherif Abdelwahab vs. Angharrad Walters

The Plate Knock Out

Players in the unfinished Round 1 matches (Sam Cuthbert, Nathan Bullen, Ian Burridge, Lionel Tibble) please be ready by 9:00. All others (Patricio Garay, Manuel Alvarez-Sala, Richard Bilton, Adam Barr, TeKiri King, James Galpin) please be ready by 10:00.

The semi-finals will be played in the afternoon.

The Shield

The final, Stephen Morgan vs. Edmund Fordyce, will by played in the early afternoon.

On the way home yesterday we found this great little spot in Topping called the Merrior Tasting Room. We had a wander around the dock before heading to the Prime Mediterranean restaurant to celebrate Peter’s birthday.

Fun Fact. 2024 celebrates 20 years of croquet at Forrest Park, and 75 years for our club colours of royal blue, light blue and brown.

Our green courts and lovely native gardens, including the everlastings in spring, would not to be here without our loyal members and a community that hires our venue for meetings, special events and croquet parties.

We greatly appreciate and thank our members and local community for their ongoing support.

Give croquet a go!

The last game to determine the final field for the KO stage finished at 8pm last night. It was a long day for some, whilst the majority arrived at the Piankatank River Golf Club at around 5pm for the draw ceremony and tournament dinner. Obviously the draw couldn’t go ahead but the reception and dinner was a fun event.

The playing depth of the Knock Out field is amazing and is reflected by the world rankings of those who were good enough to top their blocks.

• Robert Fletcher – 1
• Ahmed Elmady -2
• Ahmed Nasr -3
• Matthew Essick – 5
• Mohammed Kareem -7
• Khaled Kamel -11
• Reg Bamford -20
• Ben Rothman -22

When you add- Yasser Sayed 3, Mohammed Nasr 6, Edmund Fordyce 15 and Felix Webby 17 into the mix, you get a true sense of how strong the field is.

The top half of the KO are due to play at 8:30 this morning with some very exciting match ups.

• Robert Fletcher Vs Tim Russell 
• Jose Alvarez-Sala vs Greg Fletcher
• Mohammed Nasr vs Tamer Hatata 
• Aston Wade vs Ben Rothman
• Mohammed Karem vs Jenny Clarke
• David Maloof vs Jose Riva
• Sherif Abdelwahab vs Euan Burridge
• Matthew Essick vs Andres Alvarez Sala

Streaming starts today as well and you can catch all the action on YouTube.

A few highlights from the block stage.

Tom Ingram became the first player from Hong Kong to win a match at a WCF event.

Thomas Halliday was extremely proud of taking Reg Bamford to 3 games in their match.

and for something different we were treated to some amazing low flying skills by a crop duster.

Day 3 is upon us and it has been a good start for Robert, Jamie, Greg and Addison.

The weather has been terrific although the last few mornings have been quite cold. Even I have had to go an extra layer.

It is quite amazing to see so many games being played at once and you are not sure where to look.

On the court next to me, Jamie was in a battle with Ben Rothman and two courts across, Mohammed Nasr was involved in an absorbing contest against Angharrad Waters.

The afternoon session was interesting as the gun club next door was in action. The noise can be quite piercing at times and so concentration levels needed to be high.

The days are quite long. We piled into the cars at 7:30am and were on the lawns for an 8:30 start. Peter Freer finished his last game after 6pm. I think four matches couldn’t start their deciding game due to failing light.

At the end of a long day, we all decided to have tea at the venue. Steamed crab, pork ribs, baked beans, corn and salad. Barry’s fishing skills were to put to use as he showed everyone how to eat a crab the right way.

You can read a regular update from Chris Clark on the Try Croquet website.

https://www.trycroquet.co.uk/following-the-gc-world-championship-2024-with-chris-clarke/

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Sam Cuthbert youngest competitor in the Qualifier at 19. Michael Todorovich the oldest at 78.

Another busy day. Addison claimed a great win over Tom Balding in the 3rd round of the knockout, Peter claimed 3 wins and Fran 2 wins in the Z, and Jamie and Gary made it into the semi-finals of the Big Oyster.

In the Qualifier, Karen has won 4 games and Kate 3.

We do it all again tomorrow.

The Big Oyster GC Competition got underway yesterday and is now running in tandem with the WCF Qualifier. It’s amazing to see play on all 24 courts at the same time. The weather continues to be fantastic, although the wind did spring up during the morning session.

Kate and Karen found their groove in the qualifier and gained some well deserved wins. Peter, Fran, Addison, Jamie and myself all took part in the opening rounds of the Big Oyster and it was a nice feeling to be out on the lawns.

With the dry weather and the heavy mowing, the original 8 lawns are becoming very fast. The other 16 courts have only been in use for just over 18 months and are running a little slower but I suspect by the final days of the main tournament, they too will be running quickly. All courts are marked with string lines which has been easy to adjust too.

Big Oyster results from Day 1.

After finishing my last game of the day, I got to watch the match between Addison and Steve Leonard. It was a high quality affair filled with great hooping, excellent positional play and some amazing jump shots.

After a long day we were able to take in a lovely sunset from our porch.

40 players take to the courts today, each in pursuit of claiming one of the final 6 entry spots into the main event.

We arrived at the venue yesterday in time for the player briefing and it’s amazing to see so many courts in the one location.

Matt, who came across for the Over 50’s has been very busy making scoreboards for every court based on the ones we used in Bunbury.