In a back-and-forth finals match held on January 13, 2023, in Christchurch, New Zealand, Debbie Lines defeated Gabrielle Higgins, by a score of 26-3, 19-22, 22-11, to claim the 2023 WCF Women’s AC World Championship.
The all-England final provided an entertaining and interactive match, with both players showing great skill and determination. Lines took the first game by a convincing score of 26-3, but Higgins fought back in the second, narrowly winning 22-19 as the game timed out. Lines took the decider 22-11 in another timed-out game to claim the world title.
Lines is only the third winner of the event, following Miranda Chapman (ENG) in 2015 and Jenny Clarke (NZL) in 2012.
The women's world championship featured 40 of the top female croquet players worldwide. Dawn Jupin and Sandra Knuth represented the USCA in the event. Linda Sudderberg was also supposed to play but issues with a visa kept her out.
Knuth had planned to play in the qualifier, but that was canceled and she was invited to play in the main event. Overall on the event, she says, “Everyone felt gratitude for being able to play in such a special event … Chris Clarke, tournament manager extraordinaire, did a superb job and never raised an eyebrow of misery as piles of people inundated with constant questions. Great volunteers … suboptimal playing conditions, no problem! The courts were dead and frictionless as glass for the most part, despite lots of rain. Mud patches were a common feature as well! And those bouncy Quadways. Yikes!”
Both U.S. players went 2-7 in block play with Knuth almost notching a third win but she fell in a close 23-22 loss to Jane Morrison of Ireland, who’s played in 957 career AC games and has 440 wins.
In block play for the plate, Jupin was able to go 2-2, but that wasn’t enough to make the knockout. Along with Knuth who was 0-4 in the plate, she played in the Consolation Prize Group and went 2-1, which got her into the Consolation Group Knockout. There she fell in the first round 11-19 to Erica Malaiperuman of England, but finished the event with a 6-10 overall game record.
Knuth was 1-2 in the Consolation Prize Group and finished the event 3-13 overall.
View all the event scores at:
https://croquetscores.com/2023/ac/3rd-wcf-womens-world-championship