An eagerly anticipated final at the 2025 PFC Mallets Golf Croquet World Teams Championship was set to pit the legendary Egyptian squad against America’s new wave of GC stars in what was sure to be an epic back-and-forth battle. But Team USA had something a little different mind as they both dazzled and fought with grit to find their way to a 6-0 lead on the lawns at the Northern Tasmanian Croquet Centre in St. Leonards, Tasmania.
With the final being a rematch of Team USA’s 4-2 victory in block play, it was notable that the Americans were able to pick up wins in the opening round of doubles for a 2-0 lead — primarily because their two losses in that earlier block test were in doubles. With the Americans looking solid to open the final test, it served as a bad omen for the Egyptian team.
As the test rolled into singles, it appeared as though the Egyptians had settled as Yasser Sayed opened his match with Blake Fields with a 7-4 win where fans would have been slightly puzzled to see Fields slightly off form for a patch. Matthew Essick started off strong for the U.S. in his singles match jumping to a 2-0 lead against Mohamed Nasr. But Essick hit a bad stretch where the hoops weren’t falling and then some of the clearings were off target. Nasr was on form and took advantage claiming a 7-2 win.
Egypt’s Mohamed Nasr scores
It’s in those moments where the form is slightly off that champions show what they are made of. For Essick, it was a gradual, steady claw-your-way-back process to gain some momentum against an experienced world champion. As it started to come together for Essick, the match evolved into a real tussle. Eventually, Essick took it to the 13th hoop, where he claimed game two to send the match to a decider.
Fields on the other hand turned the switch on after his game one loss and we saw the world champion at his best as he answered with two emphatic wins for a final match score of 4-7, 7-3, 7-3 against Sayed to give the U.S. a 3-0 test advantage.
Team USA’s Essick and Rothman
At this point, both teams and all GC fans understood that it was relatively critical for Nasr to get Egypt on the board. But Essick was getting stronger and despite another tough battle, he was able to get a 7-5 game three win to establish a suffocating 4-0 lead for the U.S. team.
From the Egyptian perspective, the 4-0 deficit was particularly disturbing as Team USA’s Tom Balding had already gone 7-2 in game one against Mohamed Taha. Hoping to limit the damage, Taha fought back in game two, but Balding’s hoop and clearing accuracy were still on, and he took care of business at the fishhook for a 7-2, 7-6 match win and a commanding 5-0 test lead.
The day would finish with a match between U.S. captain Ben Rothman and Egypt’s Khaled Kamel. Would the U.S. finish with a perfect day? Certainly, Egypt was hoping to avoid heading into a final day that offered no room for error. So, maybe it was those emotions that led to the tense moments that seemed to start prior to Rothman winning hoop 10 in game one, with a discussion about one of Kamel’s south boundary balls. That carried over to Rothman asking for space for an angled jump shot attempt at H12 that took some extra effort. It seemed to conclude with a referee session and a lot of arm gestures prior to the 13th hoop battle.
Rothman took the hoop and game one, but that seemed like a side story at the time. Kamel rolled to a 7-4 win to answer, but Rothman was equal to the task and answered with a decisive 7-2 win in game three.
The Americans took a perfect 6-0 day and need just one win in today’s action to officially put their stamp on what looks to be a new era for the sport.
RELEGATION TEST
Beyond the showcase event, Ireland and Spain are in a battle to avoid relegation to Tier 2. The format is best of nine, so both teams are targeting five wins to survive. Yesterday ended with Ireland leading 3-2, so the fight is still on, and it is quite possible we’ll get some of this action on the livestream if Team USA takes a win in the first session of the day.
For the action on the lawns, the teams split the opening doubles action, then Ireland’s Mark Stephens came back from a game one loss to get a 3-7, 7-3, 7-2 win over Spain’s Julian Gutierrez for a 2-1 advantage.
Nicolas Denizot and Begona Elzaburu performed the same trick for Spain with a 6-7, 7-6, 7-4 win over Ireland’s Simon Williams and Rob O’Donoghue to level the match at 2-2.
Kieran Murphy then went 7-5, 7-6 over Juan Ojeda to give Ireland the 3-2 lead to end the action and set up an entertaining finish with Ireland looking for two wins out of four and Spain needing at least a 3-1 finish.
As mentioned on the livestream, it’s a brutal punishment as it is pretty much eight years to get back from relegation. Based on the country rankings, it seems as though there is a strong case for 12 teams in Tier 1.
NOTES
Team USA was 5-0 for 7-6 games in day one of the finals
The GC WTC Championship is intended to be held every four years. The 2029 event has an expression of interest from England for hosting.
The WCF holds no fewer than two world croquet championships per year and up to four, which creates an average of three per year.
The 2026 GC World Championship (singles) has an expression of interest from Egypt for hosting.
For more information on the 2025 PFC Mallets Golf Croquet WTC, visit www.gcworldteamstasmania2025.com.au. Photos courtesy of the 2025 Openshaw Shield Facebook page.