The final day of the 2025 PFC Mallets Golf Croquet WTC brought some weather and an early finish to the Openshaw Finals test as Team USA delivered the one win needed in their battle with Egypt in the first doubles match of the day.
U.S. captain Ben Rothman and current GC World Champion Blake Fields paired up again to square off against Egypt’s Mohamed Nasr and Mohamed Taha. All went according to plan as Rothman and Fields picked up a 7-4 win in game one to get the day off on the right foot.
Test Scores
In the meantime, Team USA’s Matthew Essick was also in action in a singles match against Khaled Kamel that was predicted to finish first. In game one, Essick was off early and fell into a 3-1 hole before getting back-to-back hoops at H5 and H6 to tie the game. The turning point came at H7 when he cleared red to the east boundary with his blue ball that settled near H8. Kamel opted to try for the halfway point with red between H7 and H8, with black set up for a hoop attempt from the boundary, and yellow with good hoop-running position. Essick put black through H7 and rolled about three-fourths of the way down to H8 for a significant advantage that led to another win at H8 and a 5-3 lead. He then got another hoop from the boundary at H9, then, after a Kamel missed hoop attempt at H10, he closed out game one with blue for a 7-3 win. So, the next round featured two games in progress that could clinch the test for the U.S.
Essick and Kamel took a break, but the doubles match moved forward into the second game and that took center stage. It started with a 1-0 advantage for Egypt with Nasr scoring H1 playing yellow. The American duo leveled at 1-1 with Rothman taking H2 with the black ball. Taha scored H3, then Nasr took H4 with an impressive three-and-half-yard jump over black in the jaws to put Egypt up 3-1.
But Fields got his first hoop score after a little battle at H5 and ran a little past the peg for a good advantage at H6 as heavy rain came down for a brief spell. The teams soldiered on and Rothman got the score there to tie at 3-3. The teams then traded the next two, with Nasr scoring H7 and Fields getting H8.
Then it was H9 that offered the defining moment of the match. Playing from the south boundary, not far off center, Fields got an in-off from red about two feet out from H9 that put the Americans up in the game for the first time at 5-4.
At H10, heavy rain started again, but Rothman scored to get to 6-4. Still fighting to extend the match, the Egyptians won the battle at H11 and Taha scored an angled hoop that ran well past H12. After the other balls all attempted to play in to relatively deep hoop-scoring positions, Taha cleared Rothman’s black with red. Rothman brought black back in from the north boundary, attempting to block yellow, which was relatively straight on at 4.5 yards. The attempt hilled off and ended up west of H12. Nasr lined up the hoop attempt to tie the score, but it went off the left wire.
Fields stepped up with a similar shot that was more offline but maybe a foot closer than Nasr’s attempt. With his patented power swing, he sailed the blue ball through for the 7-5 game win to kick off a U.S. celebration and a 7-0 test final.
Watching from the commentator’s booth Team USA player Tom Balding spoke about the performance the team during the event saying, “For the first time in a long time, we feel that the entire team is playing well simultaneously. We have a lot of good synergy together, and obviously, having the three most recent world champions on your roster is always helpful.”
Team Captain Ben Rothman spoke at a brief presentation of the team shortly after the win and commented on the competition at the event saying, “The other teams were wonderful to play — played very well. It looked like everybody brought their A team. It was a really impressive field. We were the third-ranked team, but we were worried about making it out of the block.”
Elzaburu wins at the 13th hoop to kick off a celebration for Spain
RELEGATION BATTLE: SPAIN SURVIVES
With the Openshaw Shield decided, the focus shifted to the Ireland vs Spain relegation test. The day opened with Ireland leading 3-2 and needing two match wins in four to win the test. But Spain answered early with Nicolas Denizot taking a 7-4, 7-5 win over Simon Williams to get to 3-3.
Ireland’s Mark Stephens opened his match with a 7-4 win over Juan Ojeda, but Ojeda answered back with 7-3, 7-5 wins to flip the script and put Spain up 4-3 and one match victory away from the test win. But Kieran Murphy took a decisive 7-1, 7-4 win over Julian Gutierrez to tie it up at 4-4 and force a deciding match.
The decider would feature Spain’s Begona Elzaburu against Rob O’Donoghue for Ireland. Elzaburu came out fast with a 7-2 win in game one. O’Donoghue then answered with a 7-3 win and the match went to game three. Not surprisingly, it went to the 13th hoop where Elzaburu was able to get the clincher and avoid relegation for Spain.
WCF GOLF CROQUET WTC CHAMPIONS
2025 - USA 7, Egypt 0
2020 - New Zealand 7, Egypt 4
2016 - New Zealand 7, Egypt 5
2012 - Egypt 7, New Zealand 5
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.