Clarke: Bamford and Chapman for the Title #09

The semifinals were played at the Wellington club. The lawns were only running at 10 seconds after overnight rain, but the hoops were in fresh firm ground, albeit they were set much wider than a standard Wellington Open weekend. The day started overcast and there was the occasional light drizzle as it progressed.
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Clarke: Advancing to the Super 8 #07

Another still and sunny day at Kelburn meant that playing conditions were easy. The Riva v Death game “enjoyed” even easier conditions since they played on a lawn with five day old hoops. It was a high-quality match where a Death ball to 4-b was countered with a Riva ball to 1-b followed by a tpo with two balls pegged out 1 v 1-b. Death picked up a 2-ball break off the contact but missed his rush to h4. Riva then took position at 1-b and after Death missed an overly aggressive shot, finished next turn. In the second game, Riva went to 4-b 4th turn, failed to pick up a break 6th turn and finished after Death cornered 8th turn.
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Clarke: 2018 AC Worlds Preview

The 2018 WCF Association Croquet World Championship starts this Saturday in Wellington, NZ. Five clubs are being used and I’ll try to send photos from each of them as the event progresses. There are eight blocks of 10 players with the top four qualifying for the knockout from each block, with ties on wins being broken with play-off games, so net points are irrelevant.
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Chapman 15: Final Day

England's Stephen Mulliner on Day 15

Last Day is the Hottest

Today was the last day of play in the 2017 MacRob. Australia had already sealed the title yesterday, and England had already secured second place, so there was only pride at stake today. The forecast also had today as the hottest day of the entire event, at 41 degrees celcius. With this in mind, the two NZ/England matches with late starts had agreement between all 4 players that they should be abandoned, and so there would only be 4 points up for grabs today.

The 4 matches today were:

- Jenny vs Stephen Mulliner
- Joe vs Samir Patel
- Harps vs James Hopgood
- Chris vs James Death

Jenny had a chance to take the first game vs Stephen but an unfortunate "death roll" penult peel going to 2-back left her with a long roquet on her 2b pioneer which missed into baulk. Stephen made no mistake in taking the game from there. In the second, Stephen embarked on a SXP which finished with a very adventurous straight QP - to record the only sextuple in the event.

ROUND 3 PHOTO GALLERY

Joe had a few chances early on against Samir, hitting with all the balls in the middle, but a long angled hoop 1 was failed, allowing Samir into the match. After this, Joe never had the run of the ball and Samir won 2-0.

Chris Shilling. Click to Zoom.Harps had a similar match vs James Hopgood. James completed two consecutive clinical 26-0tp games and Harps' only error was to miss a few long shots by the proverbial coat of paint.

Chris had an excellent match vs James Death. He built on his excellent record in this, his MacRob debut, to record a 2-0 win with yet another solid break-play performance.

It has been a great event, played in good spirit between all players. Congratulations to Australia on comfortably winning their first MacRob for over 80 years. A very deserved win which was built upon several years of preparation. It sets an example to the other teams who I'm sure will be looking to implement a similar strategy in the lead-up to 2021.