Is it the dream final? After negotiating block play and surviving the 32-player knockout, we now have #1 Reg Bamford vs #2 Robert Fletcher. Bamford will be looking for a repeat of his 2009 win and his fourth world championship title overall, while young Fletcher will be looking for his first.
The WCF Sweet Sixteen played out yesterday and it looks like there was an upset with Marcus Evans eliminating Robert Fulford 26TP/0, 6/26TP, 26SXP/0, 23/26TP, 1/26QNP. Other results from yesterday's action:
Reg Bamford over Ian Dumerge
Stephen Forster over Miranda Chapman
Simon Hockey over James Death
James Hopgood over Alan Walsh
Robert Fletcher over Harley Watts
Samir Patel over Harps Tahurangi
Marcus Evans over Robert Fulford
Malcom Fletcher over Jenny Clarke
Today's Matches:
Reg Bamford vs Stephen Forster
Simon Hockey vs James Hopgood
Robert Fletcher vs Samir Patel
Malcolm Fletcher vs Marcus Evans
It's another busy week and I'm happy to report that the RSS feeds of the croquet world are starting to take shape so I am starting to include the headlines in the weekly Morning Coffee (see below). Starting off though, you'll find the usual items from the Overdrive forum. Keep your seatbelts on ... Croquet Network is going to go through some big changes over the next three months. Without further ado, feel free to binge and purge on croquet news ...
The news is a little light this week, which may serve as a little calm before
the storm. All kinds of tournament action is on deck in the United States for
April and May and the WCF Association World Championship will kick off in
Adelaide in just a few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy this week's very brief
edition ...
Last week's article on Zac Ashley drew a clarification on a claim made by the Canterbury Star:
Just for the record Zac is not the youngest winner of the NZ Handicap Singles event. In 1960 Tony Stephens at age 16 won not only the Hurlingham Cup (NZ Handicap Singles) but achieved far greater glory by winning the NZ Open Championship Singles, the NZ Men's Championship Singles, and with Ashley Heenan the NZ Doubles Championship.
Cheers
John Prince
After a little "magazine" vacation, Morning Coffee is getting back into the action. Time to catch up on a full slate of croquet headlines--
WCF World Championship Qualifier Participants
The following players will participate in the World Championship Qualifier April 24-26 in Adelaide …
It's busy week here at Croquet Network, so let's get right to the action ...
NCC Takes Lyon's Trophy Club Teams Championship
The National Croquet Center club team defended the home turf with a repeat win ...
There are a number of interesting headlines that lead off the week, but the story that caught my eye was the piece on the Murwillumbah Croquet Club celebrating an 85th anniversary. Late in the story there is a rundown on the history of croquet and the mention of tennis rising to essentially end the reign of croquet as a popular sport in England in the late 1800's. Most malletheads are familiar with the story, but the shelving of croquet for tennis got me to thinking. Is tennis really that much more fun to watch than golf croquet? I wonder if golf
Lot's of good items in the croquet news this week. I really enjoyed the two videos listed below and would love to see more of this in the croquet world. You'll also find a review I did on the new Croquet New Zealand website. Enjoy the news and I'll see you on the courts ...