Sat 1st Oct, Moira Report by Mike
The Bottle Challenge was run this year with twelve players rather than the usual eight, two blocks of six, all-play-all 13-point games, followed by 19-point semi-finals and a 19-point final. The top four seeds were Rachel, Will, Callum Johnson (guest player and winner of this year’s National Forest GC), and Paul. The top three progressed as expected but Paul had a 1-7 loss which resulted in Arthur going through to the semi-finals. The Will v Arthur semi-final resulted in a fairly easy 10-4 win for Will, but the Rachel v Callum went to the final hoop resulting in a 10-9 win for Callum. The final produced some of the best croquet ever seen at Ashby, with Will only securing a 10-9 victory at the nineteenth hoop to claim the Bottle Challenge title for a record sixth time.
Winner: Will Gee
Runner-up: Callum Johnson
Particular attention was given to ensuring the remaining players had a worthwhile day. All of the block games were carried forward, and one extra game was played against a player from the opposite block. The combined results were then used to identify the two best players for a 13-point plate final which was David and Chris. David won 7-4.