Nottingham, May 11th to 14th
Arthur and Judith Rowe had a very successful Peels tournament at Nottingham, with victories in both the men’s singles and mixed doubles. The competition dates from 1898 so this year is its 125th anniversary. It is one of the few competitions in the Croquet Association calendar in which men and women compete separately for the singles trophies, with the doubles being mixed. It is an AC handicap competition open to all CA members, and has been held at Nottingham for a number of years now.
In the mixed doubles, Judith & Arthur played all three rounds of knockout as alternate strokes; two of their opponents chose to do the same. It was Judith’s first attempt at an AC competition. In the final they beat new player Sarah Butler and experienced player David Brydon. Sarah won the Ladies’ Singles Cup the following day.
In the singles, Arthur won an exciting final against Omied Hallam which really swung to and fro, with them both making the odd error, until all four balls were for peg. Omied could not get his red & yellow to sit quite properly, and eventually missed the peg-out, leaving Arthur with a 5-yarder to hit and then a 3-yard peg-out to win by 1.
Arthur and Judith are pictured below with their splendid trophies. Arthur commented “They don’t make trophies like this any more!”
