In what is becoming an annual Probus event Graham again organised the Croquet Championship. Graham was ably assisted by Martin Lockwood who is deemed a proper player and would therefore unbalance the competition.

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We began at 12pm with our usual meal at the Chequers pub just down the road from the hallowed turf. The Chequers is a good old fashioned English pub with good food at reasonable prices.The meal is well organised so that we were able to begin promptly at 2pm.

 

​​​Graham began by explaining the rules and then drew out the teams. All names in the hat to produce 8 teams of 2. But an unforeseen setback in that Tracy Gribble was ill, meant one player would have to play like 2. As names were paired up it was Dave Bramley as the last name in the hat. Dave had to play as two!

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Play commenced and as usual the gamesmanship and rule breaking kept the umpires busy. A lot of laughter and cursing one's luck took place. By the process of elimination two pairs were left to compete in the final. David Podmore and Peter Pattison and, guess what, the one man band Dave. Although flagging in the intense heat Dave mustered the strength to get over the line and win the competition 2-1.

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David and Peter received runners up prizes of very large boxes of chocolates and Dave of course was presented with both bottles of wine.

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It was an excellent afternoon, the weather was sunny and warm, the competition was fierce and the participants had enjoyed themselves.  Thankyou very much to Graham for organising the event and umpiring and to Martin for umpiring. We are looking forward to next year. ​​​