Cornwall Croquet Club

Sat 24 Jul 2010 - Faith, Hoop & Hilarity Club Tournament

The rain started as the last photograph was taken and members had gone in for tea.

Eight hours earlier 32 members of the Cornwall Croquet Club had taken to the lawns for the annual Faith, Hoop & Hilarity event, which is designed to partner experienced members with those with less experience, and to integrate new members into the club.

Play was in four blocks of four pairs; each pair playing the three other pairs in their block. Extra turns were awarded according to relative strengths of the opposing pairs, and results were mostly within two or three hoops as the games progressed to either the best of 19 hoops, or the score at the end of an hour. The day was arranged so that everybody had time out to rest or take part in the two competitions that required some of the skills used in Golf Croquet; with the aggregate scores of both members of a pair counting.

The winners of the four blocks were Peter Dexter & Diana Snowden; Lynda Everett & Berle Moore; Maggie Dawson & Kathleen Moorshead; and Russell Moore & Jeremy Snowden. These pairs played in the Semi-Final, which were closely fought and resulted in wins for Lynda & Berle, and Russell & Jeremy.

The final was a nail-biting affair, as far as the spectators were concerned, as the teams matched each other for the first eight hoops. But then the men pulled ahead and were three hoops up after the tenth hoop. However, the ladies were not to be out-played and won the next three hoops to draw level. But then Russell and Jeremy pulled ahead again and were two hoops up with only a maximum of three to play. But, again, the ladies rallied and, after eighteen hoops, were equal, leaving the outcome of a golden hoop to decide the match. It was then that Jeremy, one of the new members this year, struck a vital blow for his team by putting his ball right in front of the final hoop. Both ladies made good attempts to move Jeremy’s ball, which would have been almost twenty yards away, but left an easy hoop run to clinch the win for his side. This was the third win in a row for Russell, who first won it as a new member in 2008.

Winners of the side events were:
Target Croquet – Margaret Read & Gill Clark,
Jumbowl – Lynda Everett & Berle Moore,
The Quiz – Jeremy & Gill Snowden.


Berle Moore & Lynda Everett winners of the Jumbowl	Jeremy Snowden & Russell Moore winners of the Golf Croquet Doubles
Apologies for the poor quality of the photgraphs