British Open Championship

29 Jun - 8 Jul 2001

This year the World Croquet Federation Singles 
Championship is being held in conjunction with the 
British Croquet Association Open Championships.  The 
joint event, involving up to 80 players from around the 
world, will be spread between four venues in the London 
area: Hurlingham, Parsons Green, Roehamption and 
Surbiton.  Details of all entrants and the draw are 
posted on the British Croquet Asssociation Website, 
www.croquet.org.uk.

The Championship will be thoroughly covered by Croquet 
World Online Magazine. Shortly before the first day, 
a "Preview" including the block lineup will be 
published. Frequent postings on the event will continue 
until its conclusion.

The event is followed by the 2001 Solomon Trophy team 
event which alternataves annually between England and 
the United States.

PREVIEW OF THE WCF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AND BRITISH OPEN
(based largely on notes supplied by tournament manager 
Richard Hilditch)

The complete program of the event may be found at 
http://www.four-back.demon.co.uk/Booklet/index.html, 
including player profiles, schedules, venue notes, and 
much more.   Croquet World Online Magazine will provide 
independent coverage wherever possible of the 
Championship and the Solomon Trophy, as well as edits 
of reports appearing on the Nottingham Board.   

OVERVIEW…
For the first time since the inaugural world event of 
the WCF in 1989, the WCF World Championship and 
British Open (singles) are being combined as one 
event.  This has produced a very strong tournament for 
80 players – so strong that entry to the popular Sonoma-
Cutrer world championship in May was affected 
adversely, as New Zealand players with limited vacation 
time chose the official WCF championship instead.   

Nine of the top-ranked ten players in the 
world are competing, and 15 out of the top 20.  The top 
player in each major country is competing (Fulford, 
Bamford, Fournier, Jackson, and Bassett).  

Everything favors the Brits this year.   Although 
Jacques Fournier is on hand as an American dark horse, 
his strong compatriots – Taves and Stark – are at home, 
depressing the American odds.  The American Solomon 
Trophy team players are competing in the World 
Championship, but they’re a rookie-heavy team, way down 
in the rankings.  

Some of the Australian and New Zealand players, on the 
other hand, place high in the rankings, but 
historically their performance numbers in England don’t 
match their ranking numbers.   Also, they’re out of 
their playing season and on unfamiliar lawns.  

That leaves England.   You have to look at Fulford, 
Bamford, and Mulliner to find the likely winner.  They 
are the three top-ranked players in the world.  
(Bamford is technically a South African, but competes 
mostly in England.) 

In his welcome to players in the official program, 
Event Director David Openshaw explains just how the 80 
players were selected:  “One of our aims was to provide 
places for any of the top fifty players int eh world 
who wanted to play.  This we have achieved.  We also 
wanted to provide additional places for both British 
players and oversees players.  That is why we planned 
for a tournament with 80 players.  In fact there was a 
very high demand for places.  The CA responded to this 
by providing a qualifying competition with four places 
in the main event available.  This enabled over ninety-
five players to compete…”
 
THE VENUES

All the venues for the World Championships are in the 
South West of London, with the main events and the 
largest share of play at Hurlingham.  The Solomon 
Trophy matches immediately following the World 
Championships will all be at Surbiton, about a half 
hour from Hurlingham, July 9-14.

HURLINGHAM…
… is an independent club, but is known as the “home” of 
the croquet, because the English Croquet Association’s 
offices are there.    It is on a bend of the river 
Thames – which sometimes is a noisy problem when 
helicopters “cut the corner” of the bend in the river 
and fly right over the courts.  Hurlingham is a large 
park-like country club, and croquet is only a part of 
it’s many activities.  Of some 5000 members, about 100 
play croquet a bit.   Hurlingham puts into action a 
maximum of 10 croquet lawns – six permanent and four 
converted from the cricket outfield which are of 
surprisingly good quality.  The grass is sometimes over-
green, but in the best conditions the lawns can be very 
good.   The major sport at Hurlingham is tennis.  
Hurlingham has more grass courts than Wimbleton.   
There is a five-year waiting list for joining the club –
 but less if you know the right people.  Readers of the 
Nottingham Board will recall that Tom Cruise and Nicole 
Kidman were denied membership when they were still 
together and in doing to do a film a couple of years 
ago – a situation that enraged publicity-wise players 
who maintained that croquet’s popularity would have 
immediately zoomed if only Tom and Nicole’s pictures 
with mallets appeared in the press.  

Hurlingham is not quite as posh as some London clubs 
that are more receptive to new money and foreigners.   
The dress code is strict, and the rules of decorum are 
many:  No flashes on your tennis shorts; no sitting on 
the grass in front of the main building; no mobile 
phones to be used except in the car park (English 
for “parking lot”).

Inside dining tip:  The food is expensive, but the best 
bargains are the baked potatoes and the the children’s 
menu – which they will sell to adults.  Hurlingham’s 
reputation for beer is not good, so the experts go 
elsewhere for their serious drinking.  For offsite 
dining, there is the riverside café near Putney Bridge 
Station – a classic greasy spoon that serves chips 
[fried potatoes] with everything.

Some players are uncomfortable in the exceptionally 
upper-class environment of Hurlingham; word has it that 
members treat the staff like 19th Century servants.    


PARSONS GREEN…
…is a medium sized multi-sports club, with principally 
tennis, bowls and squash.  Their two croquet lawns are 
of reasonable standard.   With few members, the club is 
said to be slowly dying.   It lies easy of Hurlingham 
and is a haven for heavy smokers.  Because there is no 
dedicated parking and limited metered parking on the 
street, some players will park in Hurlingham and enter 
Parsons Green through the back gate.  There is no 
serious dining at Parsons Green, just some 
nibblies at the bar.

ROEHAMPTON….
…is another multi-sports club, popular with the 
Japanese.   The main sport is golf, with a full 18-hole 
course, but there is also tennis, squash, and croquet.  
Roehampton was at one time the headquarters of the 
Croquet Association.  Today it has three lawns, 
considered slow but of reasonable quality.  

Roehampton is the home of the legendary Nigel Aspinall, 
who will act as Richard Hilditch’s deputy and referee 
for five days at the Roehampton courts during the World 
Championship. 
  
Roehampton’s food is generally considered the best of 
the large clubs.  There is a no-nonsense canteen above 
their large changing rooms. 

SURBITON…
…is a relatively new club, built about 15 years ago on 
old tennis courts in a public park.  Surbiton's appeal 
is to a cross-section of the community, even though 
it’s in a relatively well-off London suburb.   Surbiton 
boasts seven lawns, but one is out of service for 
resurfacing and two others are in substandard condition 
after excessive rain this winter.  It is possible that 
only four of the lawns will be deemed useable.  All the 
Solomon Trophy matches are scheduled to be played at 
Surbiton – the annual week-long team competition 
between England and the United States.

The lawns look pretty good, but not as nice as a 
standard green US style Lawn, as they are not feed and 
watered every day.  

The club, run by George Noble, boasts fine beer with 
hand-drawn pumps from a cellar.  The homemade food can 
be pretentious and pricey but is considered very good. 
 
PLAYING SCHEDULE
Thursday, June 28 - pre-qualifier for those who failed 
to make the cut, 16 players in modified single game 
Swiss to produce 3 qualifiers (4 to 5 games, 0 or 1
loss qualifies), Surbiton.  Only time limit 3.25hr 
double banked.
Friday, June 29 - doubles best of 3 knock out, 41 
pairs, 8 seeded pairs in
balanced sections (top 2, next 2, next 4) Hurl + PG + 
Surb, time limits, 4,7,9 single banked.
Saturday 30 - continue doubles, start doubles Y (single 
game knock out, single banked)
Sunday, July 1 - doubles to last 4, Roehampton and PG 
(Hurlingham has a Wimbledon function and is closed to 
us) double plate to last 4 at Surbiton
Sunday, July 1, 7pm - welcome event with BBQ at Surbiton
Mon-Wed, July 2-4 - singles block play at all 4 venues 
using a total of 20 lawns,
each player plays three double banked games time limit 
3.5 hours
Wed eve/Thurs am - block playoffs for 4th place if 
required (single games, time limit 3 hours)
Thurs 5 - singles last 32 at Hurlingham,  best of three 
single banked 
Thurs - start plate, massive draw and process up to 65 
entries from failed block players, qualifiers and 
doubles only players, other three venues, double banked 
3.5 hr time limits
Fri 6 – singles, last 16 and 8 Hurlingham best of three 
single banked
Fri 6 - losers of last 32 join the plate with single 
life (so total of up to 81 in plate), at Surbiton, 
Hurlingham and maybe Parson Green.  
Sat 7 - semi-finals of all events at Hurlingham
Sun, July 8 - finals at Hurlingham 
-------------------------------

(WE ARE MUCH INDEBTED TO RICHARD HILDITCH, tournament 
manager for the World Champiionship, for the 
information in this preview.  Come back to CroquetWorld 
throughout these major events for comprehensive 
continuing coverage all the way through to the end of 
the Solomon Trophy Matches on July 9.)

With all but one of the block games completed, the 
qualifiers for most of the knockout round have been 
sorted out. The remaining game is between Maugham and 
B.Fleming, but won't change any standings.

The top 4 from each block qualify for the knockout, 
they are:

Block A:
J.Dawson
Fulford
Louw
Meatheringham

Block B:
Bamford
M.Clarke
Farthing
M.McInerney

Block C:
Bulloch
B.Fleming
Maugham
R.McInerney

Block D:
Burrow
Fournier
Mulliner
one of: Davis, Sands, Curry

Block E:
Hort
Jackson
McBride
Patmore

Block F:
Brown
Garrison
Tibble
S.Williams

Block G:
C.Clarke
Cunningham
Gibbons
Suter

Block H:
Dyer
Trimmer
two of: T.Bassett, Johnson, Irwin

Playoffs will take place in the morning (Thursday)to 
sort out the qualifiers from
Blocks D and H.

The top two qualifiers from each block will be seeded 
in the knock out, and players will be separated by 
country. The seeding is done from the world rankings as 
at 20 May 2001.

With Mulliner and Irwin not qualifying in the top two 
of their respective blocks, the seeds are (in order):

Fulford
Bamford
Jackson
Garrison
Maugham
Cunningham
C.Clarke
B.Fleming

Breakdown of qualifiers by country is approximately:
E: 12-14, I: 4, NZ: 3-5, A: 3-5, SA 3, US: 1, Scot: 1, 
Jer: 1, Can: 1

The lawns were pretty quick today, and the hoops on the 
cricket pitch at
Hurlingham very unforgiving, and there were no more 
sextuples. However,
the forecast for London for the read of the week and 
weekend is for rain
and showers, so the lawns may be slower for the later 
stages.

Weather from uk.weather.yahoo.com (in deg C):
Thur: 19-25, rain
Fri-Sun: 16-24, showers


Schedule for tomorrow:

Hurlingham:
- playoffs
- single-banked knockout matches (the draw will be done 
sometime tomorrow)

Other venues:
- 1st round plate matches

Jenny.

1st Round Singles Knockout -- Nigel Graves

Results so far in the first round of the knock-out stage

R. Bamford (SA)beat C. Irwin (Eng) +26TP +26TP
L. McBride (Can) beat P. Trimmer (Eng) -12 +18 +19
M. Clarke (Aus) beat S. Mulliner (Eng) +18 +17
J Dawson (Eng) beat T. Garrison (NZ) +13 +26TP
R. Brown (Eng) beat M. Burrow (Jersey) +16TP +16
D. Bulloch bear E. Cunningham (Ire) +13 +9

Whilst Reg Bamford remains in devastating form, not 
having dropped a single game in the preliminary rounds, 
Stephen Mulliner, last year's winner of the
British Open, and New Zealand no.1 Toby Garrison have 
both fallen to less fancied opponents.

Secretary

The Croquet Association
c/o The Hurlingham Club
Ranelagh Gardens
London 
SW6 3PR

A day of upsets left only five seeds in the event.
Bamford remained on top form with two triples against 
Irwin whilst Fulford overcame Suter comfortably.

Mulliner was the first seed out in straight games to 
Martin Clarke and was soon joined by Toby Garrison who 
lost to Jeff Dawson. Bob Jackson completed 
the set losing from game up against Chris Farthing.

Fournier and Louw had a good match in which Fournier 
came back from a long way behind with two good triples.

McBride lost the first but his solid play 
combined with Trimmers 2-back failures eventually gave 
him the match. 

Robin Brown had a good straight games win against the 
much fancied Matthew Burrow.
 
Ed Cunningham went down to Dennis Bulloch in straight 
games on the tricky lawn 10. 

Clarke beat Meatheringham, Fleming beat Dyer and Tibble 
beat Bassett. 

In the last match to finish, Maugham had a good 
straight double to win in straight games after Mark 
McInerney broke down on rover and peg.

Current odds

Fulford 11-8
Bamford 11-8
Maugham 7-1
Fournier 14-1
McBride 16-1
C. Clarke 16-1
R. McInerney 16-1
Fleming 25-1
Brown 33-1
Williams 33-1
Farthing 33-1
Bulloch 40-1
M. Clarke 50-1
Dawson 50-1
Tibble 100-1
Patmore 125-1
Sands 125-1

Singles block winners, final -- Nigel Graves

5 July 2001
BLOCK PLAY RESULTS FROM WORLD CROQUET CHAMPIONSHIPS

Players in the Lincoln WCF World Croquet Championships 
have almost completed the block stage of the event, and 
the winners for the knockout stage, which starts today 
(July 5), have now emerged.  They are:

R Fulford, (Eng) (current World Champion)
W Louw (SA)
J Dawson (Eng)
S Meatheringham (Aus)
R Bamford (SA)
M McInerney (Ireland) 
M Clarke (Aus)
C Farthing (Eng)
D Maugham, (Eng)
B Fleming (Aus)
D Bulloch (NZ)
R McInerney (Ireland)
M Burrow (Jer)
J Fournier (USA)
S Mulliner (Eng)
P Hort (Eng)
R Jackson (NZ)
L McBride (Canada)
C Patmore (Scotland)
T Garrison (NZ)
S Williams (Ireland)
R Brown (Eng)
L Tibble (Eng)
C Clarke (Eng)
E Cunningham (Ireland)
M Suter (SA)
B Gibbons (Eng)
J Dyer (Eng)
P Trimmer (Eng)

There were eight blocks of ten players: only two 
players, Reg Bamford of South Africa and Matt Burrow of 
Jersey, won all nine games.

There are two play offs currently underway to decide 
the final three places in the knockout.

The final of the World Championships is due to take 
place on Sunday July 8, at the Hurlingham Club, London.

Note to Editors


The Lincoln WCF World Championships are being hosted by 
the Croquet Association.  The last world championship 
was held in 1997 in Australia.  The Championship is 
being held in conjunction with the British Open 
Championship and has attracted a strong entry from 
players throughout the world.  In addition to the home 
countries of England, Wales and Scotland, other 
countries attending are Australia, New Zealand, USA, 
Egypt, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, 
Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, South Africa and Spain. 

For further information contact
Nigel Graves
Secretary, The Croquet Association
Phone/Fax:020 7736 3148
www.croquet.org.uk

Quarter finals commentary -- Chris Clarke

An interesting day's play on Friday saw us reach the 
last 4 - with some expected names and some unexpected.

Dennis Bulloch had a nightmare start to the day when he 
lost the first to McBride after pegging out the wrong 
ball - he was trying to get to something 
like 2-back vs 1 and instead reached 2-back vs 1 and 
peg. However, the next two games went his way and he 
comfortably beat Martin Clarke in the quarter 
final to land a nice 50-1 wager for Nelson Morrow who 
had backed him to reach the semis.

Brown vs Clarke finished in under 3 hours despite going 
to three and the decider being +1. Clarke failed a 
cannon through rover of his peelee after 
rover and pegged one ball out. Robin went round and 
Clarke took a 34 yard double to lose next turn. 

Brown then went on to play Bamford, who had lost 
his first game of the tournament to Ronan McInereney 
after Ronan had missed a rush only to hit a ball near 
corner 4 which was 20 yards away! Brown had 
the first break and Reg missed the lift, but Robin 
missed his 3-back pioneer with one peel done. Reg went 
to 4-back, but Robin hit in, only to fail 3-back. Reg 
hit and finished. The second was a more clinical 
Bamford win.

Fournier beat Williams - I didn't see much of this.

The match that everyone was looking forward to was 
Fulford vs Maugham. Dave missed Rob's supershot to 4 
yards out of corner 2 on the north boundary. Rob 
missed this, as did Dave, but Dave hit Robs ball (was 
it a double?) and went to 4-back. Rob missed the long 
lift and Dave finished.

Shock horror in game 2 as Dave didn't choose Red and 
Yellow and went first with a supershot. Rob failed to 
get outside corner 2, but Dave hit anyway 
and went to 4-back, leaving all 3 balls level with 6 on 
the west boundary, but his last stroke gave Robert a 
target of a ball and a half. Robert hit and went to 4-
back, peeling Dave to hoop 3 and putting his 4-back 
ball in hoop 2. Dave lifted his hoop 3 ball and hilled 
off his lift. Robert finished.

Rob went first in game 3 and laid a supershot which 
Dave hit and put the balls to 5 feet South of corner 2 
and 1 foot north of corner 4. Rob shot at the ball near 
4 from the end of b-baulk, missing and Dave missed his 
13 yarder. Rob went to 4-back with an MSL. Dave lifted 
the ball at 2 and hit the sort lift, but failed hoop 
one as the rain started falling heavily. Robert missed 
a 14 yarder and Dave missed a 5-yarder. Robert then hit 
an 11 yarder and finished.

That's all for now - I'm off to see if I can wreck my 
partner's game in the doubles.

Chris Clarke

[Editor's note:  In fact, Clarke and partner Robert 
Fulford prevailed in the doubles semi-finals, and will 
meet Bamford / Mulliner in the finals on Sunday. 
Clark+Fulford bt Dyer+Burge +5TPO (F) +26SXP (F)
Bamford+Mulliner bt Comish+Maugham +8TPO (B) +26.]

Semi-finalists -- Nigel Graves

Semi-finalists will be 
Fulford v Bullock and 
Fournier v Bamford

Remaining first round results:

R Fulford (Eng) beat M Suter (SA) +26TP +26
A Sands (Aus) beat C Patmore (Scotland) -23 +20 +5
L Tibble (Eng) beat T Bassett (Aus) +17 +12
D Maugham (Eng) beat M McInerney (Ire) +17TP +3
C Farthing (Eng) beat R Jackson (NZ) -17 +12 +9
J Fournier (USA) beat W Louw (SA) -19 +7TP +15TP
S Williams (Ire) beat J Gibbons (Eng)-13 +13 +13
B Fleming (Aus) beat J Dyer (scotland) -23 +15TP +17
C Clarke (Eng) beat S Meatheringham (Aus) +22 +10
R MCInerney (Ire) beat P Hort (Eng) -4 +10 +26

Second Round

R Fulford (Eng) beat A Sands (Aus) +23TP +26TP
D Maugham (Eng) beat L Tibble (Eng)+25TP +26TP
D Bulloch (NZ) beat L McBride (Canada) -4 +14 +26
M Clarke (Aus) beat J Dawson (Eng) +3 +17
J Fournier (USA) beat C Farthing (Eng) +26TP -17 +26TP
S Williams (Ire) beat B Fleming (Aus) +17TP +26
R Brown (Eng) beat C Clarke (Eng) -25TP +26 +1
R Bamford (SA) beat R McInerney (Ire) +17TP -26TP +26TP

Quarter Finals

R Bamford (SA) beat R Brown (Eng) +7TP +26TP
R Fulford (Eng) beat D Maugham (Eng) -26TP +15TP +26TP
D Bulloch (NZ) beat M Clarke (Aus) +26 +21TP
J Fournier (USA) beat S Williams (Ire) +6 +26TP

Semi- finalists will be fulford v Bullock and Fournier 
v Bamford.


Secretary

The Croquet Association
c/o The Hurlingham Club
Ranelagh Gardens
London 
SW6 3PR 
Nigel Graves
Secretary

The Croquet Association
c/o The Hurlingham Club
Ranelagh Gardens
London 
SW6 3PR

Tel/Fax 020 7736 3148		Website 
www.croquet.org.uk

Singles finalists, dbs winners -- Bob Alman

The surviving semi finalists wiped out their opponents 
in Saturdays matches, to win the chance to play each 
other in the Sunday finals which promises to be the 
most fiercely contested croquet battle of the year.  

In the best-of-five semifinals of the singles World 
Championship and British Opens, Reg Bamford of South 
Africa beat  the USA’s Jacques Fournier +16TP +26TP +25.

In the other semi-final match, World Champion Robert 
Fulford beat Dennis Bulloch of New Zealand +8 TPO, +14 
OTP +26 TP.

Bamford and Fulford confront each other in the Sunday 
finals.

Clarke and Fulford have won the doubles best-of-three 
finals match against opponents Bamford and 
Mulliner+12TPO(F)+17TP(F).

CROQUET WORLD will post the results here before the end 
of the day Sunday (July 8).

-------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Nigel Graves, Secretary of the The Croquet 
Association at Hurglinham, for keeping us up to date on 
the action.
--------------------------------------------------

Report on singles final -- Chris Clarke
Well, it was a fantastic final and here is my write-up 
of it interspersed with some personal opinions.

Game 1
Reg wins toss and goes first
1. Supershot (11 yards)
2. 3 yards east of supershot
3. Reg dribbles at Robs ball from near corner 1, missing
4. Rob misses 11 yarder
5. Reg to 4-back with spread, including misapproaching 
hoop 2 and hitting 
Robs 4th turn ball on north boundary and reapproaching.
6. Rob hits long lift and sticks in hoop 1.(poor)
7. Reg misses 15 yarder with hoop 1 ball.
8. Rob to 4-back, popping Reg to 2, leaving 4-back ball 
2 inches in front of 
2-back and laying up just north of level with hoop 4.
9. Reg takes one fingered lift with 4-back ball at Robs 
balls. (I thought 
this was wrong - it was a 20 yarder with the forward 
ball at a target that 
had 1.75 balls in the middle of it). Misses
10. Rob finishes
+16tp

Game 2
1. Rob lays supershot
2. Reg to 18 yards south of corner 3
3. Rob hits Reg and goes to 4-back with defensive 
spread.
4. Reg misses long lift
5. Rob rushes into the peg and takes off the lawn 
trying to get behind 
partner.
6. Reg hits partner from the peg and goes to 1-back
7. Rob hits the peg
8. Reg finishes (good turn)
+17sxp

Game 3
1. Reg lays supershot
2. Rob misses supershot, going 1 yard out of baulk.
3. Reg misses difficult hampered shot after hoop 1(poor)
4. Rob to 1-back, peeling Reg to 2, trying to get 1-
back ball on/in hoop 3, 
but failing.
5. Reg misses
6. Rob peels rover straight, peelee sticks. He half 
jumps and finishes 
almost in contact with peelee, with hampered shot which 
he misses.
7. Reg to 1-back, layed up in corner 4, with rush to 
hoop 1, oppos 
cross-wired at hoop 2 - his hoop.
8. Rob corners in 3 (I thought this was wrong - should 
have cornered in 1.
9. Reg gets balls out for standard sextuple, but fails 
4-back peel, getting 
rush to 3-back and has to do straight triple. Rushes 8 
feet in front of 
penult and fails split peel. Goes to peg and leaves 
partner in middle of 
east boundary, and Rob in middle of east boundary and 
second corner. Pegs 
out his peg ball. (I thought this was appalling - the 
ball in corner 2 was 
wired fron Regs ball, so Rob could just leave wired 
rush to the peg).
10. Rob leaves wired rush to the peg.
11. Reg dribbles at wired ball with excellent shot, 
sliding past the wire of 
hoop 2, but getting too much hill and missing.
12 Rob finishes
+3

Game 4
1. Rob lays supershot just on west half of lawn.
2. Reg goes 18 yards south of corner 3.
3. Rob misses to 2 feet west of corner 4
4. Reg misses partner from a-baulk.
5. Rob misses Reg with supershot ball.
6. Reg to 1-back
7. Rob misses
8. Reg finishes (good turn)
+26sxp

Game 5
1. Reg lays supershot ball
2. Rob hits, chipping it west and decides to go for 2-
ball break. Fails easy 
hoop 1.
3. Reg to 3-back with spread
4. Rob misses by some way
5. Reg finishes (less convincing turn than his 
sextuples, but fair do's, I 
couldn't even manage one peel when I tried a TP to win 
the worlds!

An excellent match, with less hiiting than I had 
expected and more peeling. I thought that Rob was 
better tactically, but that the rest of Regs game had 
a slight edge. These two players have been 
substantially better than the opposition all year and 
played an excellent match which kept everyone 
thoroughly entertained. Congratulations to Reg on an 
outstanding performance.

Chris (aka Roberts doubles partner) Clarke

Singles final result -- Nigel Graves

BAMFORD WINS WORLD CROQUET CHAMPIONSHIPS

Reg Bamford of South Africa won the Lincoln WCF World 
Croquet Championships, beating the reigning champion, 
Robert Fulford of England, in a closely fought match 
today at the Hurlingham Club, London.  Bamford also 
gains the British Open title, as the World 
Championships are being run in conjunction with the 
British Open Championship.

Bamford, ranked number two in the world, beat off 
Fulford, ranked world number one, by three games to 
two, -16tp, +17sxp, -3, +26sxp, +26qp.

Earlier in the day, however, Fulford, with his partner 
Chris Clarke, won the British Open Doubles for the 
first time since 1998, beating the holders, Bamford and 
his partner Stephen Mulliner by two games to nil, 
+12tpo, +17tp.   

Ends

Note to Editors

1.	WCF is the World Croquet Federation
2.	The Lincoln WCF World Championships are being 
hosted by the Croquet Association.  The last world 
championship was held in 1997 in Australia.  The 
Championship is being held in conjunction with the 
British Open Championship and has attracted a strong 
entry from players throughout the world.  In addition 
to the home countries of England, Wales and Scotland, 
other countries attending are Australia, New Zealand, 
USA, Egypt, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, 
Canada, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, South Africa and 
Spain. 

For further information contact
Nigel Graves
Secretary, The Croquet Association
Phone/Fax: 020 7736 3148
www.croquet.org.uk