No . 132 The Trusty Servant
In his semi-final , Aston Wade continued to impress by taking the first game against Richard Bilton by a comfortable 7-3 . However , Bilton responded by taking a tight second game 7-6 and it was all to play for in the third . Nonetheless , Aston continued his calm and accurate game and took the third 7-4 . It was already an extraordinary performance by someone who , albeit with some earlier AC experience , had played his first ranked GC event in August 2020 .
The final was played between John- Paul Moberly , the England captain and Aston Wade . Aston won a close first game . John-Paul responded by dominating game 2 almost from start to finish , reaching 5-1 and taking
Aston Wade ( F , 15-20 ) being presented with his trophy for winning the British Open Golf Croquet Championship
Aston Wade ( F , 15-20 )
the game 7-3 . What now ? Aston quickly built a strong lead and at a point where the game could have gone either way , he took on a 15 yard hoop with Red and ran it , barely touching a wire , for game , match and title . It was an extraordinarily mature and impressive performance by a young player in his first Open Championship when playing one of the best players in the world . England ’ s prospects for the next Golf Croquet World Team Championship now look distinctly hopeful .
Rackets The Noel Bruce attracted 54 pairs this year , the second-highest-ever entry , and ran over three weeks , culminating in the final on 17 September . Would the Winchester pairing of Christian Portz ( H , 05-10 ) and Mike Bailey ( A , 00-05 ) retain their title , giving Winchester the crown for only the third time ?
The main draw started in earnest in early September with some good contests in the first round which saw Winchester II ( James Bailey ( A , 96-01 ) & Tom Stevens ( E , 03-08 )) take a game off Haileybury . In the words of your correspondent , ‘ The Sen Bailey and Stevens pairing delivered some big hitting and indeed a bagel for the World number 1 (& his partner whom they mainly targeted ...). Sadly the trip to the bakery jolted the aforementioned doyen to life and their entertaining run came to an end .’ The two top seeds , Winchester and Cheltenham , breezed through their quarter-finals . Haileybury started slowly against Westgate but eventually won 3-1 , and Eton overcame Malvern by the same score in a close match . In other Winchester appearances , Will Morse ( K , 01-06 ) and Patrick Sutton ( G , 93-98 ) saved their best stuff for the knock-ups . Igor Utkin ( A , 14-19 ) and Henry Adams ( Coll , 13-18 ) ran Radley 1 close and made a strong case to move up the pecking order of pairings . The first semi-final saw a good battle between Winchester and Eton ( Guy Smith-Bingham and Rory Giddins ), with some determined play by the Eton pair , before Winchester won through 4-1 . The second semi-final saw a close encounter between Cheltenham ( Richard Owen and Nick James ) and Haileybury ( Mark Farmiloe and Tom Billings , the Current World Singles Champion ), with each game closely fought and the match swinging one way then the other . An early lead by Cheltenham was overturned before the match was level at 2 games all , including an epic 18-17 fourth to Cheltenham , but it was then that Haileybury dug deep and powered through the last two games to take the match 4-2 . The final saw Winchester , defending ( 2019 ) winners , against Haileybury , 2017 winners . In an exciting game , Winchester started well and edged a hard-hitting first game , before Haileybury levelled , taking the closely fought second 17-15 . The third game also reached 14-all , but this time Winchester had the answers to take a 2-1 lead . But now the game changed as Haileybury found their length on service , combined with raw power , taking the next game to level the match and then again to extend a 3-2 lead . Winchester couldn ’ t respond to the ever-increasing ferocity of the Haileybury service , and the match was over , 4-2 to the third seeds .
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