Barry club members’ winning ways continue

CHAMPIONS: With the trophy for the winners of the Lower North Island association croquet teams event are Hawke’s Bay players (from left) Geoff Gibson (Intermediate Grade), Gisborne’s Paul Stuart (A Grade), Isobel O’Brien (B Grade) and John Little (C Grade). Picture supplied

Two of Barry Memorial Croquet Club’s association players carried on the Gisborne club’s winning ways in the Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay last week.

Barry club members won five of the eight prizes on offer at the Whakatane Golf Croquet Open last month.

Charles Ostler, an English player who lives in Gisborne over summer, and Paul Stuart continued that run of success when they competed in association croquet tournaments later in November.

Ostler won the A Grade singles tournament at Whakatane last week, winning four of his five games.

Heather Richardson, from Te Kuiti, also won four out of five games but Ostler won on countback, with 32 net hoops to Richardson’s 10.

Jim Wardle, from Epsom-Remuera, teamed up with Ostler in the doubles. They were runners-up to Allister McGregor (Waikato-King Country) and Daley Majurey (Whakatane).

Both pairs were tied on four wins each, but this time the countback went in favour of Ostler’s opponents, who had 27 net hoops to the six of Wardle and Ostler.

In Napier last weekend, Stuart represented the Hawke’s Bay Croquet Association in the Lower North Island teams event, which was played at the Marewa Croquet Club.

Five associations took part — Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu-Wanganui, South Taranaki, Wairarapa and Wellington. They were each represented by a team of four players covering A Grade, Intermediate, B Grade and C Grade.

Stuart, competing in the A Grade, won three of his four games, and the Hawke’s Bay team won 13 of their 16 games to win the event.

Wairarapa were runners-up with nine wins and Manawatu-Wanganui were third with seven wins.

Stuart was pleased with his performance, considering he had not played competitive croquet since February, when — on difficult lawns — he had what he considered his worst tournament performance ever.

His three wins in Napier last weekend were with the maximum points possible and his only loss was by two points.