Croquet: Second place worth wait

Paul Stuart (left) supervises his partner and fellow Gisborne player during yesterday's final round of doubles play at the North Island Croquet Championships in Napier. Photo/Duncan Brown.

Wellingtonians Paul Skinley and Aiken Hakes turned a two-and-a-half hour wait into a positive on the way to securing second place in the doubles section of the North Island Croquet Championships yesterday.

With World No1 Chris Clarke of Christchurch and his partner and world No50 Michael Wright of Wellington having recorded their fifth consecutive win from as many games by lunch time yesterday to secure the title all the focus for the remainder of the day was on who would secure second place at the Marewa Club in Napier. Hakes and Skinley had to wait for a round to finish to see if a playoff was required for the runner-up spot.

"We didn't mind the wait ... we just relaxed, did a bit of umpiring and ate plenty of food," Skinley said after their 26-3 win against Hawke's Bay's Tony Stephens of the Te Mata Club and Waikato's John Christie.

Skinley produced a triple peel in the victory.

"I was pretty happy with that. I've won the title five or six times with different partners over the years but I'm happy with second this time as I've only been playing with Aiken for a year now," Skinley said.

A croquet player since 1969, Skinley was also a runner-up in the South Island doubles last year but didn't travel south this year. He is aiming to do equally well in the singles which begin today and continue until Sunday at the 90th North Island champs.

"It's a lot tougher in the singles because it's best of three knockout," Skinley said.

Percentages determine placings in the doubles and yesterday's playoff, which ended nine hours after Skinley's and Hakes' first game was required after both combinations finished round robin play with four wins from their five games.

"We're having a couple of celebration drinks now and then we will cook a meal, put some washing on and get a reasonably early night," Skinley said.

He pointed out they had plenty of washing to deal with in the wake of Wednesday's and yesterday's wet weather. However, players at Marewa were better off than those at the Te Mata Club where the greens were under water for a period.

One of the Bay's older statesmen in the code, Stephens was happy with third as it was the first time he had played with Christie.

"I put my ball on the lawn but never shot it. That was my contribution to the playoff following Paul's triple peel," Stephens said.