Croquet: Northland showing marked improvement

Croquet is growing in Northland. PHOTO/NZME

Northland had their best ever results at the recent Upper North Island golf croquet tournament (UNITE) held recently in Auckland.

Six players took part in three grades; George Smith and Neville King in the premier division (open grade), and Kay Bridge, Rod Christensen, Janet Sole and Murray Shaw in the restricted intermediate and junior grades.

Northland finished fourth overall behind reigning champions Bay of Plenty, Thames Valley, and Auckland, but easily headed off Counties-Manakau and Waikato-King Country.

Northland have been the perennial wooden spooners since the inception of the tournament in 2008.

Rod Christensen from Waipu was very successful in the intermediate division, winning eight of his 10 singles matches.

Christensen is an experienced association croquet player and those skills have enabled him to crossover effortlessly to the golf croquet code.

No doubt he is ready to progress to the higher level and looks certain to be competing in the premier division in the near future.

Kay Bridge competed in her second UNITE tournament. She had previously competed in the junior division (2015) and despite competing at the higher level, came away with four singles wins, certainly a satisfactory result at this level.

Murray Shaw and Janet Sole competed in their first regional tournament and won six and four games respectively in the junior division. They also made a clean sweep of their doubles matches.

George Smith and Neville King competed in the premier division against a bevy of top class players including 2016 New Zealand representative, Dallas Cooke.

Smith, for the second year in a row, recorded five wins including the scalps of former New Zealand champion Geoff Young and 2116 UNITE champion Dave Roberts.

He also managed to become the first Northlander to gain a zero handicap.

King scored his best results with three singles wins and combined with Smith to win three of their doubles, certainly better than the previous three years when only one solitary win had been recorded.

The UNITE tournament will be hosted in Northland in 2018 and it will be a great opportunity for local enthusiasts to see some top class play and hopefully some of the exciting young talent like 17-year-old Angus Coulter from the Bay of Plenty, who took out this year's championship.