Teen holds his own against big names

Wanganui teenager Lachlan Hughes has been playing hard among the big names at the WCF World Golf Croquet Championship in the Bay of Plenty this week.

Hughes had to make a rushed flight from Christchurch, where he was with the New Zealand Under 21 team at their world championships, in order to be ready to play by Saturday.

Four croquet clubs - Mount Maunganui, Katikati, Rotorua and Whakatane - are hosting the games on their 20 combined lawns.

Hughes is in Block B, which consists of three New Zealanders, three Egyptians, two Australians, an Irishman and an American.

While yesterday he was sitting on a record of two wins and three losses, all three of his defeats had been in matches that had gone to a third deciding game.

Hughes started with a 4-7, 7-3 3-7 loss to Egypt's Hisham Abdelgawad, but rebounded to beat Ireland's Simon Williams 7-5, 7-2 and Kiwi Tony Stephens 7-6, 7-4. He then lost to American Sherif Abdelwahab 3-7, 7-3, 5-7 and Egypt's Khaled Tharwat 7-4, 4-7 5-7.

Coming into yesterday's games there were 14 players in the large field who had won their opening four matches.

Knock-out play begins on Thursday after the last rounds of the Block or round-robin competition.

At the World Under 21 competition in Christchurch last week, Hughes won the Bowl competition, being beaten twice during the tournament including by his only international opponent.

From February 1-5, Hughes beat Mary-Kate Plankerd 7-1 7-5, then George Redpath 4-7, 7-6 -76.

He lost 5-7, 3-7 to England's Harry Dodge and 5-7, 5-7 to fellow Kiwi Giles Lusty to be out of contention for the main title.

Hughes beat Adam Marsh 7-3, 7-0 and moved into the Bowl knockout section.

After beating Laura Gannaway 7-5, 7-2, Hughes had another tough match with George Coulter, winning 7-2, 2-7, 7-5 to reach the final. There he accounted for Shaun Theobald 7-3 7-3.