Sidmouth Croquet Club held the Finals of tournaments played in blocks throughout the summer, writes David Butler.

The first of the finals saw David Clarke beat Philip Harris 26 hoops to 21 in the Woodward Salver for Association Advance Croquet.

Mike Taylor the took on Graeme Pryor in an advanced handicap game for the Sheila Adams Cup.

Pryor had no fewer than 10 bisques and led for much of the way before the greater experience of Taylor came to the fore and he won 19-18.

The first of the Golf Croquet finals saw Chris Donovan defeat Philip Harris 7-6, 7-6 in ‘best of three’ match.

The Devonia Cup for high handicap association players saw Jon Ball defeat Richard Thurlow 14-2.

The last of the first day of finals saw the playing of the Macadam Cup Golf Croquet tournament for high handicap players.

The greater experience of Edward Coleman saw him ultimately edge out Sue Dent, a member of the South West Federation Golf Croquet team, 7-5, 7-5.

Day two began with the Humphrey Hicks final, an un-timed affair and again played across the ‘best of three’.

David Mundy, who sports a very low handicap of minus a half, eased to success over five-handicapper Colin Walls, 26-12, 26-12.

Philip Harris, in his third final of the weekend, played Peter Nelson in the Macadam Cup (Golf Croquet) for low handicap players which Nelson won two games to one, 6-7, 7-2, 7-6.

The Fermor Rose Bowl, an association tournament for ladies, was played on lawn three between Sue Rogers and Julie Sorrell.

Sorrell, the higher handicap player started well, using her four bisques to get a lead in the game, but Rogers began to hit well and, with the three hours fast running, pegged out the game with one minute to spare to win 26-12.

The Owen Cup is an association doubles tournament where a low handicap player partners a high handicap player and this saw David Monday and John Ball defeat Philip Harris and Kelvin Dent 21-12, this after Monday, with Harris needing to run his remaining seven hoops and peel his colleague through a few hoops, cleverly left all the balls apart and the task proved beyond Harris and Dent.

The last of the finals saw Richard Wood play Peter Miller for the Belmont Cup.

This is a handicap association tournament, Wood (handicap of two) giving 12 bisques to Miller (handicap of 14).

Once all four balls were on the lawn, Miller used five bisques to get his red ball to the hoop, and one more to separate Wood’s balls and set up a rush to hoop one.

Wood fired and missed so Miller then used three more bisques to reach hoop seven with his yellow ball. Wood then got in, took his black ball to the peg and pegged out Miller’s red ball, leaving his opponent to play with only his yellow one.

The remainder of the game was very tactical and fun to watch, resulting in Miller using his remaining bisques for a few more hoops, but Wood finished off the game in style, winning 26-23.