[<<] [>>] by Roger Wood at Compton Croquet Club
1 Aug 2010 (AC)

Rutger Beijderwellen won the COWhorn; Dave Kibble won the COWbell.

The wet winter and dry summer have not been kind to lawns and inevitable patchiness added a degree of uncertainty to this year's matches. We were pleased to welcome our second Australian guest of the year, Tony Hall, making his first visit to Compton, and COWhorn newcomers Carole Jackson, Howard Bottomley and Alex Jardine.

Sadly last year's winner Jamie Burch was unable to defend his trophy or give Rutger Beijderwellen the satisfaction of revenge. Rutger's precision play bodes well for his MacRobertson Shield debut: no attempts at sextuples this year, but 6 of his 8 games were completed with triples including a 35 minute, 5th turn finish in his semi-final against Louise Bradforth. Martin French had a good weekend, his single triple being a disappointing indicator having come oh so close in other games. In the first game of the final Martin got the first break but a hampered miss after 2-back saw Rutger to 4-back with a spread. Martin hit but did not progress and Rutger's miss allowed him to take his backward ball to the peg with no peels. However his cross-peg leave left a sliver open which, after much careful thought, sighting and casting, Rutger hit and finished. In the second game an uncharacteristic miss from Rutger after making three hoops let Martin in and to 4-back with a spread. Rutger missed the long shot into corner 4 but Martin only managed two peels of his triple leaving the opponent's balls at rover and penultimate with his on the east boundary near hoop 4.
Rutger chose to play the ball at rover (for hoop 1) from where it lay, even though he had to shave rover to stand any chance of hitting one of the boundary balls - but hit he did and went to 4-back with a spread, peeling Martin's rover ball. Martin hit the short lift and finished. The decider was a much more clinical affair. Martin laid a long west boundary tice; Rutger missed it into corner 2; Martin played 1 yard south of Rutger's ball. Rutger shot from corner 1, clipped the tice, whence to 4-back with a spread, Martin missed into corner 4 and Rutger finished to gain the COWhorn for the 4th time equalling wins by Phil Cordingley.

After his loss to Martin French in the knockout, Dave Kibble proved to be the only unbeaten player in the Swiss and took the COWbell for the second time after a gap of 10 years. Tim Wilkins also had a 5th turn triple against Tony Hall and Graham Gale hit form on Sunday with two triples and a +26 in his last three games. Rutger was way out ahead for the peeling prize and David Hopkins was as surprised as all previous recipients to be awarded the COWpat. Gratifyingly everything wound up nicely just after tea on Sunday and Compton's splendidly blazered president George Williams gave away the prizes and the now traditional runners-up rock.

Knockout for the COWhorn

Round 1
Ian Vincent beat Tim Wilkins +25tp
Rutger Beijderwellen beat Alex Jardine +26tp Martin French beat Howard Bottomley +19
Dave Kibble beat Carole Jackson +10tpo

Round 2
Graham Gale beat Dick Knapp +17
Louise Bradforth beat Martin Leach +13
Jerry Guest beat Brian Kitching +16
Rutger Beijderwellen beat Ian Vincent +9 Martin French beat Dave Kibble +24tp Mary Knapp beat Gordon Hopewell +21 Tony Hall beat David Hopkins +17 Roger Tribe beat Andrew Gregory +26

Round 3
Louise Bradforth beat Graham Gale +19
Rutger Beijderwellen beat Jerry Guest +25tp Martin French beat Mary Knapp +26 Roger Tribe beat Tony Hall +21tp

Semi-finals
Rutger Beijderwellen beat Louise Bradforth +26tp +26tp Martin French beat Roger Tribe +26 +5

Final
Rutger Beijderwellen beat Martin French +6tp -14 +26tp

Swiss for the Cowbell

Winner: Dave Kibble (5/6)
(5/7) Graham Gale
(5/8) Tim Wilkins
(3/5) Mary Knapp, Ian Vincent
(3/6) Tony Hall
(3/7) Jerry Guest, Dick Knapp
(2/5) David Hopkins, Martin Leach
(2/6) Andrew Gregory
(1/4) Howard Bottomley
(1/5) Carole Jackson
(1/7) Alex Jardine

Ace Peeler: Rutger Beijderwellen

Cowpat: David Hopkins