St Albans Croquet Club
2025 Speed Doubles
The 2025 Speed Croquet Tournament took place on Sat Jun 28 and went well, considering there were only 6 players. Three games of doubles were played, with 2 people timing for each game; this enabled the players to be more relaxed. Each side had 25 min to play all their shots, after which they were allowed one hit per turn until their opponents used up their time. Handicaps for a pair were 1/4 of the sum of their individual Short Lawn handicaps.The results were:
Miles and Roger W beat Mike and Gill 12-11 (+1T)
Roger B and Roger W beat Heather and Gill 12-7 (+5T)
Roger B and Mike beat Heather and Miles +3
A clear message was learnt through the games: there is a great advantage in the two players in a pair communicating their thoughts quickly and making a decision promptly as to the goal of each shot. This was especially true in the 'Alternate Shot Doubles' option that each side used in each game.
There were some outstanding incidents during the games. In the 3rd game, Heather scored a hoop from 20 yards and both Heather and Miles accidentally peeled one of their opponent's balls! The photo is of Mike pegging out the second ball in game #3. Prior to that, Heather asked if her Rover ball was allowed to peg out her opponents' Rover ball. No clear answer could be found from the rulebook, so she did not do it.
Each game was both exciting and tightly contested, suggesting that both handicapping and time allowed were about right.
Roger W and Roger B were the only players to win 2 games, so were the overall winners.
