Croquet Club
On the weekend of 13/14 July, the club hosted the 18th Swiss golf croquet championship. Alongside club members, 10 members of the Zürich Croquet Club took part.
The preliminary rounds on Saturday led to the 1/4 finals on Sunday, then to the semi-finals, where Ian Sexton beat Daniel Studerus (Zürich) 7-3,7-1 and Norman Eatough came home a close 7/6 in the deciding third game against Dave Underhill.
The final was a cliff-hanger, played over some 3 hours at 28°C: Ian produced some of his trade-mark phenomenal hitting, scattering Norman's ball to far boundaries. Norman came back well to take position in front of each hoop, only to be hit far away again and again: he had to wait till Ian missed or didn't hit dead-centre, as a result of which his ball also careered far from the hoop, to have a chance at running the next hoop.
The third, deciding, game went to the wire: at 6/6, the decisive moment came when Norman promoted his ball to within 3 metres of the last hoop and Ian's promotion landed 6 metres away on the boundary.
The relief was great, for Norman, when he ran the last hoop to win, making this the 9th time he had won this championship since its inception in 1997. The Swiss Croquet Association president, Dave Underhill, presented the cup.
The competition highlighted the advances which our croquet-playing friends from Zürich have made over the last two years, with Kevin Collins making it through to the 1/4 finals and Daniel Studerus making the semi-finals following yet another close win over Danny Davids (7-5,4-7,7-6).
Forthcoming events at the club: weekend of 27/28 July: Switzerland v English Croquet Association side. Weekend of 2-4 August: Swiss Open, with international participation. Spectators are welcome, Prévessin site.
For further information about croquet (coaching is provided): contact club president Norman Eatough: norferga@orange.fr or (+33) 04 50 41 21 87.
by Croquet Club
