Pinchbeck Croquet Club round-up

Pinchbeck Croquet Club are celebrating a victory double.

They were successful at the opening Lincolnshire Golf Croquet doubles tournament before tasting success in the final of the Anderson Shield in Association Croquet.

The county event saw six teams take part with the Pinchbeck pairing of Ken Knock and Tim Barzycki coming out the overall winners.

They triumphed in a very hard fought competition with three of their five games going to a 7-6 result.

The outcome rested on the last game featuring Gainsborough and Torksey which, had the latter won, they would have topped the overall competition.

However, Gainsborough managed a 7-6 victory to leave Pinchbeck as the event winners, having only lost one game.

Other teams represented were Boston, Branston and Dunston.

Pinchbeck results: Gainsborough 6 Pinchbeck 7; Pinchbeck 7 Boston 3; Dunston 2 Pinchbeck 7; Pinchbeck 6 Torksey 7; Branston 6 Pinchbeck 7.

The final of the Anderson Shield in Association Croquet was carried over from last year and took place on the neutral lawns of Newport in Suffolk where Pinchbeck played Wrest Park.

Mike Bowser, Ken Knock and Adrian Kirby represented Pinchbeck.

During the morning session, the first match to finish was the singles game between Tim Brewer and Mike Bowser in which Brewer ran out the winner with a score of +18.

Meanwhile, the doubles game between George Collin and Tim Nurse against Adrian Kirby and Ken Knock proved a much closer affair and could have gone either way.

Unfortunately, due to a miss swing of the mallet in which Adrian suffered a minor leg injury, a winning position was lost and again Wrest Park ran out the winners with a score of +1 giving them a 2-0 lead at the break.

What looked an impossible task for Pinchbeck - who only had to drop one game to lose the match - suddenly took on a different manner as Bowser ran out a winner against Nurse +17 and almost unbelievably Knock swept the board at +26 when playing Brewer.

This left Collin battling Kirby to determine the winner with the match drawn at 2-2.

This proved a hit and miss affair which ended up +10 to Kirby so, against all the odds, Pinchbeck ran out the overall winner 3-2 to win the trophy for 2024.

The first Golf Croquet League match of the season has also taken place.

After a rain delayed start, Pinchbeck 1 - featuring John and Ann Gillett along with Derek Brocklesby - played Pinchbeck 2 consisting of Sally Farrow, Sam Hales and Tim Barzycki.

The match scores saw Derek Brocklesby and John Gillett beat Tim Barzycki and Sally Farrow 7-2 in a doubles match while Ann Gillett beat Sam Hales 7-6 in singles.

The remaining matches were all singles and the results were John Gillett 6 Tim Barzycki 7; Derek Brocklesby 7 Sally Farrow 6; Ann Gillett 5 Sally Farrow 7; John Gillett 7 Sam Hales 5; John Gillett 7 Sally Farrow 5; Derek Brocklesby 3

Tim Barzycki 7; Derek Brockelsby 7 Sam Hales 4; Ann Gillett 4 Tim Barzycki 7.

This left Pinchbeck 1 winning six games to Pinchbeck 2's four with 61 hoops for and 56 against.

The next league game is on June 3 when Pinchbeck 1 play Unity (Sudbury) while a number of players are also taking part in a qualifier for the All England Golf Croquet Handicap Championship.