The Nailsea and District Croquet Club hosted the prestigious B Level Association Croquet tournament over the weekend of June 15th and Nailsea's Erica Malaiperuman continued her fine form with a win in the Greta Stringer Cup.
The tournament was played under Association Croquet Advanced rules for players with handicaps between 0 and nine.
The field of 10 fell naturally into two groups, with four competitors with handicaps between 0 and one playing for the Margaret Fleming Shield and six competitors with handicaps between two and six playing for the Greta Stringer Cup.
Ged Smolskas from the Bury Club defeated Andrew Wise from the Hurlingham Club in a closely contested final to win the Margaret Fleming Cup.
This completed a remarkable run of eight consecutive tournament successes for Smolskas between April and June, which has seen his handicap reducing from 2.5 to 0 (scratch).
The Greta Stringer Cup competition was run as an all-play-all block with three matches on Saturday and two matches on Sunday.
The block leader throughout was Erica Malaiperuman from Nailsea, who played very steady croquet to win the tournament with four wins out of five.
This win followed Malaiperuman’s recent success in winning the Nailsea May Advanced tournament for players with handicaps between two and 10.
Another Nailsea member, Geoff Hughes, was Runner-Up with three wins out of five.
Guy Hewitt from the Hurlingham Club won the prize for the fastest game with a time of 66 minutes, whilst the prize for the biggest upset went to Mike Salisbury of the Bristol Club, handicap six, who defeated an opponent with handicap 2.5 in his final game on Sunday afternoon.
After the event one of the visiting managers Robert Upton said: “The competitors enjoyed excellent weather throughout the weekend and were treated as always to first-class hospitality from the Nailsea Club.”
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