East v West v North of Scotland 2021

5-6 June 2021, Meadows

The weather on Saturday was poor with some showers, but cheered up for Sunday.  The effects of wariness over protection against viral infection and sheer distance reduced the number of entrants, sadly lacking from the North.  With only 13 on day 1 and 14 on day 2 an East v West format was adopted.   (This event needs 18 to 21 on each day for the three-way split, which is more complex to manage.)  Three full lawns were set and games were based on 14-point AC or 19-point GC, each limited to one hour with a cut-off at time even if a draw resulted.  Most GC games were completed, but some AC games struggled with the tight schedule – especially when a wide variance of bisques was present.  As options, GC or AC could be played as doubles, with Alternate Strokes or One-ball as other AC options.

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Secretary Trophy 2021

24 July 2021, Meadows

Roger Binks was the new name for the Secretary Trophy.

Entries were far below previous years; initially 6 players but reduced to 4 in the week before the event at Meadows.  The plan was for all to play each other twice in the 14-point advanced with bisques in 80 minute games.  In accordance with SCA custom the lift/contact version used hoops 3 and 5.  A late addition increased the field to 5, causing an alteration to a single block with one out-player for each of the 5 rounds.  At the briefing, the offer of a 90 minute time limit was rejected – interestingly only 2 of the 10 matches went to time, perhaps the good summer weather helped.

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Scottish AC Open 2021

26-27 June 2021, Meadows

Alastair Burn-Murdoch won the Scottish Open at Meadows defeating Stephen Wright 2-0 in the final. Almost all matches went according to the seeding with none of the usual upsets in the first round. Stephen Wright defeating James Hopgood in the semi-final was the only match that went against the seeding and Stephen looked like a strong contender having previously won the event in 1979.

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Scottish Short Croquet Championship 2021

18 July 2021, Balgreen

Kathy Brown won the Scottish Short Croquet Championship defeating Jane Morrison in the final. Kathy took an early lead and used her 4 bisques wisely. Jane, with 2 mandatory peels to make, managed to get ahead and complete one of them but when time was called Kathy drew level and won the “golden hoop”  ending.

Players from Edinburgh, Meadows and Glasgow joined the Balgreen members and enjoyed good weather and short but intense games of croquet on the fast and well maintained lawns. Calum Worsley had tied with Kathy on 4 wins in their block but Kathy had better net points. The other block was clearer with Jane the only player on 4 wins, defeated only by Joe.  Kathy, who had just become a Grandma, took home the trophy and a bottle of the SCA’s finest claret.

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Middle Bisquers 2021

12-13 June 2021, Balgreen

With only 9 players available for this event at Balgreen it was agreed that the format would be seeded cross-blocks with a block of 5 and a block of 4. The two best players would then play a final (even if they had already played one another).

Block A:- George Plant,  Rosemary Saunders Robertson, Calum Worsley, Roger Binks and Kevin Wright
Block B:- John Owen, Alan Wilson, Bill Strachan, John Campbell

With the odd number of players one player in Block A had a bye in each round.

The weather was mainly dry but windy with Sunday quite sunny. The courts were reasonably fast with newly set hoops causing some problems for players.

After Saturday the leaders were John on 3/3, George 2/2, Rosemary 2/2 and Alan 2/3.  The first round on Sunday saw John beat Rosemary and Alan beat George in the turn when time was called.

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  4. SCA Handicap Doubles 2021