THE CROQUET

The beginning of the block play. Eight blocks of eight with four qualifying from each block for the last 32, the rest would play in the plate. Three games each for Monday and Tuesday, and the final game on Wednesday morning, leaving the remainder of the day to sort out any playoffs required.

On Monday evening, the Irish looked pretty much down and out after the first days play, or were we just slow starters? Ronan and Mark won their three games, Alan won one of his, but Simon, Ed and Andrew all lost three out of three. Suddenly, and most unpredictably, we looked like only getting two through to the next stage, this was not in the plans!

Mark won two more and booked his place through. Ronan lost his first two of the day but won his third when it was starting to look uncomfortable. Not through yet but looking good. Alan had another win over Phil Cordingley, but had an unexpected loss to an Egyptian, Ahmed El Mahdi, which meant he was on two wins, and qualification would be out of his hands come Wednesday morning. Ed lost his first two of the day leaving him still on zero wins (although Ed would not use this as an excuse, his mallet disappeared in London airport and never arrived in NZ, leaving Ed having to borrow a club mallet- it didn’t give him much time to practice, so he was very unlucky in this regard). But not surprisingly, Ed popped up with one of his half hour demolition jobs against local Toby Garrison, who was looking very uncomfortable in terms of qualification – he would end up being the runner up! But Ed was confirmed as a non qualifier before Wednesday had arrived.

Simon and Andrew on the other hand, turned it all around. With no wins between them after day 1, they had six between them after day 2. Simon’s predictable unpredictability was unquestionable as he hammered his three opponents with three triples. Andrew won his three with two triples, against some very experienced and highly ranked players. David Maugham, Paul Skinley (NZ) and Bob Cherry (USA) all fell to Andrew as he really started to enjoy himself and play to his potential. This would keep going late into the week! Things were turning around for us with one round of block games left.

Alan won his game but went out on 3 wins out of 7, other results not going his way in the final morning. The unexpected defeat to the Egyptian doing the damage as he had wins over two of the eventual qualifiers from his block, Cordingley and Bruce Baker(NZ). Ed also went out, his win over Garrison being his only high point. Mark confirmed his place at joint top of his block by beating Robert Fulford, 6 out of 7 for Mark. He was playing very well. Ronan beat former world Champion Joe Hogan to make sure he didn’t have to be involved in any playoffs that afternoon. 5 wins out of 7. Simon beat Bob Jackson in a close one, giving him 4 wins and qualification. Four wins was enough for Simon, but for Andrew, who had a 26-0TP fifth turn win over Kevin Garrad, four wins only got him a play off. With three others on 4 wins making it a four way tie, Andrew would have two chances to get through that afternoon. He took his first opportunity by beating Paul Skinley for the second time in 24 hours and achieved qualification to the last 32 – a fantastic achievement considering he was looking very shaky half way through the qualifiers and also after losing all his games on the Monday. There would be even more to come from him! Simon’s turn around was also excellent winning his last four in a row (Simon had also developed mallet trouble and would end up using a local club mallet for the remainder of the event – this obviously didn’t bother him!). Ronan and Mark I suppose were the more consistent in getting through, but nothing really mattered once you were through. Al and Ed would play in the plate.

Ronan and Mark went off to play in the Wellington Club. The strong sun was really speeding up the lawns, and after a messy start in the tough conditions, Ronan soon found his touch and beat Pete Trimmer in two games, 26-9TP, 26-5TP. Ronan was starting to play well. Mark played Phil Cordingley (Eng) but unfortunately went down in 3 games, Phil having one of those matches where he did everything right, and with Mark missing his lift shot in the deciding game, he was punished. Phil went out in the next round. Mark’s side of the draw was looking very good for him but with these one off matches, anything can happen, and sadly for Mark who was looking good in his block play, he was out.

Simon won his match in two games against Bruce Baker (NZ) with relative ease, so we all returned to Kelburn to watch the last few matches that remained unfinished. Andrew was playing David Goacher (Eng) - this one was sure to go on all day, and in the very hot sun, it did. Andy lost the first game to Goacher, who had played very well in his block. But Andy’s story was only warming up. He turned the match around and won the next two to pull off a super victory right in front of the club house. I think he decided to wait for the crowd to arrive before he turned it on. Suddenly, from almost not qualifying, he was in the last sixteen, and was joined by Ronan and Simon. That was Thursday.

Ronan and Andrew played their matches in Kelburn, while Simon was in the Wellington Club playing the famous New Zealander John Prince. Prince’s fan club that followed him around for the week had gone as far as getting t-shirts printed with slogans of their hero on the front. This had to be a first. Typically, Simon spoilt the home supporters’ fun and beat him in two games, 26-2TP, 26-25. I never found out exactly what way the second game went as it obviously looked extremely close, but no matter, for the second year in succession, Simon had reached the quarter finals.

Ronan played Joe Hogan who was certainly beginning to find his form of twelve years ago when he won the first ever World Championship. He had just knocked out no 3 seed Bruce Fleming. Ronan won it in two however, playing his best croquet in a long time. No mistakes were made, it came down to hitting and tripling. Score was 26-9TP, 26-0TP. This was Ronan’s first time reaching the quarter finals after two previous appearances in the last sixteen.

Andrew to make it three Irish in the last eight? No doubt about it. He beat last year’s semi finalist Dennis Bulloch of NZ 2-0 (26-10, 26-0). How far was Andrew going to go? He feared nobody, had nothing to lose, and his win confirmed a fantastic statistic for the Irish - three of us in the last eight for the first time ever. There were no Americans, no Australians, three Kiwis, and just two English in the quarter final stage. No matter what happened next, we had done ourselves proud. Unfortunately, Ronan and Andy would meet in the next round while Simon would play Brian Wislang of NZ. By this stage, last year’s winner and world no 1 Reg Bamford had been knocked out of the top half of the draw by Toby Garrison, and Robert Fulford was beginning to find his form in the bottom half of the draw. The whole event had become wide open. That afternoon, we were back out to play the next round.

Simon played Brian Wislang, and ended up losing in 3 games, his shooting totally deserted him. Once he was in play, there generally wasn’t any problem, but it was getting the innings that was the problem. Wislang won the first 26-0TP, Simon won the second 26-0TP, but the third went to Wislang, 26-10.

Ronan and Andy’s match was strange. There weren’t many mistakes at all for the first two games. Ronan’s finishing turn in game one came to an unexpected halt at 2-back, Andy won it in his next two turns ( 26-18TP). Andy immediately went around in game two, Ronan hit the lift and did the same. Andrew missed, Ronan finished (26-9TP). The standard was high, and it was all set for the decider. What went on in the third game was baffling, I doubt that the drop in standard will be seen again, but nerves can do strange things to players. The game went on for hours, and was extremely poor. Nerves totally took over Ronan who crumbled. There is no better word for it. Numerous mistakes were made, numerous shots missed, and eventually it was Andrew who won it 26-6 to take the match deservedly. The first ever real Irish person to reach the semi-final was the person who had decided to leave his holiday in Fiji to give the qualifiers a "crack" the week before the actual event. Now, Andrew, with a pre-tournament world ranking of 130 had reached the last four of the World Championships. It’s such a shame that our country doesn’t recognise this sport. It was a super story that was unfolding in front of us.

The next morning, Andrew was still pinching himself, struggling to believe what was happening. Unfortunately, the rain came down heavily for hours, forcing the venue to be changed. The semis were best of five games. Andrew’s opponent, Toby Garrison, who had knocked out Reg Bamford and then Bob Jackson, would have been strongly fancied, but who was to know anymore? He took the first two games, 26-1, 26-18TP. Andrew had come back into it going close in the second game. Instead of folding after going 2-0 down however, he took the third game 26-21TP in-between very heavy showers, which were a huge distraction to the players. And although Toby took the fourth game and the match, he had to hit a very nervous last shot to ensure he won it. If that shot had been missed, it would have certainly gone to a decider. But, at approximately 8pm, after starting first thing that morning, Andrew’s fairytale ended. He had become quite a story around the event. From initially being recognised incorrectly as the New Zealander called Andrew Johnson, the Irish Andy Johnston would not be forgotten around these parts after his amazing two weeks. A tied third place finish was thoroughly deserved, no qualifier had ever gone so far in this event, an enormous achievement for someone competing in their first World Championship. We are all very proud.

The other semi-final saw Robert Fulford reach his desired form as he blew Brian Wislang away in 3 games. That night, a few of the Irish returned to the infamous Sports Café Bar (which had hosted us through out our time in Wellington) for a much deserved big night out. Because of the night out, this reporter never saw the final the next day. It again had to be moved venue due to the weather, some 50 miles away. Robert expectedly won it 3-1. Toby’s comeback from 2-0 down ran into trouble in game four, leaving Robert to take the fourth game 26-11TP. This was his 5^th world title. At the end of the day, consistent play for a full week, or at least the second half of the week, will get you very close to the latter stages. Robert’s play must be admired for continuously having this consistency to win him this prestigious trophy so many times. The plate was won by John Gibbons (Eng) who beat Stephen Meatheringham (Aus) 2-0.