York & Sheffield entered a joint team in the Inter-Club, and the regionalised draw took them to Nottingham for their first-round match, though sadly we were unable to offer our normal hospitality. Unusually, the doubles finished quickly and the lower tier games rather less so, so the fancied players had plenty of time to amuse themselves with a 14pt Alternate Stoke Advanced Doubles with 6 mandatory peels, as well as what looked like 3-ball Golf Croquet from the adjacent lawn. In the last game to finish, Derek Knight, who had only lost narrowly to Richard Huxley in the morning, was well on course to win +26, when he accidentally pegged one of his balls out when shooting at its partner ball, which was also for the peg. Ian Vincent took a while to get going, allowing Derek a number of near misses, but eventually got to 2-back and peg and laid up behind 2-back before Derek hit the peg from not quite behind hoop 3.

Will Gee & Omied Hallam bt Eugene Chang & Callum Johnson +23
Richard Huxley bt Derek Knight +3
Ian Vincent bt Trevor Billard +9

Will Gee bt Eugene Chang +17tp
Omied Hallam bt Callum Johnson +7
Richard Huxley bt Trevor Billard +25
Ian Vincent lost to Derek Knight -7

Nottingham meet Bristol at home in the semi-final.

The Hallam handicap doubles tournament, commemorating the late Brian Hallam – a fine croquet player who loved doubles – was contested by 14 pairs of club members this weekend, and much enjoyed despite a torrrential downpour flooding the lawns on Saturday after tea and forcing the event to be abandoned for the evening, and resumed Sunday morning. The winners of the main knockout event were Brian's son Omied Hallam partnering the up-and-coming 11 year old Elizabeth Shelton. There were also various prizes for the fastest game, most peels, the quiz etc.  More photos on the club's  Facebook page .