The following report is taken from the CA website:

By Geoff Johnson at Ashby CC 7 September 2013:

Sunday 8th September saw twelve hopefuls from all over the country arrive at Ashby CC to attempt to become this year's Centre Stage national champion.
Despite being threatened with continuous rain, the weather was kind to us, (no rain at all!), and packed agenda kicked off with a block stage with two blocks of six, all-play-all, producing four contestants for the semi-finals.
Chris Jackson from Nottingham CC narrowly beat David Pickard from Ben Rhydding CC by 7-5 in semi-final one, whilst Geoff Johnson from Watford CC beat Ken Eccles from Bury CC by 7-3 in semi-final two.
The final was very tightly contested, but in the end Chris Jackson won on the 13th hoop, to record a 7-6 victory and lift the 2013 trophy!
This was an excellent day's golf croquet and a good way for mid handicap players to experience competitive play, and start entering 'B'-level tournaments. I think all present really enjoyed it, and I can only encourage all clubs to consider entering a team in next year's competition, (details can be found in the CA handbook).
Thanks to Ashby CC for hosting us, and thank you to all the players who participated in such good spirit.

Longman Cup Quarter-Final (played at Cheltenham Sunday 15th September 2013 and report by Paul Hands)

Nottingham beat Bristol 4-3 (Nottingham names first)

Bob Thompson & Nigel Hames-Keward(8) lost to Bob Scott & Marian Hilton (8.5) -12 (14-26)
Dan Greenaway (9) beat Jill Hathaway (11) +10 (26-16)
Ian Draper (20) beat Deirdrie Duggan (11) +15 (26-11)

Bob Thompson (3.5) lost to Marian Hilton -12 (14-26)
Nigel Hames-Keward (4.5) beat Bob Scott (4.5) +19 (26-7)
Dan Greenaway (9) lost to Deirdrie Duggan (11) -13 (13-26)
Ian Draper (20) beat Jill Hathaway (11) +5T (22-17)

On a wet and windy day at Cheltenham, the result of a really well contested match all came down to the last game, being played far away from the Clubhouse on lawn 4, where Nottingham's Ian Draper (sitting apparently comfortably on peg and penult) was leading by a long way, only for Bristol's Jill Hathaway (little by little) to fight her way back into it, but she was eventually thwarted by time …

Nottingham will now face Southport in the Sem-Final, to be played at Surbiton on Saturday 5th October, with Woking to face either Watford or Enfield in the other.