We invited girls and women to have a go at croquet during the Sunday evening of the GC Women's Open tournament, and around 50 came. Thanks to Ferzana in particular for her energetic pubiclity initiatives. We hope some "official" photos will be forthcoming, but here are a few informal shots from the early part of the evening. (All photos taken and used with permission of course). 

 

 

 

The Women's Open Championship has previously always been held at Ripon Spa Hotel. With the sale of the hotel the event fell under the remit of the CA to organise and the first event was held this year at Nottingham. The event suffered from significant withdrawals before it even started with 10 competitors pulling out before the event even started! In the end 14 players, with handicaps ranging from -4 to 8, started play across three days, with two days of best of three block play and a final day of an 8 player knock-out. Rachel was the favourite going into the event and dominated Block A, with Lorna Dewar also remaining unbeaten in Block B. There were a few upsets in the knock-out stages, but the expected final of Lorna v Rachel was unimpacted. Rachel won 7-2 7-2 to win the Golf Croquet Women's Open Championship, for the first time as a Gee, having previously won it more than a decade ago! It was a real family affair, with Rachel's Mum, Judith Rowe (Ashby), winning the plate event. 

The Women's Open, and various other ladies events in general within the CA tournament calendar are great events for ladies who are new to competitive golf croquet and want to try their first tournament in a relaxed, friendly and supportive competition.

 

Image: Judith Rowe (L) and Rachel Gee (R). Photo credit: Arthur Rowe