A Junior Showdown: HWCC v CCC!

On Saturday 5 June, the club saw four of our junior players (Ed, Will & Kathryn Hollman and Roger Holwerda) battling it out in the return match against the Cheltenham Croquet Club (Sam Cuthbert, Erin James), who sadly were missing one of their stars, Harvey, due to a cycling injury (get well soon Harvey).  However their other two  juniors proved to be a strong side. (Readers may recall that Sam recently featured in the Croquet Gazette gaining his AC Bronze Merit Award at the Cheltenham Easter Handicap Tournament in early April.)

The morning involved a series of skills exercises which were set up to provide a competitive framework for pairs,  one player being drawn from each side.  These were quite demanding so it was encouraging to see high scores being reported.  Notwithstanding some strong play by Roger Holwerda for our side, and a competitive score from our youngest player, Kathryn Hollman, Cheltenham Croquet Club were the clear winner in the morning competitions.

The afternoon competitive handicap matches rested on the shoulders of the top two players of each team.  Sam proved his form by out-competing Roger, 2-0, in AC.  Erin proved a match for Ed winning her GC match, after a slow start, decisively by 2-1.  

The day was blessed with glorious sunshine and opportunity was taken in the margins for some friendly games with some of the adults, in which the juniors impressed.  

We hope to claim that we played with the stars of the future!

​Ian Shore

Pictured above: Naomi Whitehead (Cheltenham Coach), Roger, Sam, Erin, Will, Kathryn, Ed, Ian Shore (HW Coach).