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The Inter-Counties Championship is a national team AC advanced doubles competition sponsored by Croquet England. 22 counties participate, in two Divisions. Matches are played concurrently over four days in Southwick and Compton. The team at the bottom of Division 2 may face a playoff against a county that wants to participate. Buckinghamshire started this year's competition towards the bottom of Division 2 and so it was imperative that we win sufficient matches to keep ourselves from relegation. The top three teams in Division 2 are promoted to Division 1 for the next year and the bottom three teams in Division 1 are relegated to Division 2. The Buckinghamshire squad comprised Gabriel Furse (captain), David Boyd, David Cotton, Richard Coward, Paul Franklin, Geoff Johnson, Richard Pepperell, Mike Porter, Mike West and Mark Wilce. You'll note that apart from David Boyd (Guildford) all the players are from High Wycombe. Gabriel was a splendid captain: he studied the form of the opposing teams, selected doubles partners carefully to match them, kept an eagle eye on all the matches whilst playing beautifully himself and was hugely motivating. And Richard P did a splendid job not only of getting the squad together but providing accommodation for us during the competition. Thank you to both. Huge congratulations must go to Mike West, Richard Coward, Paul Franklin and Mark Wilce who all won games while, according to their handicaps, were seen as the underdogs. (Perhaps Wycombe is full of bandits!) Gabriel commented that he particularly enjoyed the opponents' expressions when he told them Mark was a 16 handicap, immediately after he hit in across the length of the lawn. In game 1, Paul and Mark and got slightly ahead at the start but frustrated themselves with some hoop blobbing - then we set up and made a four ball break which got us with a strong enough lead to secure the important win. In game 2 they knew they would be likely to have more to do against a stronger pair - so right at the start they set up a long hit in for Mark which he made, which they think helped the opposition take them very seriously. Sadly we did not deliver but the psychological tactic had good effect What surprised some of us was high quality of the opposition! Given we were playing in division two, we did not expect to end up facing at least one minus player in every game, and quite often two! So on average we were out-handicapped in most matches. Another highlight was a brilliant three-ball ending from David Boyd who won against very good opposition after Gabriel was pegged out,, demonstrating how transferable GC skills can be in an AC match. Richard Peperell had several very good turns. A standout one was a very controlled break in his game with Gabriel against Phil Eardly (-2) and his partner, which Bucks won convincingly. It's no surprise that Richard's handicap has subsequently come down to 1.5. He also did very well in a crucial (potential relegation) game on the final day against Norfolk, alongside David Cotton, coming down to a golden hoop after time. David Cotton reputedly played a fairly heroic two-ball break for three hoops (although the folklore suggests that it may have been four) in the game against Norfolk to take it to a win on time. Gabriel enjoyed playing alternate strokes with Geoff and Mike P, commenting that Geoff played better shots than him in their first game. He found his form playing with with Mike and they had some fun with a rather optimistic straight triple attempt... at least for 3 shots or so until they placed an opponent ball bang in front of Penult. The attempt to move it by bombarding it from the corner didn't miss by much and it wasn't to be. Luckily they still won the game. Richard and David preferred to play own ball and were able to beat Norfolk and Devon. The highlight for Gabriel was against Glamorgan where he finished his break by running 3 back from at least 45 degrees and managed to cobble a proper leave together, leading them to winning the game (and match) against a -2 and a -1. Afterwards multiple people told him that they thought at the time that he was attempting an impossible hoop Ultimately, we finished mid-table in Division 2, and so avoided relegation. As a footnote, The Division 2 winners played in green check trousers, bought from a catering company. Clearly we will need a team uniform next year - crucial to our new goal of getting promoted to Division 1. Here at the complete scores: https://croquetscores.com/2026/ac/inter-county-championship This is a testing, but thoroughly enjoyable tournament; quite unlike any other AC event. So think about playing with us next year... David Cotton (and team) Photo: Mark Wilce, David Boyd, Richard Pepperell, Gabriel Furse, David Cotton and Paul Franklin. 
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