The Glorious Setting

WCA Open AC Singles Championship 2022

Played at the Wellington and Kelburn Clubs from 27 - 30 December

This year’s tournament had 14 entries from Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu-Wanganui, South Taranaki and the Wairarapa. On Days 1 and 2 players were divided into 2 sections and competed in a round robin, each match being 1 game. The first and second placed players in each section moved forward to the knockout competition where all matches were best of 3 with a total time allowed of 9 hours . The remaining 10 players then competed in the Plate - this year a Swiss competition of 5 rounds.

As usual the hoops were tightly set and the standard of refreshments excellent!

The weather was generally good throughout, calm and sunny, but a little gusty on the final day. With 7 rounds of section play, day 1 was a very long day with 4 rounds played. Management and helpers were pleased to walk out the gate at 7:30 pm.

While Toby Garrison and Harps Tahurangi (both from Wellington) were undefeated in their respective sections, the other 2 semi-finalists Sue Lea (Waimarie-HV) and Dennis Bulloch (Wanganui-Manawatu) were only found after a count back of net hoops. Kelburn lawns were used on Day 3 for the semi-finals, but, after the losing semi-finalists elected not to play-off for 3rd and 4th, all matches returned to Wellington for Day 4.

The final between Toby and Harps was an excellent display of precision croquet and tricky tactics. Final score : 26-4, 26tp-2 to Toby Garrison.

Going into the final round of the Plate, Carey Johnstone (South Taranaki), Stefan Horrer (Wairarapa) and Sonya Sedgwick (Hawkes Bay) were all in contention. The Plate Winner - Sonya Sedgwick with 4 wins from the 5 matches.