CROQUET NEWS: European Team Championship Won by Scotland CROQUET NEWS: European Team Championship Won by Scotland 
25-28 June 2009
Cheltenham Croquet Club, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England 
, UK 
Nailsea Croquet Club, Nailsea, North Somerset, England , UK
story by Scottish Croquet Association Competition Reports
scores by World Croquet Federation Tournament Results
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| The winner was presented with the Murray-Jones Cup, kindly donated by Max Murray (Australia) and Charles Jones (New Zealand) in 2007 for the 1st European Team Championship. |
The Scottish team of Keith Aiton, Jonathan Kirby, and Martin Murray beat England 2-1 in the final at Cheltenham to win the second Mitsubishi Motors WCF/FEC European Team Championship.
| Teams (alphabetic) | |
Austria  |
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Belgium  |
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Canada  |
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Czech Republic  |
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| England |
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Germany  |
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Jersey  |
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Norway  |
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Scotland  |
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South Aftica  |
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Spain  |
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Sweden  |
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Switzerland  |
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Wales A  |
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| Wales B |
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WCF Juniors  |
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| WCF Select |
The Championship, played for the first time in 2007, was expanded this time to include two teams from outside Europe — Canada and South Africa — and two teams of mixed nationalities assembled by the World Croquet Federation. (The WCF Juniors team was a substitute for the intended New Zealand Juniors, and consisted of the two available NZ players, Jared Keeman and Jarrod Coutts, plus Manuel Alvarez-Sala from Spain. The WCF Select team was formed to replace Finland, which had to withdraw.) In addition the 2007 winners Wales were allowed a second team [Wales A and Wales B]. With 17 teams in all, the initial stages were played in two blocks, with the top four teams in each block proceeding to the knockout stage.
Matches consisted of two single games of Association Croquet, counting for one point each, and one best-of-three Golf Croquet match, counting for one point. In the final the AC was extended to best-of-three for each player.
In the Red Block England won its matches against all the other teams to finish in first place, with 7 matches and 19 points — followed by Wales A (6 matches, 18 points), South Africa (5 matches, 10.5 points) and Belgium (3 matches, 10 points).
In the Yellow Block Scotland won its first seven matches, and came first despite a loss to Jersey. The qualifiers here were Scotland (7 matches, 19 points), Jersey (7 matches, 17 points), Canada (6 matches, 16 points) and WCF Juniors (6 matches, 14 points).
Scotland beat Belgium 2-1 in the quarter-finals, and had another 2-1 win over Canada in the semi-finals to reach the final against England. This was an evenly balanced match. In the Association Croquet Keith Aiton lost in straight games to Chris Clarke, and Jonathan Kirby won in straight games against David Foulser, with triple peels throughout, leaving only the Golf Croquet still in play — a close contest between Martin Murray and Ivor Brand. Martin won the first game 7-6, but Ivor came back from "certain death" (according to the live email reporting by Andrew Gregory) to steal the second — missing a clearance by a foot, flicking another ball, and running hoop 12 with an "in-off". So it all came down to the final game — and, as it turned out, to the 13th hoop of that game. Ivor came back from 6-4 down to level the game at 6-6, but as he ran hoop 12 by only a few inches he gave Martin the advantage at hoop 13. Martin played an excellent lag to position two feet in front of the hoop, and had only to hold his nerve to run it and win the Championship for Scotland — which he did!
| 1st | England |
England 3-0 |
England |
Scotland 2-1 |
| 4th | WCF Juniors |
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| 3rd | South Africa |
South Africa 2-1 |
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| 2nd | Jersey |
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| 2nd | Wales A |
Canada 2-1 |
Scotland 2-1 |
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| 3rd | Canada |
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| 4th | Belgium |
Scotland 2-1 |
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| 1st | Scotland |
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| South Africa |
Canada 2-1 |
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| Canada |
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| Quarter Finals | Semi Finals | Finals |
| England over WCF Juniors 3-0 Chris Clarke over Jarrod Coutts +26tpDavid Foulser over Manuel Alvarez-Sala +26Ivor Brand over Jared Keeman 7-3, 7-3 |
England over South Africa 2-1 Chris Clarke over William Louw +15tpDavid Foulser over Judith Hanekom +23Victor Dladla over Ivor Brand 7-5, 4-7, 7-5 |
Scotland over England 2-1 Jonathan Kirby over David Foulser +26tp, +24tpChris Clarke over Keith Aiton +26tp, +15tpMartin Murray over Ivor Brand 7-6, 5-7, 7-6 |
| South Africa over Jersey 2-1 William Louw over Tony Le Moignan +23tpJames Le Moignan over Judith Hanekom +26tpVictor Dladla over Richard Sowerby 7-2, 7-3 |
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| Canada over Wales A 2-1 Leo McBride over Ian Burridge +26tpBrian Cumming over Sam Tudor +25tpDavid Walters over Louis Nel 7-4, 7-6 |
Scotland over Canada 2-1 Brian Cumming over Keith Aiton +19Jonathan Kirby over Leo McBride +9tpoMartin Murray over Louis Nel 7-6, 6-7, 7-2 |
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| Scotland over Belgium 2-1 Jonathan Kirby over John Swabey +26tpMartin Murray over Tony Falcon-Uff +25tpPierre Beaudry over Keith Aiton 7-3, 4-7, 7-5 |
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| Canada over South Africa 2-1 Brian Cumming beat Judith Hanekom +17Victor Dladla over Louis Nel +6Leo McBride over William Louw 7-5, 7-2 |
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| Red Block | EN |
WA |
SA |
BE |
DE |
SP |
CH |
NO |
Matches | Games |
| England |
1st | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 19 |
| Wales A |
1 | 2nd | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 18 |
| South Africa |
3rd | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2.5 | 2 | 5 | 10.5 | ||
| Belgium |
1 | 1 | 1 | 4th | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| Germany |
1 | 2 | 5th | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | ||
| Spain |
1 | 1 | 2 | 6th | 1 | 3 | 2 | 8 | ||
| Switzerland |
0.5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7th | 2 | 2 | 6.5 | ||
| Norway |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8th | 0 | 4 |
| Yellow Block | SC |
JE |
CA |
Juniors |
WA |
SE |
AT |
CZ |
Select |
Matches | Games |
| Scotland |
1st | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 19 |
| Jersey |
2 | 2nd | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 17 |
| Canada |
1 | 2 | 3rd | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 16 |
| WCF Juniors |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4th | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 14 |
| Wales B |
1 | 1 | 6th | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 | ||
| Sweden |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5th | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 14 |
| Austria |
1 | 1 | 1 | 7th | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | |||
| Czech Republic |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8th | 3 | 1 | 7 | |||
| WCF Select |
1 | 9th | 0 | 1 |
Red Group South Africa 2 Norway 1 William Louw beat Steinar Olsen +15 Belgium 2 Switzerland 1 John Swabey lost to Ian Sexton -23 England 3 Spain 0 Chris Clarke beat Andres Alvarez-Sala +26tp Wales 3 Spain 0 Ian Burridge beat Jaime Riva +23 Germany 2 Switzerland 1 Wolfgang Usbeck lost to Ian Sexton -22 Belgium 2 Norway 1 John Swabey lost to Steinar Olsen -2T England 3 South Africa 0 Chris Clarke beat William Louw +11tp Wales 3 Norway 0 David Walters beat Espen Krogstad +26 South Africa 2 Germany 1 William Louw beat Bruno Hess +26tp Belgium 2 Spain 1 Pierre Beaudry beat Andres De Diego +2T England 3 Switzerland 0 David Foulser beat Ian Sexton +13 Wales 3 Switzerland 0 Ian Burridge beat Ian Sexton +15 Spain 2 Germany 1 Andres Alvarez-Sala beat Bruno Hess +11 South Africa 2 Belgium 1 William Louw beat Tony Falcon-Uff +19 England 3 Norway 0 David Foulser beat Steinar Olsen +23 Wales 3 Germany 0 Ian Burridge beat Bruno Hess +24 William Louw beat Andres Alvarez-Sala +10 Switzerland 2 Norway 1 Ian Sexton beat Steinar Olsen +16 Dave Mundy beat John Swabey +22 Wales 2 Belgium 1 Ian Burridge beat John Swabey +20 England 3 Germany 0 Dave Mundy beat Bruno Hess +20tp Spain 3 Norway 0 Andres De Diego beat Steinar Olsen +19 England 2 Wales 1 Dave Mundy beat Sam Tudor +18 Germany 2 Belgium 1 Bruno Hess lost to Pierre Beaudry -6T Switzerland 2 Spain 1 Ian Sexton beat Andres De Diego +26tp South Africa 3 Switzerland 0 William Louw beat Ian Sexton +3 Wales 3 South Africa 0 Ian Burridge beat William Louw +7 Germany 2 Norway 1 Bruno Hess beat Steinar Olsen +3T |
Yellow Group Scotland 3 Czech Rep 0 Keith Aiton beat David Hajn +23sxp Wales B 3 Austria 0 John Evans beat Klaus Gollhofer +22 Jersey 2 Sweden 1 Tony Le Moignan beat Simon Carlsson +16 WCF Juniors 2 WCF Select 1 Jarrod Coutts beat Anders Moldin +12 Wales B 3 Czech Rep 0 John Evans beat David Hajn +24 Scotland 3 Austria 0 Jonathan Kirby beat Klaus Gollhofer +19 Scotland 3 Wales B 0 Keith Aiton beat John Evans +26tp Jersey 3 WCF Select 0 Tony Le Moignan beat Gordon Weir +25tp Canada 2 Sweden 1 Leo McBride beat Simon Carlsson +7 Austria 2 Czech Rep 1 Klaus Gollhofer lost to David Hajn -2T Jersey 2 WCF Juniors 1 Tony Le Moignan beat Jared Keeman +4T Canada 3 WCF Select 0 Brian Cumming beat Gordon Weir +23tp Canada 2 Jersey 1 Brian Cumming lost to Tony Le Moignan -26tp WCF Juniors 2 Sweden 1 Jared Keeman beat Simon Carlsson +21 Jersey 2 Czech Rep 1 Tony Le Moignan beat David Hajn +26tp WCF Juniors 2 Canada 1 Jared Keeman beat Leo McBride +4 Scotland 2 Sweden 1 Keith Aiton beat Simon Carlsson +12 Austria 3 WCF Select 0 Klaus Gollhofer beat Gordon Weir +13 Sweden 3 Czech Rep 0 Simon Carlsson beat David Hajn +12 Wales B 3 WCF Select 0 Cliff Jones beat Gordon Weir +22 Scotland 2 WCF Juniors 1 Jonathan Kirby beat Jarrod Coutts +23tp Canada 2 Austria 1 Leo McBride beat Klaus Gollhofer +26tp Canada 2 Czech Rep 1 Leo McBride beat David Hajn +3tpo Jersey 2 Wales B 1 Tony Le Moignan beat Cliff Jones +26tp Scotland 3 WCF Select 0 Keith Aiton beat Gordon Weir +24 WCF Juniors 2 Austria 1 Jared Keeman beat Klaus Gollhofer +12 Sweden 3 WCF Select 0 Simon Carlsson beat Gordon Weir +24 WCF Juniors 2 Wales B 1 Jared Keeman beat Cliff Jones +2T Scotland 2 Canada 1 Keith Aiton beat Brian Cumming +26tp Jersey 3 Austria 0 Tony Le Moignan beat Klaus Gollhofer +17tp Jersey 2 Scotland 1 Tony Le Moignan beat Keith Aiton +20 WCF Juniors 2 Czech Rep 1 Jarrod Coutts beat David Hajn +17tp Canada 3 Wales B 0 Leo McBride beat Chris Williams +17 Sweden 2 Austria 1 Simon Carlsson beat Klaus Gollhofer +8 Czech Rep 3 WCF Select 0 David Hajn beat Gordon Weir +18 Sweden 2 Wales B 1 Anders Moldin beat Garry McElwain +3T |
The WCF have decided that for the 2009 European Team Championships we will extend special invitations to help the development of world wide croquet. So for 2009, the European Team Championship will effectively be a National Team Championship held in Europe. We are very pleased to be able to welcome Canada and South Africa to this event which will be the first multi national event in which either country has participated. In addition we have responded to New Zealand to welcome the nucleus of their Junior team.
In deciding the structure of future events, WCF will be reviewing the experience of this 2009 event and also reviewing how developments are progressing for a World Team Championship.
| Austria Klaus Gollhofer * Martin Güntner Max Walderdorff |
Belgium John Swabey * Pierre Beaudry Tony Falcon-Uff |
Canada ** Leo McBride Brian Cumming * Louis Nel |
Czech Republic David Hajn Ivo Martak Pavel Gasek Hana Mereckova * (Non Playing) |
England Chris Clarke * Ivor Brand David Foulser |
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Finland Have withdrawn their team due to personal reasons. |
Germany |
Ireland Did not arrive. |
Isle of Man Have withdrawn their team due to ill health. |
Italy Have withdrawn their team due to ill health. |
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Jersey |
Norway |
Scotland |
South Aftica |
Spain |
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Sweden |
Switzerland |
Wales A |
Wales B |
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WCF Juniors |
