Clark: ACWC18 Not Off to Great Start #03

I spent today at Paraparumu – a 4 lawn club with the top two lawns running around 10 seconds and the bottom two around 11 seconds. Regrettably, players partners and other spectators were banned from using the clubhouse. This is not the sort of hospitality that Croquet New Zealand expects from host clubs.
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Soo: Plimmerton is Tops For Challenging Conditions #02

The tournament opened with fine weather: mostly sunny and moderately breezy all day. With ground still damp from the recent rain, the notorious Atkins hoops are quite easy to run, up to a moderate angle. Conditions are most challenging at Plimmerton, with extreme variation in pace and significant slopes. Unsurprisingly, this is where games have been longest, and three games are pegged down.
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Clarke: Plenty of Upsets on Day One #02

After visiting all five venues on yesterday's practice day, I spent most of day one at Waikanae with a short visit to Plimmerton in the early afternoon. Waikanae is the furthest venue at about one hours drive outside Wellington and has a pretty five lawn club. The front four lawns are soft, green and over-watered, running at 10.8 seconds whilst lawn 5 is an excellent lawn with different grass and firmer subsoil, running at 12.2 seconds.
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Clarke: 2018 AC Worlds Preview

The 2018 WCF Association Croquet World Championship starts this Saturday in Wellington, NZ. Five clubs are being used and I’ll try to send photos from each of them as the event progresses. There are eight blocks of 10 players with the top four qualifying for the knockout from each block, with ties on wins being broken with play-off games, so net points are irrelevant.
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Round of 32 - Lunch Update

Taking a scan through the scores rolling in and James Hopgood (ENG), Stephen Forster (AUS) and Stephen Mulliner (ENG) are the first to move into the Sweet 16. By ranking, those went as expected with the Forster (#25) vs Soo (#27) being a bit of a toss up.

Interesting challenges out there include #116 Sam Murray of Scotland winning game one again #12 Gavin Carter (ENG) 26-1. Carter came back in game two 26-0 and the now move to the decider.

#52 Danny Huneycutt (USA) took game one against #9 James Death (ENG) 26tp-24. They are still working through game two.

#13 Ben Rothman (USA) and #42 Jose Riva (ESP) and tied and going to a game three. Rothman took the first game 26-10, then Riva came back 26tp-21.

#76 Stephen Morgan (USA) and #10 Samir Patel (ENG are also going to game three. Patel took game one 26-14 and Morgan came back in game two with a 26-0 win.