The SI AC Championships were held from 4 to 8 December at Christchurch’s United Croquet Club, starting with the doubles. With a field of eleven pairs the tournament started with two blocks of five and six pairs respectively. Jenny and Chris Clarke (Canterbury) dominated Block A winning all four of their games, while Block B saw brothers Reece and Logan McCorkindale (South Canterbury and Canterbury) finishing on top undefeated as well. The single game final saw the more experienced husband and wife pair of Chris and Jenny prevailing 26:4.
The Singles event started with 4 blocks, two with five players and two with six players. Unfortunately Covid impacted the blocks after the first round was already under way and one block was reduced to only four players. Block A saw Jenny Clarke win all four games, with Jarrod Coutts (South Canterbury) coming second with the only loss to Jenny. In Block B Paul Kaiser (Canterbury) finished unbeaten with three wins, with Graeme Fisher (Wellington) on two wins coming second. Block C saw top seed Josh Freeth (Auckland) dropping only one game against Levi Franks (Canterbury), who topped the block without loss. Block D was dominated by David Fuller from England, winning all his games, with Chris Shilling (Otago) finishing second.
The top two placed players in each block advanced to the knock-out. The quarterfinals saw Clarke playing Fisher, Freeth playing Kaiser, Shilling against Franks and Fuller playing Coutts. Clarke, Freeth, Shilling and Fuller advanced to the Semi-finals. In Semi-final 1 Freeth got the better of Clarke in two games winning 26:2, 26:9. Semi-final two was harder fought with Shilling taking game one 26:2 and Fuller responding with a 26:22 in game 2. The third game saw Shilling bounce back and qualifying for the Final against Freeth.
The final was a close affair with game 1 finishing 18:12 to Freeth. Game 2 went again to time but saw again Freeth prevailing 16:14 and being crowned South Island AC Champion.
In the Bowl event Kaiser faced off against Fisher in the first round winning 26:15 and qualifying for the Final to face Franks who prevailed over Coutts 26:9. In the Final Kaiser came out on top beating Franks 26:14.
The Plate event was played as a flexible Swiss, which saw Carey Johnstone (Taranaki) coming out on top.
Kaiser finished the tournament as the best performing player on a starting handicap of 2 or higher.
Thank you to the Canterbury Association and the United Croquet Club for hosting the event, a big thank to the manager, referee and all volunteers who made this event happed. And lastly congratulations to all the winners!
