The Women’s Invitation Event was held at Masterton Croquet Club from 8th to 10th March. 2019 saw six women from five different Associations invited to compete.
Play began with a single game round robin and was followed by best-of-three match play-offs. Nina Mayard-Husson (Wellington) started her title defense by going undefeated during the round robin (five from five wins) to reach the final. She was joined in the final by local player, Carissa Price (Wairarapa), who only dropped the game to Mayard-Husson during the round robin stage.
Mayard-Husson started the final well, winning the first game 26-9. Price bounced back in game two to win 22-12. Unfortunately, injury forced Mayard-Husson to withdraw from the event and Price was awarded the match and became the 2019 Women’s Invitation Event Champion.
In the other play-off matches, Baubre Murray (Wellington) beat Bonnie Johnstone (South Taranaki) 2-1 (26-15, 10-24, 18-17) to secure third and Cindy Clarke (Bay of Plenty) beat Heather Richardson (Waikato-King Country) 2-0 (21-14, 26-10) to place fifth.
Full results can be found on Croquet Scores: https://croquetscores.com/2019/ac/cnz-womens-invitation/block
