Shock reverberates around the Croquet World .. Three ex-World Champs (+ Mohamed Taha = top 4 seeds) defeated in first Round of Knockout .. All games of a high standard but Reg's game is outstanding and I am going to say that is about equal to the best I have seen him play. The game never quite ran in his favour and on three or four critical moments he was forced into difficult options because of long-distance blocks (perfect pace) by his young (unknown) opponent: Particularly last game at hoop 11 where he was forced to have a go at jumping a ball in the jaws from angled North Boundary ..

Early Rounds Report by Mark Stevens

So what is going on in the real world of Golf Croquet here at the Egyptian Open?

It is not as it seems. Ben Rothman failed to get through his Block (first 3 in each Block) but gets a second chance (clever 4th, 5th, 6th knock out of 24 players to produce 8 additional qualifiers). Reg scraped through with only one loss BUT three of his games were desperate affairs all going to 9 all and a last hoop win.

Entries for the Irish Golf Croquet Championships should be sent it as soon as possible.

See link in left side bar for entry form.

Note the singles is a championship event played off scratch whilst the doubles is a handicap event. Places may be limited so get your entries in early

The annual match between CAI and CqE (as the Croquet Association is now referred to) was played on 20/21 July at Carrickmines, with the visitors emerging on the right side of the 14 - 10 scoreline, retaining the trophy they won at Southport last year.

Starting on a wet and miserable Saturday with a round of doubles, the Irish were 3 - 0 down by lunchtime and never recovered. The two rounds of singles showed the sides evenly matched and so the day ended at 9 - 6.

Ireland made it three in a row at Balgreen on 29-30th June in the third of the GC matches between the two sides. The SCA had put a lot of hard work into team development and had four new players in its line up, but they were no match for the more experienced Irish side and the final score was 53- 24 in favour of the visitors. All the Irish team contributed to the win and gained valuable match experience ahead of the European GC Women’s Championship in August in which five of them are taking part.