Carnival Day
Twelve teams competed in this years’s Carnival Day with two teams entered from both Southwick and Chichester. It was a glorious day with wall to wall sunshine. The lawns were very fast, just having been used for the MacRobertson but had been very well watered and the hoops considerably widened.
As Advantage rules were now in full scale use in Federation matches, it was agreed they should be used for this event and it was agreed that ‘Target Scores’ with a 0-0 start score would be the order of the day. The first team to reach their target score would be declared winner. As there was a relatively small number of rounds, the likelihood of having teams with equal numbers of wins was very likely, but we could no longer use hoop points as these had a different value with the Advantage system. Croquet England provided a solution by using the percentage of each player scored hoops relative to their target score as a measure of performance; so a winner would always score 100. It was also necessary to use this criteria if games were not finished in the time limit. as neither player would receive 100 but one simply compared the percentage points to determine the winner. It appeared to work quite well.
Play started on the Manager Hooter at 9.30 and it was all systems go to complete all four round by 12.25. As expected we finished with five teams with three wins from four, but with the allocated points, the Ninety Niners were clear winners. A star player in the Ninety Niners was Jean Farguson who played her part in several games. I was told that if the event had been a few weeks later, the team name would have been the Centurions. What a remarkable lady. She has unfortunately lost her Guinness World record. The Aussies have a lady of 101 still competing.
In the afternoon singles games, the Ninety Niners continued in their winning ways and collected five wins from eight games, but were matched by four other teams, nevertheless took the trophy with the highest percentage points sum
Bill Arliss
Manager
| CLUB | CARNIVAL NAME |
| Cheam | Cheam Chancers |
| Chichester & Fishbourne | Fish & Chips |
| Chichester & Fishbourne | More Fish & Chips |
| Hove Beach | Hove Beach Boys |
| Littlehampton | Hampton Hats |
| Lodsworth | The Ninty Niners |
| Preston | Preston |
| Rottingdean | Silly Smugglers |
| Surbiton | The Surbitonians |
| Sussex County 1 | Sussex Surfers |
| Sussex County 2 | Southwick Sur Mer |
| West Chiltington | Village People |
| FINAL DOUBLES POSITIONS |
|
||||
| TEAM | PLAYED | WINS | POINTS | POSN | |
| The Ninety Niners | 4 | 3 | 112 | 1 | |
| More Fish & Chips | 4 | 3 | 93 | 2 | |
| Village People | 4 | 3 | 49 | 3 | |
| Fish & Chips | 4 | 3 | 40 | 4 | |
| Silly Smugglers | 4 | 3 | 39 | 5 | |
| Sussex Surfers | 4 | 2 | 87 | 6 | |
| The Surbtonians | 4 | 2 | 43 | 7 | |
| Hove Beach Boys | 4 | 2 | -20 | 8 | |
| Southwick sur Mer | 4 | 2 | -33 | 9 | |
| Hampton Hats | 4 | 1 | -71 | 10 | |
| Preston | 4 | 0 | -156 | 11 | |
| Cheam Chancers | 4 | 0 | -183 | 12 | |
| FINAL SINGLES POSITIONS |
|
||||
| TEAM | PLAYED | WINS | POINTS | POSN | |
| The Ninety Niners | 8 | 5 | 163 | 1 | |
| Hove Beach Boys | 8 | 5 | 125 | 2 | |
| Southwick sur Mer | 8 | 5 | 85 | 3 | |
| More Fish & Chips | 8 | 5 | 81 | 4 | |
| Silly Smugglers | 8 | 5 | 71 | 5 | |
| The Surbitonians | 8 | 4 | 73 | 6 | |
| Cheam Chancers | 8 | 4 | 47 | 7 | |
| Village People | 8 | 4 | -74 | 8 | |
| Fish & Chips | 8 | 3 | 0 | 9 | |
| Preston | 8 | 3 | -118 | 10 | |
| Sussex Surfers | 8 | 3 | -170 | 11 | |
| Hampton Hats | 8 | 2 | -283 | 12 | |
The Ninety Niners show their full regalia at lunch time
