The Swiss classic teams event was held at the CERN croquet club over the weekend 6-7 July 2019, with practice on the Friday.

Five teams competed, with 2 from Japan, 1 Swiss team and 2 composite teams.  We played with Bernard from Belgium and Priska from Germany.  It was also great to see our son Peter back on the gateball field and even better to hear that he enjoyed the tournament.

A double round robin was to be held, but this morphed into two single round robin tournaments with the winners of each to play off.  It will be of little surprise to you, dear reader, that the two Japanese teams dominated proceedings, with the team from Tokyo winning both round robin events.

Overall we had three wins, but the highlight was the second game against Tokyo. 

The score was 8-9 going into the final turn, and if ever there was a lesson against changing your mind as captain, this was it.  Our ball 7 touched 3 in front of gate 2 and my first instinct was to bombard ball 8 sitting tight to the line near gate 2. Instead, we sparked 3 through gate 2 and followed with 7.  An excellent slide by Priska off ball 9 allowed gate 3 to be made and the pole was narrowly missed.  The score was now 11-9, with only 8 to play.  Unfortunately, ball 8 made gates 2 and 3 and also agari, so we lost by 2 points.

The tournament was played in a very friendly spirit, with fantastic catering and was great fun. Thanks to Dave Underhill and the Swiss team for organising such a fantastic event.

Geoff Crook
Woodville Croquet Club