The CAI Silver Medal selection eight competition was held in Carrickmines Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club on the weekend of April 26- 27th this year, with good weather and enthusiasm for the new season’s croquet. 
 The early games saw a couple of +26tp results for the highest ranking players, Simon Williams and Danny Johnston and some early interactive pegged out endings, with Fred Rogerson coming through against Alan Looney and Simon Jenkins succumbing to Russell Harris’ 3-ball ending on his first appearance in the tournament.  

Rounds 2 and 3 saw Jenkins find his footing, beating Nathaniel Healy for his opening win, while Fiachra Carroll also overcame his early loss to pip Alan to the post to win +3 and shake off early-season rust. Danny and Simon Williams continued their winning form, entering Round 4 facing Simon Jenkins and Alan, respectively. Simon Jenkins looked to haul in Danny’s unbeaten start, only for an unfortunate fault at the start of turn 5 to let Danny back in from where he took the initiative. Simon Williams, too, ended the day unbeaten, dispatching Alan 26-0.  
Most remarkably, and to the manager's delight, the event moved at lightning speed with no games going to time; an indication of the quality of the play despite double banking. 
 The start of day two saw Simon Williams and Danny, the two remaining unbeaten players, pitted against one another. With the dew still settled on a bright Lawn 1, Simon’s duffer tice hit from A-baulk ended up mid-way between the peg and hoop 6. Danny hit his own east boundary ball on turn 3, and the dew caught him out as he failed to get a rush on the duffer ball. He managed to cope, taking off to 1, making a 3-yard hoop and making a break from there. Simon missed the resultant 3-ducks leave, and Danny finished on turn 5 to remain unbeaten. Meanwhile, on lawn 2, Russell Harris beat Fred with his first-ever ranking triple peel, consigning Fred to a 4th loss of the weekend, having had a strong start.  
 Nathaniel and Simon Jenkins began to show some sharp play to creep up on the leaders, beating Fiachra and Alan, respectively. In Round 6, Nathaniel had the early play against the leader, Danny, hitting his own duffer tice and setting an Old Standard leave after a little colour confusion at the peg. It was a strong leave, and Danny failed to hit, but Nathaniel was unable to dig out a break and an error left Danny with an opening which he used to TPO his opponent, leaving him on 2 and box. Off the leave, Nathaniel ended jawsed in 2, and had a good chance in his subsequent turn, running 2 and hitting a 17-yard roquet on the oppo peg ball near hoop 3. He rolled off 3 and gained a rush to 4, but here a hill caught his hoop approach, and Danny was able to finish with a 3-ball break in the ensuing turns to remain unbeaten.  
 In the final round, Simon Williams was up against Simon Jenkins and needed a win to keep the pressure on Danny, who was up against Alan Looney on the next court. Unfortunately for him, Simon Jenkins did what he’d been threatening to do all weekend and completed a neat TP to bring them both to 5 wins out of 7 and leave Danny as the winner on the day and the recipient of a shiny new Silver Medal arranged by Sandy Greig after several years of absence. 
  Huge thanks to Carrickmines for hosting the event and providing an excellent atmosphere as always, and to the players for making it a great weekend’s croquet.

Full results on CroquetScores.com