WCF Media Release (on behalf of the Egyptian Croquet Federation)
2nd October 2006.
The 2nd Egyptian Open Croquet Championship started yesterday, Sunday 1st October 2006. With temperatures of 38C on the preceding Friday, no practice was possible.
Fortunately for the players it was a little cooler by the start of competition at 7pm in the evening (32C), and a bit cooler by the last match that finished at 1.20am. All matches were played under floodlights using the three lawns of the Egyptian Federation and the three lawns of the Gezirah Club.
There are 12 players from Egypt, 3 from England, 3 from USA, 2 from New Zealand, 3 from Ireland and 1 from South Africa.
In all three players are actually current world croquet champions. Reg Bamford (South Africa) (Association Croquet), Mohammed Nasr (Egypt) (Open Golf Croquet) and Nahed Hassan (Egypt) (Womens Golf Croquet Champion). In addition the field also includes three other previous winners of the WCF World Golf Croquet Championship.
Results day 1
Group A
Mohamed Nasr beat John Spiers 2-0.
Simon Williams bt Nahed Hassan
Alaa Abul Nour bt John Spiers
Group B
Reg Bamford bt Ahmed Khattab 2-1
Salah Hassan bt Erica Stephens 2-0
Group C
David Openshaw bt Dick Stover 2-1 (7-2, 3-7, 7-6)
Ahmed Nasr bt Len Canavan 2-0
Ahmed El Mahdi bt Hemmat Moustafa 2-1
Ahmed El Maadi bt Ahmed Nasr 2-0 (7-1 7-6) the surprise of the night.
Hemmat Moustafa bt David Openshaw 2-0 (7-5, 7-5)
Dick Stover bt Len Canavan 2-1 (7-6 in third)
Group D
Khaled Younis bt Nelson Morrow 2-0
Salib Erian bt Mark McInerny
24 players from around the world in 4 groups of 6 are competing for the top prize. The top 4 qualify for the knock-out stage.
Block winners get straight through to the quarter finals.
Knock Out Stage
The 2nd Egyptian Open Golf Croquet Championship has reached the quarter final stages.
In the first round knock out Evan Newell defeated Hermmat Moustafa, whilst
Nelson Morrow defeated the current Woman's World Champion Nahed Hassan 7-6 in the third. John Spiers defeat Salib Erian in the third and David Openshaw was defeated by Ayman Ab Wahab
The second round saw Morrow defeated by Ahmed Nahr. Evan Newel defeated by Ihab Abdel Wahab and the surprise of the evening John Spiers winning 7-6 in the third over Salah Hassan.
The line up for the quarter finals are:-
Reg Bamford V Ahmed Nasr
Ihab Abdel Wahab V Mohammad Nasr
John Spiers V Ahmed El Mahdi
Khaled Younis V Alyman
The 2nd Egyptian Open Golf Croquet Championship reached its conclusion on Friday.
Semi Finals:-
Mohamed Nasr (Egypt) bt Ahmed Nasr (Egypt)(opponent withdrew during third game with back trouble
Ahmed EL Mahdi (Egypt) beat Khaled Younis (Egypt) 6-7 7-4 7-5
Final
Ahmed El Mahdi bt Mohamed Nasr 6-7 7-5 7-5 4-7 7-5
This was an exciting and high quality final won by the more consistent player.
World Champion Mohamed Nasr played exceptionally well for periods especially in the fourth match but also had periods where his shooting lacked accuracy. El Mahdi on the other hand thoroughly deserved his win.