And here we are again - old fashioned text commentary. Final was due to start at 2pm, however they only finished the second semi-final at about 2.15pm, so there's a break for lunch, and we'll be off in a bit

Here we go - Reg has arrived to wrangle his opponent, and is having a wee practice down in corner 4. Looks like JP has run away.

JP returns, and it is a full warmup for both. We're on lawn 1, the scene of a wonderful doubles final ;-)

These Southwick lawns are just outstanding - they are smooth, while there's a small tendency to drift towards the clubhouse, but not too annoyingly.
The grass is short and tight - looks lovely, and running at around 11 seconds, so no desperate need to club things.

JP's strengths, in this reporter's humble opinion, have been very consistent position taking, and powerful clearances. He has also been strong at running hoops by a good distance - ie. to within a few yards of the next one. A couple of players here just slam balls off the far end of the lawn, while others don't sufficiently use the advantage of running an odd-numbered hoop up towards the next one.

Good news - it looks like Tobi is doing a live stream. What a champ (he bought me chocolate yesterday!)

We're also checking out a new performance analysis tool designed by Andrew Cowing (Cheltenham) for a GC coaching pod. It's basically counting shots - each shot has a primary role, hoop running, clearing, position-taking, etc. All been rather interesting, with probably greater significance for coaching improvers, particularly with Andrew's methodology of having two people play singles, and each one be shadowed by a peer who does the shot classifications. I suspect that would get the note-taker reflecting somewhat on their own tactics.

Anyway, we did this for JP's semi with Peter Dowd. Game 2 was 7-4 to JP,and took 118 strokes (both players combined), while the fairly one-sided first game had 67 strokes played.

What the tool doesn't show well (maybe for the next iteration if we can work out how), is the length of the various strokes and the power of the clearances - something JP excels with. However, if you over-classify, you can lose the statistical power, so bit of compromise and this is edition 1.0 here. Many thanks to Bob Honey also who turned Andrew's analysis into a spreadsheet. I get to stand on the shoulders of these giants to modify and use this tool.

Blessed cloud and breeze - it was HOT today, and we are all a tad pink. Still a gorgeous temperature, a very well run tournament, and happy people all around (some more so than others!)

Questions, comments, complaints about waffle, to: physjcw@gmail.com I'm here in the UK on sabbatical, and this is work! (honest!)

Game 1

And we are off.

JP won the toss and has taken 4 foot position with blue. Reg shooting already - and it's a miss!

JP rolls black in as well, bit short of the line but good given red is now on the short boundary. Reg shoots... clears blue, both blue and yellow head to the side boundary.

JP back in position. Note this is all being live streamed now - link on facebook and on the Notts list

Reg shooting. He's on the short boundary and plays an 80% contact clearance on blue... Not sure why blue - maybe trying for the double clearance, as it's black to play next. Anyway - has blue. Black runs the hoop.

JP leads 1-0

Black has run hoop 1 off the north boundary, yellow takes decent position, though I think it's open for black, blue rolls up, and red takes good position inside it.

Poor old Chris is next to me assessing and classifying strokes. Stephen Custance-Baker has returned - he has already improved the calculations on the spreadsheet and turns out to be an exel genius. Also has had a fabulous tournament. AND if you're involved in coaching, do check the resources he generously shares on tauntoncroquet.org - they are excellent.

Meanwhile black tries to clear - nails... blue! ...and yellow equalises.

1-1

Blue has to roll up to 3 from south of hoop 1 - it's short and angled and not running - big error at hoop 3. These hoops are really very easy, the pace of the lawn is lovely, and these guys have been hitting the ball really well, you must get in front of hoops.

red, black and yellow have played in. Blue tries to block red clearing black - fails. Reg smashes black down to level with hoop 4, and JP's return misses by a fair margin leaving Reg the first break opportunity

Reg runs hoop 3 with yellow off the south boundary - I haven't seen any shots which have run two hoops - slight swing on the lawn, and mainly the soft ground meaning balls deviate a fair way when they run hoops.
Reg leads 2-1

Blue takes position - bit angled, red has good position, black is played down - too far, and not protecting blue.

Reg clears blue - yellow was on the south boundary, blue 3 yards north of hoop 4 - gets blue to within 2 yards of the north boundary, and JP has a shot at hoop 4, which bounces off the wire. Decent effort, but a chance for Reg to stamp some authority on this match...

Reg with a 3 foot straight hoop... into the jaws!! - and JP's balls are both south of the hoop. JP takes position with black. I'm not sure I like that - while it lets blue clear, it leaves Reg from somewhere south of hoop 2 (the ball that cleared blue earlier) the opportunity to shoot to peel partner. Chris doesn't like leaving it in the jaws either (I'm clearly getting an understanding of this game!).

Fantastic shot from Reg peels partner. Reg leads 3-1

Blue plays in, red plays in, black plays in to try to protect blue - it seems to be open, but Reg hits black from near corner 4 - yellow's now up by the peg, and black is west of hoop 1, so still lurking.

Blue looks very runnable, though a bit angled, but he opts to stop red away - the first sign of a potential loss of confidence there - no need, as he's been playing excellently.

Reg plays back in front with red, black comes in, yellow plays down from the peg to try to block blue (which didn't hold position when it removed red) as blue seeks to clear red. JP on his haunches checking what he can see. Turns out he can see quite a lot, and JP clears red to the boundary south of hoop 4. Blue is on the boundary about 10 yards up from corner 4

Black is in front, so Reg shoots with red.. hits about a 15% contact with black, sending it to north of hoop 1, and red is off the middle of the north boundary, imperfect but it's all on again.

Black clears yellow gently, with both going about 6 yards away. Yellow plays in front of the hoop, blue takes position also. Reg taking position with red from the middle of the north boundary. Looks like he was also trying to get the block on black at yellow - from 25 yards. Looks disgusted he doesn't get the block, and JP has cleared him up to north of hoop 6.

Black clears yellow gently, with both going about 6 yards away. Yellow plays in front of the hoop, blue takes position also. Reg taking position with red from the middle of the north boundary. Looks like he was also trying to get the block on black at yellow - from 25 yards. Looks disgusted he doesn't get the block, and JP has cleared him up to north of hoop 6. Reg shooting... misses.

JP now has a 5 footer at a slight angle to get back into things... runs hoop 5 well, but it's off the north boundary. Reg leads 3-2

Black clears yellow gently, with both going about 6 yards away. Yellow plays in front of the hoop, blue takes position also. Reg taking position with red from the middle of the north boundary. Looks like he was also trying to get the block on black at yellow - from 25 yards. Looks disgusted he doesn't get the block, and JP has cleared him up to north of hoop 6. Reg shooting... misses.

JP now has a 5 footer at a slight angle to get back into things... runs hoop 5 well, but it's off the north boundary. Reg leads 3-2

Red now takes position, black dribbles up probably having a wee go at the jaws, but ends up harmlessly next to the hoop, yellow comes in to good position, and JP is trying to dribble in a block from the north boundary - plants it harmlessly on the back of hoop 6.

Reg clears black to the north boundary - JP could do with hitting this... miss.

Reg runs hoop 6 with yellow, rushes blue off north of hoop 3, and Reg leads 4-2

Bit of a break while the chaps check out the position of black on the south boundary, south of hoop 1, as it was off-side, and there's the potential for it to be directed to a penalty area. Reg leaves it where it is.

JP takes position with blue, Reg clears him from near hoop 6. Black comes back up from the south boundary - played to the north boundary directly in front of hoop 7.

Reg plays in - wanders past to admire his likely block on black, but JP is equal to the challenge, and clears yellow with a really well-paced shot from the west boundary directly to the side of yellow. Hitting at this controlled pace, and hitting centrally, is going to be a huge factor in the forthcoming world championships.

red plays in - looks like he has blocked again, and black takes decent position. Yellow clears blue - Chris fancied leaving JP the long shot with blue and instead clearing black.

JP clears red to the south boundary from corner 1, and has black nicely in front. Red shoots back - misses. Black.... sticks in hoop 2.

well, not sticks. Black hoop attempt failed into hoop 2. Reg has a clearance on black from just a tad south of level with it on the west boundary - hits it firmly and yellow has gone off about 10 yards north of corner 4 - with black cleared to the north boundary - great shot!

That black was about 2-3 feet in front of hoop 7. To be fair to the hoops, I think they're in new holes today.

JP plays in trying for a block - wanders past - went way too tight. Reg has a free go at a 7 yard hoop 7... Reg leads 5-2. Runs hoop 7 off the south boundary.

Black plays down - nope - too far to the side, and probably unrunnable. Also very clearable.

Yellow takes 5 foot position, blue plays down. Reg is taking on a 7.5 yarder wanting to hit it about 2/3 ball - nails it!

JP shooting down from a yard diagonally in from corner 2... shoots - misses.

I now have a spreadsheet that is based on Andrew Cowing's pod, originally created by Bob Honey to encode Andrew's analysis, modified by me, and now pimped by Stephen C-S. And Chris is doing the counting. A quick snapshot at this time...

JP has played a total of 19 positional shots - success with 13 of them. Reg has played a total of 14 positional shots - and nailed them all.

JP takes decent position with blue, Reg shoots and misses with red, JP's black is very close to yellow and he puts in the block.

Lovely shot by Reg playing off black up to good position at hoop 10 - lovely shot.

JP jawsing (btw Reg leads 6-2)

It's a poor shot, and blue is on the left wire of hoop 9.

Red plays in, as does back, and Reg plays yellow in to the other side of black. Looks like he didn't get a great spot on red, as JP is able to clear, but only to the short boundary near corner 4.

Clearing... JP has hit all his shots (7) successfully at under 8 yards, and missed his 4 longer shots. Reg has hit everything (4) under 8 yards, 5 over 8 yards, and missed 6 long ones.

Red played back in, black had a rather angled go at hoop 9, bounced off to unrunnable, and Reg declines a 10+ foot 30 deg hoop.

JP clears with blue - looked like he could go for a very difficult in-off with blue on red, but takes yellow. The in-off was difficult, but he is now faced with a 30 yard clearance with blue to save the game.

Yellow plays in, JP shoots..misses. Reg has an shortish angled hoop 9 for game 1 - fails the hoop! Into the middle, and yellow is in front. So black needs to clear - has about a 6.5 yarder, so an easy one, And then needs to jump hoop 9 from the south boundary - which Tobi Savage did yesterday morning to stay in the game, and ultimately win his block playoff with Nelson Morrow - before going on to take Reg to the final hoop in a 6-7 7-6 7-6 first round match yesterday.

Yellow plays back in. JP has the clip off. The first jump shot of the day (I think Chris is warming to this analysis tool!)

Hits the left-hand upright above ball height - Stephen C-B has the photographic evidence! - and bounces harmlessly to peg high - Reg had to check with his oppo that it wasn't through given its final position.

Reg has a very angled hoop 9 from very short.. Chris is distracted with the analysis and doesn't see the mallet in the air - Bill Arliss is on the court ...standing miles back. Good point from Chris - no need for precious marking as there's no way the ball would be replaced if it was a fault

Stephen's photo shows JP had great height, and if it was through, given Red's angle, he would be in great position. As it is Reg runs hoop 9 very cleanly (and quite firmly)

Reg wins game 1 7-2

Game 2

This is best of three, by the way

While they're in a break, a quick summary of the stats from the game...

Key stats from Game 1
Reg 20/20 for positioning, JP 14/20
Shooting over 8 yards, Reg 5/11 JP 0/5

Looks like JP is just taking a break to gather his thoughts. Greetings to Tony Hall who I hope to see at the Aussie Open in November. I'm glad this commentary form is not entirely obselete now!

Game 2 - for real this time

JP takes good position with blue. Reg shoots with red - misses.

In a repeat of game 1, JP takes position with black, seeing to again provide some protection to blue - but Chris is concerned that this gives a double clearance as the balls are about 9 inches apart. Decent block

Reg shoots - misses. And blue runs hoop 1 off the north boundary. I do think he could have tried for something a little shorter there given how good his position was. But he does have a southwards clearance to the very long boundary if Reg doesn't get wired position. JP leads 1-0

Reg plays red up, and it looks like its open. JP plays black up to great position.

Reg plays yellow in from the boundary next to hoop 1 - it's a "full Verge" says Chris, reaches the hoop, and goes a few yards past. It looks like he was trying to get the block past the hoop, with a 50-50 on running the hoop. Doesn't get either, and JP clears. Blue was in the air when it contacted red, so not a great outcome (red near the peg), but just unlucky with that contact.

Reg plays back in - centre balls black. Red now on West boundary level with hoop 2, black takes deep position. Yellow takes perfect position

JP plays blue in, getting position, trying to block red at black. Gets position, but red is open - this time Reg gets a duff contact and red climbs up over black - clears black to 8y south of hoop 3, with red going just south of level with hoop 5 and 2 yards from it.

Nice centre-ball clearance from JP, and black (striker's ball) pings off to the north boundary nearish corner 2

yellow clears blue gently staying about 4.5 yards back and a bit of an angle. Blue plays in to lovely tight position. Red plays in between yellow and blue - doesn't appear to have blocked anything, so JP is playing black in trying to block yellow. His smile suggests he got all of the hill available to end up a bit unlucky, however Reg is on his knees checking if yellow can clear blue.

Stalking... and just runs hoop 2 - nice shot. 1-1

Right - JP needs good position here - needs the confidence boost, and to actually have a shot at the hoop... makes sure he doesn't under hit it... and it's a bit far, but Chris rates it a success. Not successful enough to make Reg shoot twice, but after taking position with red he will have a ping with yellow.

Red plays in - leaves blue a clearance, but it's clearance which would leave blue not in front.

Black plays in to just inside red - nice ball. Blue should be pretty safe now, as they've built a wall with red and black to protect blue.

Yellow plays in fairly gently and hits red, onto black, leaving black unrunnable, red in front, but blue untouched. Chris rated blue's positional shot a success, and JP is taking on the hoop...hits the outside of the wire, pinging off to the middle of the west boundary. These hoops are soooo much better than the last 3-4 days!

Reg runs hoop 3 powerfully with red from fairly short range. Places it on the boundary as black plays down - but it's open. But it's in front - Reg will have a 9 yard clearance.

Rob's just made his farewells, and is off home now. I'd love to see him win the worlds in this genre.

Reg leads 2-1

However Rob hasn't actually made my short-list for Chris's fantasy competition (sorry!). If you want to enter the comp, and aren't on the Aus or Notts lists, email Chris chrisd4clarke@hotmail.com for details. There might even be a prize!

Yellow plays down, blue is in - Chris can't decide if that's a successful or failed positional shot, as we can't quite decide if it can run the hoop. C decides it's success, as red clears black, black misses yellow, and yellow runs the hoop - "I'll give it a success as it's close to hoop 5"

Blue plays in well, red takes position, and black.... takes position (from near corner 1). Generally black clears red here - but it does appear that yellow can't hit anything, so not sure what Reg is going for - his red seems causing all sorts of problems where it is

Reg shoots - snicks blue out of position, but yellow's now in the middle of west boundary - SCB observes it's on side, but this hoop has some play in it yet.

Reg has scored the last three hoops, and leads 3-1

Blue clears red to the south boundary - might take this hoop on in this position, as black is close in front, and blue is also in front though a tad distant.

Reg shoots with red ... at the hoop... misses.
JP runs a short hoop 5 but 4 yards north of hoop 6 - too hard from that position.

Reg leads 3-2

A short convo about offsidedness... yellow is ok, red is offside. They also had a wee convo about where exactly yellow went

Anyways, yellow takes position... it looked almost wired from both blue (through the peg) and black (though hoop 6).
Hoop 6 must have been in play, as JP clears with his first ball - striker's ball (blue) goes off 9 yards west of corner 1, while yellow is a yard east of hoop 3

Reg takes position with red, JP clears, but black is now closest to hoop 1 of all the hoops. Yellow plays in, Blue takes an interesting position from which any clearance would be taking blue towards hoop 7 - red plays in and JP is shooting - it didn't sound great, and he misses a 14 yarder to let Reg have an easy hoop 6. Reg leads 4-2

That yellow wicked off well to about a yard east of the hoop 6/7 offside marker. JP fails to take tight position. Reg takes 2.5 yard straight position. JP drifted past with black also, and Reg plays yellow in front

"You've gotta do something inventive here" - yellow is tight in front, red is further away - JP tries to dribble into red...

Hits it too hard, and Reg can clear black to corner 1 - which he does.

Earlier this week, watching Reg miss shots in the doubles, and fail some hoops in the singles block play, I fancied taking him on - he has utterly dominated this match - by doing the simple things well (position), and hitting some powerful and well aimed shots.

Reg leads 5-2 - runs hoop 7 through to the south boundary.

JP approaches hoop 8, getting some applause from Reg as he got the wire from yellow on the south boundary.

Reg shooting with red from just south of level with hoop 2 on the west boundary. Reg must have some sort of target there.. misses.

JP takes good position with black.

Quick stats update on this game... JP 15/17 for position, and Reg 12/12

Reg shoots to clear - must have had something of blue, though he shot very softly - misses to 2 yards from corner 2. JP jawsing - why?? - lets red get onside, black doesn't have the angle to get that close to 3back, and red and yellow are nowhere.

Reg not playing onside - he's shooting to clear blue - from the boundary south of hoop 9/hoop 4 .... clears it!!!

But JP has black in front of the hoop - swinging.. fails it to short and unrunnable. JP 2/4 on hoops, Reg 5/6

Reg takes position with yellow - another perfect shot - from near corner 2 he has 2 foot position. Red is on the short boundary - so JP is shooting at ... ball and hoop? - bounces off the hoop to offside.

Reg hasn't missed a stroke under 8 yards yet - says my statistician. He maintains that record, clearing black to near the east boundary.

..."despite his two 4 yard misses in the semi-final, which he was trying to hit in the middle" a wee voice next to me says.

JP shooting back with black at yellow - nails it! The crowd goes slightly wild. Tobi is perched on the lawn 5 shelter, which appears to have been erected since the AC inter-counties to provide a streaming site, so he's relatively quiet. Still an excellent chap. Good on Southwick for adding this filming perch!

Anyway, yellow takes position, blue comes in also from corner 4, red plays in - to directly north of yellow - that's a bit of a disaster for Reg! And black plays in - to just south of red, making a hell of a mess. Blue is safely north of everything

It's yellow to play - it could well be they are in contact and he can attempt to peel partner. He's lining it up, but from that angle perhaps a gap?
Mallet in the air... Tim King races out there.

Markers in place, wee conference... it looks like the balls are quite close and he's trying to rush-peel from an angle.

Plays it very gently, and JP is taking the clip off - it's a very straightforward jump. Doesn't play it that well, and it takes a huge amount of wire before flopping through. Reg leads 5-3

Reg takes perfect position at hoop 9 with red. He has missed 1 out of 15 positional shots in this game, and only 1 from 35 positional shots in the match - there's a stat for all coaches and improving players - position, position, position.

Speaking of which - black takes good position, and so does yellow.

JP shooting with blue - hits a 14 yarder - Chris bemoaning it's on the wrong side, as Reg has a clearance towards corner 2 now - he hasn't missed one of this length yet, and nails that, with red going up towards hoop 10!

Clears black to the middle of the west boundary. JP needs to hit this.

Shoots with black... misses on the left and looks disappointed at that one.

Yellow runs an easy hoop 9, up to about peg high - that's one of the few Reg hasn't just blatted off the boundary. Reg leads 6-3

JP takes 1 foot fairly straight position with blue - nice shot.

Reg wanting the sexy long hoop finish for the championship with red about 6 yards. Gets the very unsexy missing-everything to 5 feet west of corner 3

Black plays up, but not protecting blue - this must be a double - maybe with a gap. Reg still looking for the sexy finish, and again unsexily clips the left-hand wire and bounces to the middle of the north boundary.

JP runs hoop 10 Reg leads 6-4, and yellow is banished to the mid-west-boundary penalty area

Red plays in straight, black takes position inside this. Black looks very angled - I hope he can run that hoop!

Reg plays in with yellow along a line to block blue at red. JP "that looks pretty good" and applauds his opponent. Looks like he has nothing from his checking out the available shot. Lining it up...

Misses. He maybe had a sliver.

Reg has a 1 yard straight hoop for the championship...

Reg wins the 2019 British Open GC Singles Championship, beating John-Paul Moberly 7-2 7-4 in the final

And that's it from me, I'm off to play a different type of golf with a croquet legend tomorrow. Wadham College v Wadham College at Roehampton.

Congratulations to Reg, and very well played to England's captain, JP.