Croquet: Top seeds progress to playoffs

All of the top seeds have qualified for the world championship playoffs in Wellington, but only titleholder Reg Bamford, of South Africa, and Australian Bruce Fleming emerged unbeaten from section play yesterday.

Bamford recorded his first sextuple peel of the tournament when beating Australian Martin Clarke 26-0 for his seventh victory. Fleming, ranked No 4 in the world, prevailed 25-23 when stretched by English qualifier David Goacher, ranked No 23.

Four-time champion and second seed Robert Fulford suffered a second successive defeat when he was beaten 26-19 by Mark McInerney. Both players qualified, with McInerney joining his brother Ronan among four Irish qualifiers.

Fulford is one of 10 English players in the field of 32 which also includes third-ranked David Maugham and No 7 Chris Clarke, the 1995 champion.

Brian Wislang, one of nine New Zealand players to qualify, scored a triple peel when upsetting Clarke 26-14 in the final round.

Top ranked New Zealand player Bob Jackson, with a world ranking of No 5, went down 26-22 to Welshman Chris Williams but qualified with five wins.

The only woman to get through, Jocelyn Sutton, won six of her games to share the section honours with England's Jerry Guest after a 26-22 win, including a triple peel.

Sutton is one of five Australians still in contention while Guest was one of two players from last week's qualifying tournament in Nelson to reach the final 32, the other was Irishman Andrew Johnston, who had a triple peel in his 26-0 victory over Kevin Garrad, of Isle of Man.

Gisborne's Joseph Hogan, winner of the inaugural world title in 1989 but out of top croquet for the past eight years, also qualified.

World top-50 players to miss out included New Zealanders Peter Parkinson, Greg Bryant, Cameron Lyes and Peter Couch; Mik Mehas of the United States, Steve Meatheringham of Australia and England's John Gibbons.

The field comprises 10 players from England, nine New Zealanders, five Australians, four from Ireland, two Americans and one each from Scotland and South Africa.

- NZPA