Rainy conditions at London’s Hurlingham Club didn’t slow down Mathew Essick as he rolled through his semifinal against world #1 Robert Fletcher 26tp-6, 26tp-10, 26tp-0 to advance to his third straight world championship final.
Accordingly, five-time WCF AC World Champion Robert Fulford made his way through to the final to set up a repeat of the 2022 Golf Croquet World Championship final. It wasn’t necessarily easy though as sharp-shooting Tom Balding had his sights set on an All-American final. Fulford was able to hit in to claim game one, 26-21, but errored on a takeoff that fell short of hoop-running position at 2B (8) during a tpo attempt in game two. Balding stepped in to finish 26-7 to even the match prior to lunch.
In game three, Balding had the early action in turn three, but bounced back off hoop 1 with blue to let Fulford in for first break. Still, the game was an interactive affair with Fulford eventually taking a 26tp-23 win. In game four, he left no doubt taking a 26tp-0 game in to claim the match 3-1.
Interestingly, Fulford and Essick have never met in AC play, so we only have the GC Final from 2022 for a head-to-head reference. Essick won that 7-6, 6-7, 7-3, 7-3
Of course, Fulford not only has five AC World Titles, he’s also appeared in three additional AC finals for a 5-3 record. He’s also made the final four on two other occasions making this his 11th appearance in the WCF AC Last Four. There have been 18 WCF AC World Championships. Overall, he has played in 3,456 AC games and has a won-loss record of 2667-786, with 1,543 triples, 158 tpos, and 405 sextuples.
Essick has played a total of 627 games with a record of 470-157. He has 192 triples, 17 tpos and 7 sextuplets. With a win on Sunday, he could join Reg Bamford as the only player to hold both the AC and GC world titles at the same time.
AMERICAN INVASION
Looking across the entire event, the American Invasion continued as Zack Watson has made it to the Shield Final and will go up against James Death tomorrow. Additionally, Kyle Maloof will play against Women’s AC World Champion Debbie Lines in the Bowl Final.
The Plate semifinals are still underway with Nick Parish (ENG) playing against Callum Hyland (AUS) and Robin Brown (ENG) taking on New Zealand’s Jenny Clarke.
