South African croquet star and former world champion, Reg Bamford, was crowned Champion of the 10th World Golf Croquet Championship on the Egyptian Croquet Federation fields at Al-Gezeira Youth Centre last week. The final was between Bamford and Ahmed Nasr from Egypt, a former two-time world champion, in a repeat of a similar match between the two seven years ago that Nasr had won. Nasr and Bamford had qualified for the final by eliminating two Egyptians, Hani Erian and Ahmed El-Mahdi, in the semi-finals. Before dozens of spectators, deemed a relatively small but relevant audience of a somewhat unpopular sport in Egypt like croquet, Nasr went head to head with the calm, nearly cold-blooded Bamford. Nasr received the lion's share of the cheering by the mostly Egyptian crowd who were quite perky compared to the foreign audience who sat on the sidelines quietly supporting the South African player. Despite the homeland support, Nasr lost the first game to Bamford 5-7 in the “Best out of 5” match. The Egyptian champion came back with a crashing victory in the second game 7-3. The South African didn't stay down long emerging with a victory in the third game 7-6. At the brink of losing, Nasr had to win the fourth game or the golden cup would go directly to Bamford. Nasr did exactly that, coming back again with another crashing victory 7-4 in the fourth game. In the “Best out of 5” match, it was the 5th game that would decide on which end of the African continent the World Cup would finally land. The final game was very much back and forth at the beginning between the two former champions. Nasr started winning a point but Bamford quickly drew. Nasr again took the lead a few minutes later making it 2-1. Bamford once more tied the score. At 2-2, Nasr started to take control of the game. The Egyptian scored one point after another bringing the score to 6-2. Everyone was almost sure Nasr had pocketed victory except Bamford. The South African looked very calm, seemingly unaffected by the Egyptian cheers for his opponent. With a heart of ice, Bamford played every shot with a hundred per cent accuracy, prompting one of the Egyptians in the crowd to say, “Nasr is playing against the computer!” While Nasr failed to score his winning seventh point, Bamford scored his third, fourth and fifth points until he finally tied the score at 6-6 as the crowd looked on in disbelief. Nasr seemed to grow more nervous while Bamford maintained his calm throughout the match. Bamford won the last decisive point documenting a remarkable comeback and avenging his 2006 loss. His dream shattered, the Egyptian champion broke into tears. In a gesture of respect, the crowd gave Nasr a standing ovation for a great performance that would go down in the history of croquet. In his speech after the match, the world champion congratulated Nasr on an excellent match saying that he speaks on behalf of all the players in the tournament. “This is the home of croquet and it's always great to play here,” Bamford said in his speech. “It is intimidating when you play in deadly silence while your opponent has all these cheers,” he added. Bamford also praised the tournament's organisation, thanking the International Federation for a job well done. President of the International Federation Amir Ramsis said, “Everyone is very happy with the organisation of the tournament and the number of attendees is very good,” Ramsis told Al-Ahram Weekly. “Some of the foreign players even went to the pyramids and everything was totally fine.” Ramsis, who is also the president of the Egyptian Croquet Federation, expressed his satisfaction with what Egypt has benefited from having the tournament hosted in Cairo. “Even though foreign players benefit more from us than we benefit from them,” he added. The head of the Egyptian federation also expressed his content with what the Egyptian players had accomplished during the tournament. The Egyptian champions will be honoured, according to Ramsis. “There will also be monetary prizes for players who won any of the first eight places,” he said.
