Daniel Gott in Open Championships at Cheltenham

Daniel Gott excelled himself in his first Open Championships at Cheltenham Croquet Club last week. The event is one of the most important events in the Croquet Calendar and attracts the best players from all over the world. Despite being one of the weaker players on paper, he managed to reach the knock-out stage of the tournament by winning five of his eight games during qualifying over the first three days, including an excellent win against Jamie Burch, the world number seven. Daniel reached the last sixteen but was eventually knocked-out by Jamie, who went on to be the runner-up. Daniel’s success continued in the consolation plate competition where he narrowly missed out on reaching the final. He was rewarded with a reduction in handicap to -1 at the end of the tournament and is now unlikely to be underestimated the next time he comes up against the world’s best players.