Club
Croquet
Wrest Park
Mary Rose
5 Sept v Bowdon (away) Lost 2-
George Collin (½) and Eric Audsley (1) lost to Richard Smith (1) and Mark Lloyd (1) -
Terry Mahoney (1½) beat Mike Sandler (1) +12
John Bevington (1½) lost to David Cotton (3) -
George Collin v Mark Lloyd unfinished
Eric Audsley lost to Richard Smith -
Terry Mahoney (1½) lost to David Cotton (3) -
John Bevington (1½) beat Mike Sandler 91) +22
Bowdon was busy: there was a league match going on when we arrived and our match was on the upper tier of lawns, which are flat and fast but with some unevenness around the boundaries. Mike elected to go round and give contact, which gave Terry the chance to do the same, peg him out and go on to win. With his game evenly poised John had a potential finish in prospect after running 4-
A referee arrived with two mallets and aligned the edges on the less than crisply defined boundary either side of the ball. He then lowered himself to the ground to look along the line. Unable to decide, he called for Brian Storey (“he’s a championship referee”), who repeated the process with evident discomfort, as it was rumoured that he had just polished off the remains of the lunchtime trifle. The spectacle prompts the suggestion that the word crush be adopted henceforth as a collective noun for a group of referees. The ball was finally pronounced off, David finished, and we went in to our own lunch 2-
The first two afternoon singles to finish were divided, so when Terry lost to David (rather good for a 3, we both thought) it was all over and George’s game was eventually abandoned. It had already become farcical: Mark, laying up just outside corner 1, intended to leave a rush to hoop 6 but left the balls the wrong way round. He then missed the three-
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