Club

Croquet

Wrest Park

Mary Rose

19 Aug    v Nottingham (home)    Won 5-2

Eric Audsley (1) lost to Peter Death (½) -11

John Bevington (1½) lost to Gordon Hopewell (3) -8

Terry Mahoney (2) beat Rob Edlin-White (3) +16

Tim Brewer (4½) beat Lawrence Whittaker (3) +13

Eric Audsley (1) and John Bevington (1½) beat Peter Death (½) and Gordon Hopewell (3) +13

Terry Mahoney (2) beat Lawrence Whittaker (3) +5

Tim Brewer (4½) beat Rob Edlin-White (3) +25

A midweek match, and the lawns were fully occupied as the golf croquet team were taking on Letchworth in the league. As Nottingham were not due to arrive until 11am there was time to use the switches to clean up the top two lawns, mown the previous day, and refresh the white lines, which were very faint after a heavy downpour two days earlier. Bryan Harral and George Collin were away, so Eric Audsley and John Bevington were joined by Terry Mahoney and Tim Brewer.

It was decided to play the four singles first and leave the doubles until the afternoon, on the assumption that the doubles might run on and hold up the remaining games. Although three of the games finished within a reasonable time John’s game against Gordon dragged on somewhat, so there was at least one sitting for lunch with the match even at two games all.

Tim then romped home +25, and Eric got us off to a flying start in the doubles when he went to 3-back early on. Later John got in and went round, and Eric eventually finished after a couple of opportunities went begging. Terry had a tough game against Lawrence and came home +5 to give us a 5-2 win and a trip to Bowdon for the semi-final. This easy passage is explained by the fact that we had a bye in the first round and then had a walkover against Bury when they were unable to raise a team for any of the available dates.



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