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Wrest Park

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Inter County Championship 25-28 May

Bedfordshire aka Wrest Park had a wretched start, losing their first four matches, but then staged a remarkable recovery to win the remaining six. This left us level with the Channel Islands and Gloucestershire who also had six wins but had both only played nine matches due to the last round at Southwick being abandoned because of flooding. Suffolk, having won eight of their nine matches, were the clear winners of Division 2, but the question of which teams are promoted and relegated is going to have to wait until the management committee have decided what to do. We suspect that they may take the view that 6/9 is a higher winning percentage than 6/10 and we will therefore escape promotion. The final tables:

Needless to say a fair number of games went to time: 16 out of the 30 games played (1st pair 2, 2nd pair 4, 3rd pair 10). Of these five were won or lost by a single point and one by two, and the matches where they counted were against Sussex (2nd pair lost -2T, lost 1-2), the Channel Islands (3rd pair won +1T, won 2-1) and Warwickshire (2nd pair won +1T, 3rd pair lost -1T, won 2-1).

Jon and David settled into a winning partnership from the start and did outstandingly well to win nine of their ten games. Bryan and John lost their first six games but recovered to win the remaining four. In the two games at Compton on the last day they only conceded six points. Howard and Tom also won four games, including the match winner against the Channel Islands. This game reached its allotted time with the scores level. After a further half-hour or more Tom and Kevin Garrad both wanted 1-back. Tom finally approached the hoop off Kevin’s ball and failed it. We assumed it was all over, but Kevin then did the same and Tom finally ran the hoop to win the game and the match and offer further proof of Parkinson’s law as applied to croquet, i.e. games expand to fill the time available.

Many thanks are due to George Collin, who although unable to play was elected team captain and performed an invaluable service in collecting team sheets and recording the scores, a full copy of which is on the board in the pavilion. We are also indebted to Tom, who had to play throughout as a result of George’s forced absence and came good when it mattered.

After much deliberation, the CA decided that Gloucestershire and the Channel Islands would be promoted along with Suffolk.

The view from lawn 10 at Southwick during the evening session of the first day. Bedfordshire were playing Hampshire and lost 1-2. Jon Watson can be seen in play just to the left of the hut on the right.

The scene at Compton on the final afternoon. Jon Watson and David Marsh are in conference on the left, and Tom Anderson is in play. Howard Bottomley is walking across between them.