Club

Croquet

Wrest Park

The poet John Clare, a patient at St Andrew’s Hospital shown in the photo above, once wrote “And what is Life? An hour-glass on the run . . .” The same might be said of our match. Day 1 drew to a close at 6.30 as the lawns were needed for a WI group. At this point we were 3-2 up. Bryan and David won the doubles and David Woolley lost to Richard. John and Peter pegged down. After lunch Bryan won in quick time and later John won and David Marsh lost to make it 3-2, leaving John and David to finish their games against Peter another day.

Day 2. 10.30 start, John (penult and 5, with a lift) vs Peter (penult and penult). After several mishits, missed rushes and other incompetence on my part Peter got to peg and peg and had one away. I had caught up somewhat by this time and later was on rover and peg when a too short approach saw my ball struggle through and fall back. Peter hit in from the side boundary.

David then took the field against Peter, each of them having, as far as I can remember, clips on 4-back and penult. I took myself off to visit Nick Evans’s model shop and came back in time to see Peter peg David and himself out. David hit in and tried to get position for rover, and Peter hit again (or at least I think that’s what happened). All credit to Peter. If I can play like that when I get to his age I would be more than happy.

v Colchester (away)     July 12     Won 6-1

Bryan Harral (1) and John Bevington (½) beat Nick Steiner (0) and Martin Leach (1½) +3

George Collin (1) lost to Peter Kenward (3½) -12

Tim Brewer (3) beat Rick Waterman (5) +15

John Bevington beat Nick Steiner +15

Bryan Harral beat Martin Leach +17

George Collin beat Rick Waterman +24

Tim Brewer beat Peter Kenward +7

Wrest Park got their revenge for the heavy defeat in the Inter Club a month earlier. The doubles was pretty much error-free, with John following Martin to 4-back, Nick going to peg, Bryan following and pegging Nick out and John finishing. Peter’s solid play saw off George, but Tim won at what can best be described as the second attempt. A discreet veil should be drawn over the details, but suffice to say that it was a real Specsavers moment.

After an excellent lunch George got his act together with a quick win. John handed Nick an easy break after he turned down a rush on partner to hoop 1 from corner 4 with the opponent balls loitering in the middle of the lawn and attempted to split one to hoop 2 and get a rush on the other to hoop 1. When this failed he put the opponent ball to hoop 1 and retired to partner, but the hoop 1 ball was in a runnable position and Nick ran it cleanly to the ball thoughtfully provided for him at hoop 2 and went to 4-back. John recovered to make the match secure, and after Bryan’s win we sat in the shade of the pavilion to watch Tim finally get the better of Peter.

Our thanks go to Colchester for their hospitality and the opportunity to play on such good lawns. We trust that Martin got home in reasonable time, as he managed to disprove Volkswagen’s claim that locking your keys in the car was impossible.

© Wrest Park Croquet Club  

Nick, Rick and Martin look on as Tim and Peter battle it out in the last game of the day.

Mary Rose 2014

v Northampton (away)     Aug 12/19     Lost 3-4

Bryan Harral (½) and David Marsh (½) beat Mike Hills (1½) and Nick Evans (2) +15

David Woolley (8) lost to Richard Meacock (3) -15

Bryan Harral beat Mike Hills +24

John Bevington (1) beat Richard Meacock (3) +16

David Marsh lost to Nick Evans -9

John Bevington lost to Peter Stansfield (3) -3

David Woolley lost to Peter Stansfield -2

The last two games had been pegged down and were concluded a week later.