Mary Rose 2018

v Surbiton (home)     15 July     lost 3-4

Cliff Jones (0) and George Collin (1½) lost to Andy Dibben (0) and Graham Brightwell (2) -9

David Morgans (3½) lost to Mary Knapp (2) -4

John Bevington (1½) beat Ed Dymock (2½) +10

Cliff Jones lost to Andy Dibben -12

George Collin beat Graham Brightwell +4

John Bevington beat Mary Knapp +14

David Morgans lost to Ed Dymock -1T

report by Andy Dibben

In a very close match, 3:3 with the 7th game tied when time was called, Surbiton managed to scrape home with a 4:3 win. David Morgans, who was in play when time was called was unable to make 1 further hoop and Ed Dymock managed to just hit in and peg out his rover ball to win the 7th game, and the match +1 on time.

Like everywhere else at the moment the lawns at Wrest Park were very fast which made it difficult to get breaks going and for close hoop approaches.

The match started promptly at 10:00 (The M25 and M1 both behaving themselves for once facilitating a timely arrival by the Surbiton players).(Or three of them - Ed, making his own way, took the secretary’s address to be the club address and arrived escorted by Tim and Gill Brewer).

When lunch was ready at 13:00 none of the morning games had finished.   The doubles match finished first at around 14:30 and the two lower handicap afternoon singles started but the second morning singles match did not finish until after 16:00. With the match standing at 2:1 to Surbiton it was therefore decided to impose a 20:00 finish time on all the afternoon games.

The game between Andy & Cliff was first to finish giving Surbiton a 3:1 lead.  Graham was on the verge of winning the game against George  - and the match for Surbiton - when a short roquet at penult meandered off target.  George capitalised on this and went on to win the game.  Mary then lost to John, leaving the match tied at 3:3, the last game being very close with 30 minutes of time remaining.  Both Ed and David had several break opportunities in the last 30 minutes but failed to make significant numbers of hoops.  With time running out Ed was on peg and hoop 5 with David 1 hoop behind on 2 back and penult. David got the innings and levelled the game by running 2 back as time was called.   However he failed to make 3 back and left all 4 balls separated.  This  left Ed with the choice of  joining up by playing his backward ball or (so Ed claimed) shooting with his peg ball at a double of peg and oppo ball.   He chose the later and just managed to nick the edge of the opponent’s ball thus able to peg the ball out and win the game +1 T.

A very enjoyable day and our thanks to Bryan Harral (the Wrest Park non playing captain) who provided an excellent lunch and had to watch the game for 10 hours as he had made himself ineligible by getting his handicap down to -½.


v Letchworth (home)     2 June     won 5-2

Bryan Harral (0) & George Collin (1.5) beat David Tutt (0.5) & Keith Rhodes (2.5) +9

John Bevington (1.5) beat Heather Bennett (3.5) +9

David Morgans (3.5) beat Ian Mantle (3) +21

Bryan Harral beat David Tutt +18

George Collin beat Keith Rhodes +16

John Bevington lost to Ian Mantle -16

David Morgans lost to Heather Bennett -16

David Morgans, a new member having moved south from Shropshire, got things started with a win against Ian Mantle. Wrest Park won the doubles and went into lunch 3-0 up after John Bevington, on rover and peg, was able to take advantage of a rare but expensive miss from Heather after 2-back, conceding a lift  with the balls usefully placed.

The top singles had moments to savour. David Tutt opened with pink to corner 4. Bryan played white (!) and went off the south boundary just east of A baulk. David then took croquet from the replaced correct ball, turning down the rush on offer. George, who had been hitting everything, had black on peg and was using it to try an angled penult peel on blue. Red was near the peg. The peel attempt put blue into the jaws of penult (OK so far), but black carried on to roquet red. This would have been all very well but for the fact that the roquet had been made via the peg.

David had been warned about Heather’s accuracy but it didn’t help him, and John exhausted the repertoire of unforced errors when he played the wrong ball at very much the wrong time.

Weather: a glorious second of June. Lunch and tea: Sharman Harral did us proud.

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