Club
Croquet
Wrest Park
Anderson Shield 2024
v Newport (home) 13 June won 4-
Eric Audsley (1) & Peter Aspinall (11) beat Cliff Jones (2) & Alex Lake (9) +3
Peter Rothwell (6) beat Chris van Essen (8) +25
Tim Nurse (8) lost to Max Byfield (6) -
Eric Audsley lost to Cliff Jones -
Peter Rothwell beat Max Byfield +18
Tim Nurse beat Chris van Essen +1t
Peter Aspinall lost to Alex Lake -
report by Tim Brewer
This was our first match in the Anderson Shield (an AC Handicap Advanced competition). The shield that is presented to the winning club was originally donated by two former Wrest Park Croquet Club members – Tom and Judy Anderson. Originally the Shield was presented to the winner of the East Anglian regional ‘inter-
In the doubles Peter A stunned the opposition by playing a break round to 4-
Eric and Cliff had similar issues in the afternoon singles and with both on peg and penult, Eric managed to blob penult four times from inches away, before Cliff finally ran it.
Peter R’s morning match against Chris was much more closely fought than the scoreline suggests. Chris’s ball positioning made it very difficult for Peter to pick up a 4-
In Peter R’s afternoon game, both players were on the cusp of the index boundary, the prize for the winner would be a handicap reduction to 5. Both players made mistakes during breaks, and both rescued a poor hoop approach with a jumped hoop shot from an angled position. Eventually Peter got his first ball round to peg and set a rather steep but good diagonal leave with Peter’s balls near corner 4. Max missed the lift from B-
In Tim’s morning game against Max Byfield, Tim progressed to peg and peg after Max had taken his first ball to peg, only being able to complete the rover peel posthumously and not having a pegout shot; whereupon Max went round from hoop 2 with his second ball and pegged out, winning +2.
Tim and Chris’s final game, with the match level at 3-
Colchester are our next opponents at Wrest Park sometime in July. Thank you, team, for a great effort!
© Wrest Park Croquet Club
v Colchester (home) 15 July won 5-
John Bevington (½) & Peter Aspinall (11) beat Georgeen Hemming (4½) & Celia Pearce (10) +2t
Peter Rothwell (4½) beat Jill Waters (4½) +19
Tim Nurse (8) beat Al Brown (4½) +2
John Bevington beat Georgeen Hemming +6
Peter Rothwell beat Al Brown +24
Tim Nurse v Jill Waters abandoned
Peter Aspinall v Celia Pearce abandoned
The weather at the start was pleasant enough, but the rain began late on in the morning necessitating the erection of a gazebo near lawn 4 in readiness for the afternoon games. The rain relented for a while, but when it reappeared with the match won and two singles games still unfinished it was agreed to abandon these in favour of tea and the chance for our visitors to make an early start home.
In the doubles on lawn 1 John and Peter were ahead but Georgeen and Celia fought back and were a point ahead when time was called. Celia went to peg out her own ball and let out a cry of anguish when she realised that the shot had missed, but, even worse, had ended up on B baulk near corner 3 with a lift due. John was able to make penult and rover and peg out his own ball for a +2 win.
Peter had a comfortable win, but Tim and Al’s game was much tighter with Tim finally winning +2
Tim Nurse about to peg out against Al Brown. Note the clips on the peg and the yellow clip on Tim’s right-
In the afternoon Peter continued his good form, conceding only nine points over his two games, to give us a match-