Good morning, and welcome back to Heaton Park.

Up here in the Northern Hemisphere the weather is what meteorologists describe as "disappointing for August."  It's actually been less bad than that, and has been pretty much at the optimistic end of the pessimistic spectrum.

Still some drizzle right now, but the forecast is for sunny intervals.

Paul Rigge, our indefatigable host, reminds me that conditions have been much more testing than my previous postings have implied.  Lawn 1 is running at 13 seconds, and the other three at about 12.  The hoops yesterday were much more testing than the sandy subsoil might have predicted - lots of failures from the players.

I stand corrected.

So, a busy day for me ahead.  Ian Vincent is refereeing at Bowdon, so there's no co-commentator with me today.  I'll be monitoring four games for most of the morning, so I'm hoping for a couple of very quick and dull matches.  That'll let me focus on the livelier entertainment.  Ideally, I'd like precisely three boring matches, if that could be arranged.

On Friday, I struggled with extension leads and was sat by the kitchen in the far corner.  Now I've a ringside seat - it turns out that there was a convenient socket by the window all the time.  I can see most of all the lawns, though there's a blind spot on the south boundary of the furthest two lawns.

This was the venue for the 2002 Commonwealth Games bowls event, and the courts double as bowling rinks for the rest of the season.  They're each bordered by a wide pathway, and sit about a foot lower, with guttering around.  That sunken border blocks much of the view of the bottom edge of Lawns 2 & 3.  I shall be standing on a chair throughout the day.

We're off.

Fletcher (Black) lays a supershot.  Westerby dribbles Red at it from Corner 1, and centres it towards the peg.  He stops Black between Hoop 2 and the corner, and goes to Corner 4

Fletcher hits Red in corner 4, and bungs it out towards mid way between Hoops 1 & 2.  Westerby shoots at Black and misses.  Robert hits Yellow with Black, brings it to 2, and gets a rush to Hoop 1.  Blue remains near corner 4.

Wright shoots at the oppo with Black from corner 2-ish.  He misses, and Landrebe takes the rush down to Blue.  All balls are in play, and he has a rush to Hoop 1.

Peter, optimistically, is the only player wearing sunglasses.

Disregard that last comment, of course.  Web browsers are beyond me, and that comment belongs to another game entirely.

Lots have been missed in this since my connection went down.  Fletcher went to 4-back with a diagonal spread; Westerby lifted Red near Hoop 2 and shot from A baulk at oppo.  Robert got the second break.

...and pulled out a triple, with straight double finish.

Fletcher +26TP

Game Two

Aaron puts out a supershot ball.  Robert corners in 2.  Aaron misses it, and Fletcher hits on the fourth turn.

He's now popping Red through Hoop 1 as he goes to Hoop 5.

Robert now has a greedy second pop, putting Red through Hoop 2.

The peelee (Red) remains just in the jaws of Hoop 2.  Robert has a sort of MSL, but decides to tidy the Red after 3-back.  He takes off from Blue back up to Red, but overhits.  He plays the long roquet on the partially wired Red, and Red bounces out of the hoop towards him.  An awkward take-off back to Blue, but he's converted the position from MSL to NSL.

Westerby lifts Red from Hoop 2, and solidly hits Blue.

Aaron gets a very angled third hoop, and rockets his ball through to the south boundary.  Manages to salvage something, and he's back on course.

Loads of thinking time for the NZ captain - only three hoops made since my last comment 15 minutes ago.  Everything looked kinda obvious to us, so we don't know what he was planning.  Anyway, he runs 1-back, and gets hampered.

Brian Storey joined me a while ago to shed some light on Aaron's play.  He's obsessively trying to get a defensive peel on Robert's Blue through Hoop 1, and has been struggling to get the balls in the right position.

Eventually, the peel is done while Aaron's at 2-back.  At the same time, he jams Black into the back of Hoop 1.  We now have to wait a while for the final outcome, as he paces the lawn for the right rushline.

Finally, there's a clip on 4-back.  Robert's Black (for 4-back) is wedged in Hoop 1; Blue (for 2) is near Hoop 2; Yellow (Hoop 1) has a rush on Red (for 4-back) and they sit down behind Hoop 4.

Robert lifts Blue and shoots from B-baulk.  He misses Yellow.

I've just gone and got my lunch, and come back to see Aaron peeling Penult after Hoop 6.  All is on course for a standard triple.

...unless you blob 1-back.

This is all bad news for Aaron, having popped Blue through the first hoop.  Blue rushes Red to Hoop 3, comes down to Black, and rolls it peg-high and between Hoops 3 & 4.

This is perhaps the worst shot of the day - Blue goes nowhere near the Yellow, and leaves Robert a five-yarder at a wired ball from dead level with the hoop.  He blasts at it and hits , barely dislodging it.

Straight hitting trumps accurate croquet strokes, and he's now perfect for a standard triple.

No one's going to accuse Robert Fletcher of slow play, and he jogs across the lawn to collect a stray ball.  He's through Hoop 6 already, and is having his second peel.  Through without a hint of wire, and Black lies two feet in front of Rover.

My cursor is hovering over the "Australia win" graphic.

Robert Fletcher bt Aaron Westerby +26TP, +9TP

The early Rover peel didn't work out for Robert, and he had to leave it in the jaws until Rover.  Not a difficult finish from there, and it's allowed Oz to draw back a bit against the Kiwis.