Morning all. Welcome back to Roehampton for Day 2 of AUS v USA. Conditions very similar to yesterday, overcast, slightly chilly. No lawnspeed measurement today, but can't think it will be very different from yesterday's 11 Plummers

A slight technical problem means that commentary on Landrebe/Beard v. Lamm/Soo may be late starting.

GAME 1

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And we're off

1 K supershot

2 9 ygs E of peg

3 U hits Y from B baulk, clangs 2ft angled hoop 1

4 R hits 6 yarder from A baulk with a more or less laid 4 ball brek

Tidy turn to 4b with a spread.

5 Clarke lifts U (the peg ball) and misses long lift @ Y by nothing into C4

6 Y rushes R into the peg. Now pacing disconsolately round the lawn before returning to the scene of the crime

Rolls R to 2 getting a rush on K which is 6 yds off the boundary. Makes 1 and now has  a 3 ball break

U is dug out of C4 and sent to 5 before hoop 4. Has R in perfect position to rush back to position at 4b  for the delayed peel, but slightly under runs hoop 4 and misses what is now a cut rush to 4b to W boundary level with 2 

U hits it's 4 yarder at R, rolls R to 3 getting a rush on K to W boundary by Y, stops it to 2 getting a rush on Y to 1 and he's away

The balls are now all there for a standard tpo, and the 4b peel sails 3 yds through after 3.

Jawses penult peel after 6

Completes peel after 1b, rushing peelee S of rover. Opts to have 4b pioneer @ rover, which seems a bit unnecessary given conditions are easy enough to render a straight rover peel a risk in name only

Ends up having to roll up to 4b from 5 yds SW, but ends up 1 ft dead in front. There's no justice

The peelee is now bang in the centre of rover, but unless he manages to find something else in the position that noone els ecan spot, finish is NID

Lo and behold he has. In sending K up to rover it lands 4" due N of the hoop, making it tricky to roquet R through and complete the peel before having K.

But makes penult with a S bound rush and does manage to roquet R first and send it to the peg before making rover himself

Runs rover and rushes K to C2. Takes off back to R and pegs it out. Goes to C3

8 Y lifts to contact with K in C2 and rolls it 6 yds E of 6 going to U in C3. Pass rolls to 3yds straight in front of 5, but clangs it

9 U by the peg hits Y by hoop 5. Thick take off puts Y to 1 going to K near 4b

Lays up on N boundary 4 yds W of C4. K has a cut rush to C2

10 Y goes to E boundary 10 yds S of C3. Don't like this. Either take the shot at U, or go to C4

11 U plays, and essentially sets up the same leave again, this time leaving Y on the S boundary behind 1, and K with a rush to hoop 2. So Y's previous turn has just enabled U &K to improve their leave with no chance of inducing an error

12 Blow me down if Y doesn't just go back to exactly the same point as before. Will they never learn

K rushes U to wired point on N boundary, and bizarrely leaves a reverse rush to 1

13 Y to S boundary 2 yds W of C4

14 U plays and lays wired rush for K to 1 3 yds NW of penult. Excellent progress: they're now 10 yds closer to their hoop

15 Y moves a bit further out of C4! If I'm not going to shoot, would be going into the corner myself

16 K rushes U into the jaws of 1. Another top shot. Makes 1 and 2 off U with what looks like a rush to Y. But this is spurned in favour of rushing to the middle of the lawn and rolling back to the N boundary leaving a rush to 3. Can't help thinking someone like Kruncher or the Bunny would have been disappointed not to finish from that position

17 Y to E boundary 1 yd N of C1

18 K makes 3 with rush to C3. Which he takes, leaving wired rush to 4

19 Having reached a position where Y is as far from U & K as it can be, it shoots. In fairness, it is a free shot

20 K makes 4 off U, no rush. Lays up wired behind 4, also with no rush

21 Y has another lurk, this time on E boundary 15 yds S of C3. I suppose now that they know K is not going to go to any great lengths to pick Y up, Y can do this with some impunity

22 K attempts to leave wired rush to 5 on S boundary

23 Y dribbles at half ball he can see, misses

24 K ignores Y and makes 5 off U

Rushes back to Y after 5, makes 6 but sticks in 1b on Y,presumably playing for a forward rush which would have given an excellent finishing chance

25 Y roquets K out of the hoop and takes off getting a rush on U just off the S boundary to hoop 5!

Makes 5, first US hoop for 10 mins short of 2 hours

No rush, ends up with 12 yard backward to approach to 6, which he plays to 18 inches dead in front. Runs it to the N boundary getting a rush to 1b

Runs 1b with a 3 ball break for the game

Narrowly avoids the grievous after rover, quite possibly unaware of the possibility, and pegs out.

USA win Game 1 +8otp(C).

Test Score
	1	2

Match Score
	0	1

Bast taking bathroom break to run the clock to lunchtime.

GAME 2

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1 R supershot

2 K hits R from closest point on A baulk, rolls to fairly vertical cross peg position

3 Y hits K from A baulk. Must have been some sort of target. Thick to outs K to 2 leaving 3yd slight cut on R to 1. 3yd backward to off approach lands 4 ft dead in front. Runs it to leave a 1 ft rush to hoop 2. Balls in perfect position for 3 ball break

But not any longer as he clubs the hoop 4 pioneer into the peg after 2

and subsequently sticks in 4 as a result

4 U misses 9 yarder at K by 4 from end of A baulk

5 Looks like a straight forward hoop from here, but Y has summoned a ref. Makes it with no bother and carries on his break

No rush after 3b, and U looks tight on the peg, so some care needed here to get the spread

But an excellent roll gives him complete control of U so should be fine now

6 U misses long lift at incourt ball from B baulk into C4

7 R gets perfect rush on K to 1, which he gorillas to the S boundary! Approaches to 2 ft dead in front and sticks, but a stabby hoop stroke  causes a reject, R bouncing back so K would have to run the hoop to hit it

8 K misses U which was in fact 6" out of C4 on the S boundary

9 R plays a 2 ref hard slice shot to run an angled hoop stroke by about 2 yards. A significant amount of body English doesn't quite pull the subsequent shot at U & K onto line

10 U has C4 cannon with a ball at 2. Plays a worm thus leaving K behind in C4, where a simple wafer cannon could have got it somewhere near hoop 4

One of the consequences of such easy conditions is that these, IMHO, missed tactical opportunities don't get punished. Although I suppose maybe the players would argue if conditions were more difficult they'd play differently

Makes 4 and rejects his 2 yarder on Y in favour of the 6 yard pick up of K. I commented to Steve Jones, the Aussie coach, that this seemed a bit unnecessary. "Yeah" he concurred. "But he is from Perth"

Another courtesy call of the ref as he walks all over a slightly hampered roquet after 1b

With R for 2, an obvious leave involves gluing Y to the back of hoop 1. But another slight grovel through 2b means Y can't be rushed back to gluing position so pro tem it's left lurking by 2b

Excellent croquet shot stroke from the S boundary after 3b puts R 4 yds S of 2 and gives U complete control over Y. Y duly glued on 2b, U&K to optimum point on E boundary. Has to roll to this position, so has to leave rush to R rather than hoop 1 for fear of leaving a double from A baulk

11 Unperturbed, Danny lifts R and centre balls Y, a sliver of which was apparently poking through on the playing side of 1

Y is now rolled toeards 4b going to U&K for the rush to 2

Balls in perfect position for a standard tp to level the Test as he approaches hoop 3

4b peel just clears of the jaws of 3

Rushes to the N boundary directly behind 4b after 4, and deliberatley plays to rush Y back through hoop 3 to continue. Again seems an unnecessary risk to me: you end up looking rather foolish when Y ends up in the middle of the jaws of 3 and you can't to to hoop 5. Playing to rush Y sideways avoids thisAnd again no justice as Y sails through 3 and the standard tp position persists

Symetrically, the penult peel after 6 ends up just clear of the jaws of 6. Wonder if he'll try and rush it back through to give himself a chance of not being able to to to 2b?

No. Rushes it to the side and plays a pretty good roll to get it to rover going to 2b

Rover peel attempt on the way to 3b. This time it sails through. By all of six inches. A squared Test beckons

And is now reality

Clarke M. & Forster lost to Huneycutt & Bast -8otp(C) -26tp(H)

Test Score
	3	3

Match Score
	0	2