Good Morning!  I arrived at Bowdon to be asked a laws question arising from yesterdays play: can you deem a croquet stroke and, if so, are you entitled to a continuation stroke.  Answer later, if I remember to give it.

The match started five minutes early on an overcast morning, the early drizzle having gone over.  The bells of the adjacent St. Mary's are just ringing up: I'm tempted to join the ringers!

G1T1: Jeff Soo played B to E Boundary.

G2T2: Keith Aiton played R to just S of C2.

G2T3: K missed R, coming on in contact with it.

G2T4: Y missed the two balls, ending S of them.

G2T5: K got a close rush on Y to H1, promoting R to H2 in an open cannon.  He was concerned that he may have committed a double tap after K had hit R, but Keith said that he had been watching for it and he had not. (I was typing at the time, only being on call, not in charge of the game).  K is now approaching 1-B.

G2T5: Jeff needed to jump through 3-B, and in laying up a diagonal spread seems concerned that he has left R & Y open.  Rushes B away to C4 and puts K on the E Boundary about 6 yds N of it.

Rounds and call changes on 7.

G1T6: Keith lifts R and shoots at B from end of A-Baulk ... missing to 1' north of it..

G1T7: Jeff approached H1 with B, but bounced off it with no ball near.

G1T8: Y missed R.

G1T9: B shot at R and hit, but played into the wire of H1 having apprached short from S of it off partner.

G1T10: Keith hit K with Y from H2 and has just jawsed K after running H3 attempting a TPO.

(Another ringer must have turned up, now ringing rounds and call changes on 8 after something of a hiatus).

G1T10: 1st peel now done before H5.  TPOs in progress on both my lawns, both by GB with Y.  Rutger is a hoop behind.

G1T10: Keith broke down with R & Y at 2-B, K in the jaws of Rover and B and 3-B.

G1T11: Jeff lifted B, hit R centre ball, and has a single peel to finish, having knocked K back out of rover.

G1T11: Jeff Soo finishes to win +19.  Eileen, his wife takes photo of pegout.

USA take first game +19
 

G2T1: Keith played R to supershot position 4yd N 1yd W of H5.

G2T2: Jeff trickled with B from C1 at R, missing.

G2T3: Y hit R from C1, but underapproached H1 and retired to C4, leaving B 1yd N of H1.

G2T4: K nicked B, made H1 off it, rushed to E boundary, took off to Y getting a rush out of the corner and is approaching H2 with the first break on.

G2T4: Not sure how it happened, but when I looked, K was in the jaws of 1-B, with Y just N of it, R between 1-B and 2-B and B at 2-B.  K shot at B from the jaws and missed to the S boundary, leaving K for 1-B and the other balls for H1.

G2T5: Keith with R hit Y and has started a break..

G2T4 (the previous turn): Jeff tells me that K got into the back of 1-B when his take-off from R, which was between H1 and H2, to his pioneer Y drifted into the back of the hoop.

G2T5: Keith, R approaching 3-B looking as though he is going to leave a diagonal spread, with K 5yds from the W Boundary S of H2 and B by the peg.

G2T5: Keith completes the leave with B tight on the peg, but curiously replaces the B clip on H1: Jeff assumed he had poped it, seeing the clip missing from the hoop.

G2T6: Jeff lifted B, took short lift from A baulk and narrowly missed R.

G2T7: Keith has the balls organised for a standard triple before H2.

G2T7: Keith has done the first peel and is appraoching 4.

(GB doing TPs on both lawns, so I can answer the laws question posed at the start of this commentary: Law 4(d)(4) explicitly states that the turn ends if a stroke is declared.  There is no question of a fault (and associated concern about making a deliberate error, which is prohibited under Law 22(b), as a stroke that is declared does not have a start and end, and hence no striking period.)

G2T7: Keith completes a standard TP to win +20tp.

GB level match at 1 game all.

G3T1: Jeff plays K to E-boundary.

G3T2: Keith lays duffer tice to 1yd SE of H6 with Y.

G3T3: Jeff shoots B at K from C3, missing to C4.

G3T4: Keith hits duffer tice with R, gets rush on K to B, hitting it to leave K 1ft W of B.  Cannons K into B, enabling R to get through for a rush on B to H1.

G3T4: R makes H1, goes to K in C4, but doesb't get a rush to H2 when sending K to H3.  Rolls up from 12yds or so, is a bit short and fails the hoop, leaving R in runable position and Y behind it, with K at H3 and B at H4.

G3T5: K hits R, rushing it to the E boudnary.

G3T5: Jeff ran H1 with K to no-mans land: 3 balls all about 8 yds away.  Shoots at partner, back towards H1 and hits.  Now for H6 with break.

G3T5: Jeff gets to 4-B with K, leaving Y by 3-B and R 7 yd SW of H2.

G3T6: Keith lifts Y to C3, and hits B centre ball, rushing it to C4.  Gets longish cut rush on K which he misses, leaving Y on N boundary, B by 4-B, K on E boundary and R 7 yd SW of H2.

G3T7: B shoots at K and misses, after a brief discussion about lunch.

G3T8: Y misses R.

G3T9: Jeff, with B, rushes K to N boundary, takes off to R and rushes it to 1' N of Y on W boundary.  Makes H1 and gets  4' cut rush on R to H2, sending Y 2yd W of H2.  Miscuts R to C2 and approachs H2, sending it to H4.  Approach is to about 2yd at 20 degrees, retires to K near C3.

G3T10: Y shoots at R, missing by a yard to S boundary behind H4.

They break for lunch at 13:20.

G3T11: Blue resumes (thanks to Colin for notes while I had lunch and wiped peach juice from by fingers) makes H2, rushes partner to 4yds SE of H3.  Takes off to Y, rolls Y to 4, rushes R to H3.  Makes 3, but finds Red in a position that stymies him from hitting K.  Roquets R, sending it to H5, but comes up short of K.  Rushes K off S boundary behind 4.   Croquets K to 3-4yd N of 4, makes 4 off Y.  Croquets Y up to 4-B, going to K, croquets K to 4' S of 4-B.  Makes 5 with tight rush to K, but rushes short.  Croquets R to 1-B, but fails to get rush on K.  Has long peel and rushes to H6.  Gets hampered after 6 and can't hit R, his pioneer.  Roquets K, the peelee, and croquets it into jaws of penult, getting rush on Y to N boundary.  Doesn't try for rush peel after 1-B, just playing a 3-ball break.  Makes 2-B with good rush on Y back to penult.  Rush dislodges K from penult, and Y stays in the jaws.  Rolls both balls through hoop, roquets K, takes off back to R at 3-B, leaving K in too perfect peeling position.  Makes 3-B with cut rush to penult, hits it well, but Y is too far N to rush to 4-B with close peel.  Rushes K well N, tries long peel, but it dies on the wire.  Makes 4-B, off Y, rushes R to penult, gets good irish peel to 2 yds E of Rover.  Roquets R, croquets it deep getting a rush on K, rushes K to longish slightly angled peeling position.  Peel goes through 2-3 ft, leaving an 18 inch hoop.  Plays hoop hard to boundary, missing peelee, to complete an adventuous TP.

(I've missed my vocation as a copy typist!).

USA won 2-1, +19, -20tp, +25tp.