Bury beat Derby 6-1

[<<] [>>] by Simon Attwell at Sheffield
20 Apr (GC - Tier 3 Bowl)

The match was played Monday 20 April 2026 at Sheffield Park Croquet Club, a mid-way travel spot, thanks to the kindness of Peter Reed, Sheffield Park Chairman who served drinks throughout the day, having set up the lawns for us.

Unfortunately the cricket club failed to cut the grass and so the terrain was slightly more challenging but no less enjoyable and was, of course, the same for both teams.

The Bury doubles pair of Bernard Lord (5) and Duncan Meachin (5) started strongly and won the first game 7-4 however Derby, led by Captain Kate Ibbitson (6) and partnered by Stephen Lamont (7) rallied well and comfortably won the second 7-2. The final game went in favour of Bury who used their experience to win 7-1 and take the doubles 2 games to one.

On the other lawn, Simon Attwell- Bury (6) was playing Jane Greaves-Derby (9) and on Secondaries, David Artingstall-Bury (6) played Peter Seddon-Derby (8). Simon won the first game fairly comfortably 7-3 but then in game 2 inexplicably helped his opponent by telling her how to set herself to perform a jump shot, the angle of the mallet head and power needed only for Jane to execute her first ever jump shot, win the hoop(7) and run her ball down to the next (8) and run that as well. So from being 4-2 ahead he quickly was pegged back to 4-4. This started a real tussle and only ended when he performed his own jump shot on hoop 13.

David is a very measured and steady player and was too strong for Peter, winning his match 2-0.

The four single matches then commenced with the top two playing each other and so-on for the other three team members.

Duncan again started strongly and quickly completed a 7-4 win in the first game. Kate however raised her own game and convincingly beat him 7-2 in the next. "I couldn't run a hoop" was his agonising complaint. Thankfully for Bury, he quickly found his touch and ran out a convincing winner 7-1 in game 3.

Bury were now 4-0 up in matches with three to play. Stephen Lamont played extremely well in beating Captain Bernard Lord 2-0, including a 7-6 hoop 13 win in the second game.

Simon played poorly against Peter Seddon who put him under enormous pressure with some very accurate approach play, and just managed to win 7-6 in game 1. Peter quickly fought back in game 2, winning it easily 7-2. Simon managed to pull himself together and won the last game, finishing with a flourish by jumping his opponent to run hoop10 and win 7-3 and the match 2-1.