Newport beat Nottingham 4-3

[<<] [>>] by Alex Lake at Newport
16th June (AC - Longman Cup)

Another day of croquet, this time at home and AC rather than GC. The Longman Cup is a nationwide competition played on a handicapped basis, particularly suiting up-coming talent. In the past we have benefitted from students from Cambridge University (notably Jerome Gasson) but no students this year. Instead, this year we have some "home-grown" talent in the shape of Rod George - he's been playing GC for about 4-5 years and his precise swing have seen him rise up to a hcap 4. But he's new to AC this year, and seems to have been bitten by the bug of the complexities of AC tactics. With just one game on his card, it was a bit of a baptism of fire, but playing alternative strokes doubles with Alex (hcap 6) meant that he could focus on hitting in, running hoops, as well as trying some split rolls, take-offs, etc. A win for Alex and Rod (with 6 bisques) over the Nottingham pair of Ben and Roger. The guys playing singles also secured wins over their Nottingham oppo - Mat Hardy was on fire, making fewer errors than opposite number Tom Dewar to win +15. Nick Jones also used his 3 bisques to good effect in a win over Sarah Butler.

3-0 at lunch (a shared ploughmansish kind of spread devoured with an alacrity seemingly unique to AC players!). Nottingham's mission was now clear - they needed to win all 4 singles.

It was looking good for Nottingham on Court 1 when, after a strong start from Mat, Roger found his mojo to take both balls around to win the game +15; 5 bisques being plenty!

Similarly on court 2, Alex missed a 2 yard roquet, blaming it on post-prandial lapse of reason, and let Tom in. He rattled around to peg, and set up a perfect cross-wiring on the peg. Alex was unable to do anything with it and Tom resumed with his second ball. Some admittedly hairy break-making ensued, but Tom's Disaster Recovery skills were up to it. He did eventually break down on 2-back.

Alex was 19 points behind and yet to score a hoop.

The other match on court 2 saw Rod with a forest of bisques up against Sarah Butler. Her canny play, putting balls into corners 2 and 4 left Rod wondering what to do. He managed to make progress in fits and starts, but when the bisques ran out, Sarah was able to make her experience tell, winning +15.

The last match on court 1 saw Nick and his 7 bisques up against Ben (who'd shown in the doubles that he is a talented player with excellent long hit-ins and general precision play). Nick got up to Rover and 4-back before the bisques ran out, and Ben started making in-roads.

Back to Court 2 where Alex somehow managed to put some breaks together, going around and pegging out Tom's peg ball. So now it was Tom on box and 2-back v Alex on peg and 1-back. Could the fight-back be on? Keeping Tom's ball at arm's length 1-back and 2-back were run, before Tom managed to hit in a 20-yarder that was almost wired by the peg (it had looked like a great leave, but maybe knowing that just missing the peg by a ball-width would result in a roquet might have been useful guidance for Tom. He managed to run 2-back, 3-back and 4-back with a 2-ball break. Blobbing Penult enabled Alex to get back in, but a disastrous missed rush gave Tom a 7-yard hit-in chance at the middle of the North boundary. That was enough for Tom to finish.

The match situation was now 3-3, with Nick and Ben's game still in play.

Nick now on Rover and 4-back, Ben on Rover and 6 and only about 25 mins to go. Nick decided to go for a policy of making it hard to Ben to get a break by putting his balls in corners, but it seemed that Ben was up to it - until, with just 5 mins on the clock and just one point adrift, a corner cannon went wrong, the croqueted ball veering over the boundary. Nick hit in, ran penult to edge ahead by 2 before striking his ball into corner 2 on the stroke of the bell. Ben was unable to hit-in with his final stroke - +2 on time to Nick and thus 4-3 to Newport.

A match played with great sportsmanship and friendliness, but competitive to the last.

Newport will now face Shrewsbury or Leicester in the quarter finals.

Teams:
Newport: Mat Hardy (4), Alex Lake (6), Nick Jones (16), Rod George (24)
Nottingham: Tom Dewar (6), Ben Shelford (7), Roger Steeper (11), Sarah Butler (11)

Morning
Alex Lake & Rod George bt Ben Shelford & Roger Steeper +10
Mat Hardy bt Tom Dewar +15
Nick Jones bt Sarah Butler+ 5T (guesstimate score, precise score not known!)

Afternoon
Roger Steeper bt Mat Hardy +15
Tom Dewar bt Alex Lake +6
Nick Jones bt Ben Shelton +2T
Sarah Butler bt Rod George +11