East Dorset beat Southport to win the Murphy Shield 5-2

[<<] [>>] by Keith Southern at Cheltenham
25th September (GC - Murphy Shield)

The final of this year's competition was played at Cheltenham on September 24 in pleasant conditions with the day gradually warming up from a chilly start. East Dorset defeated Southport 5-2, so winning the trophy for the fourth time, having previously won it in 2019, 2020 and 2023. Watford are the only other club with four victories in the competition.

With the teams having identical handicaps and the aggregate DGrades being only marginally in favour of Southport, a very close match was to be expected. It did not turn out like that, at least in the morning when East Dorset established a 3-0 lead, winning both singles in two games and the doubles in three games. The afternoon was much closer. In the first rubber to finish the top singles went to East Dorset in two very close games to give them an unassailable 4-0 match lead but the other three singles all went to three games, one to East Dorset and two to Southport.

Representing both Croquet England and the host club, to whom the thanks of both teams are due, James Death presented the trophy.

Teams and handicaps :

East Dorset : Simon Turner (1), Greg Vaughn (2), Mark Hamann (2), Tim Hughes (3).

Southport : Eddie Green (1), Dave Venables (2), Paul Greenwood (2), Sue Wilkie (3).

The full results are on Croquet Scores.