Croquet England Logo
Croquet England Logo

Cheltenham beat Bowdon to win the Inter-Club 5-2

[<<] [>>]

pictureDave Foulser, Dave Kibble, Robin Brown and Don Gaunt

by Dave Kibble
5 Oct 2003 (AC - Inter-Club)

Cheltenham were off to a flying start when, having won the toss, Colin and Jenny decided to have red and yellow; Dave F. and Don decided to go first and played yellow onto the lawn! After some discussion, they replaced the ball in corner 3. Colin left a cross-pegged double in the centre of the lawn, Don went into corner 4, Jenny hit and went round. However, she came to grief by missing her return roquet after 3-back but had made the requisite number of hoops. Dave hit and attempted to roll up to 1 but failed and retired onto the north boundary near corner 3, leaving the ball on the back of 2, hoping for a lift next turn. Jenny denied the lift so Don had a long shot, which allowed Colin to join with Jenny's ball on the East boundary. Colin subsequently went round but was unable to finish the triple so, after a missed lift, Jenny had a chance to finish, which she took.

Meanwhile the Lineses were looking pretty solid on lawn 8, both getting a ball round and making a reasonable leave. Dave K. and Robin hit their lifts and proceeded on a pair of TPOs and went on to win with 3-ball breaks, Robin from a missed shot into a trap and Dave by approaching 1 from corner 4.

Apart from Colin, who didn't give Don a chance, the afternoon games were much less clean, probably due to a combination of the excellent lunch provided by Eileen Magee, the tight 3-back hoop set by David Magee, and the cold damp making the lawns slower than ideal and the muscles less willing than necessary. Both Robin and Dave failed 3-back, Dave after popping Ian to 3 (from 1 and 1-back) with a good leave ahead. The games then became somewhat scrappy, except Robin managed eventually to hit and made a good pick-up to win. On lawn 8, Jenny had failed the peg-out and taken one ball out. Dave Foulser, forgetting his lift, fired from near corner 2 at the ball near the peg and hit. There followed a succession of shortish breaks followed by a trap leave, which Jenny fired into, on each occasion narrowly missing the peg by a few millimetres.

Results

Cheltenham names first:

David Foulser and Don Gaunt lost to Colin Irwin and Jenny Williams -25
Robin Brown beat Ian Lines +10 tpo
Dave Kibble beat Ailsa Lines +12 tpo

Don Gaunt lost to Colin Irwin -26 tp
David Foulser beat Jenny Williams +1
Dave Kibble beat Ian Lines +4
Robin Brown beat Ailsa Lines +23

Could this be the first time that two women played in the Inter-Club final?



 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this news web page are those of the Editor and contributors. Croquet England is not responsible for statements other than those clearly identified as being made on its behalf. The full editorial policy is available online. The Web News Editor is the Croquet England Office.