[<<] [>>] by Jerry Stark
24th March 2005 (International)

The 2005 Solomon Trophy will be contested at Mission Hills Croquet Club in Rancho Mirage, California from March 24 through 27. This will be the 16th time the Americans and British have played this Test Match.

Team USA

Damon Bidencope, captain
Bob Cherry
Curtis Drake
Danny Huneycutt
Jeff Soo
Jerry Stark

British Team

Matthew Burrow
James Death
Robert Fulford, captain
John Gibbons
Ian Lines
Stephen Mulliner

The best-of-21-match Test will be held over 4 days on 5 courts at Mission Hills. There will be 12 BO3 singles and nine BO3 doubles matches. The doubles pairings and singles order along with the schedule will be posted on the next bulletin. Detailed scores can be found on CroquetWorld Online Magazine.

The Solomon Trophy match will be competing for local attention with the Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament, one of the LPGA's major championships. The Dinah Shore will be held on one of Mission Hills' three golf courses.

The singles order and doubles pairings were exchanged by the team Captains on Wednesday afternoon. The schedule of play for the Test will be:
1. round one doubles on Thursday
2. round two doubles starts on Thursday afternoon
3. round one singles on Friday
4. round two doubles continued on Friday afternoon
5. round three doubles on Saturday
6. round two double continued (hopefully concluded) on Saturday afternoon
7. round two singles on Sunday

The doubles pairings are:

Team USA

Bidencope / Cherry
Stark / Drake
Soo / Huneycutt

GB

Fulford / Lines
Burrow / Gibbons
Mulliner / Death

The order of play for singles:

USA

Stark
Drake
Bidencope
Cherry
Soo
Huneycutt

GB

Fulford
Burrow
Mulliner
Gibbons
Death
Lines

Play begins at 9.00am on Thursday morning. The round one doubles matchups are:
Stark / Drake vs. Fulford / Lines
Bidencope / Cherry vs. Mulliner / Death
Soo / Huneycutt vs. Burrow / Gibbons

Round two doubles matchups are:
Stark / Drake vs. Mulliner / Death
Bidencope / Cherry vs. Burrow / Gibbons
Soo / Huneycutt vs. Fulford / Lines