Watford beat Colchester 4-3
[<<] [>>] by Mark Homan
21 Jul
2007 (AC - Longman Cup)
A very tight and rather damp match was decided in Watford's favour by just two hoops at the death. In seven hours play before time was called Watford were never once in the lead!
Colchester led 2-1 at the lunch break thanks to some careful accurate play by George Jeffrey against an out of touch opponent and Peter Allnutt who got the better of a scrappy game with John Bee.
The afternoon session was more interesting. Mark Homan finally extricated himself from a 15 game losing sequence, venting his frustration with two more or less all-round breaks against Peter Allnutt. However, the other three matches were all going heavily in Colchester's favour and Watford looked well beaten with 40 minutes to go. John Bee started the fightback coming from well behind to beat David Haslam, but Watford still needed one more victory from two apparently lost causes. David Drazin also came from a long way back to overhaul George Jeffrey only to self destruct twice with the game all but won! Firstly he missed a peg out on George due to bad ground causing his ball to move after placement and then, on what looked like the match winning turn, he faulted himself for striking both balls in a croquet stroke!
The real decider was the contest between Jane Collier (16) and Watford's Peter Chadwick(18). Jane was 8 hoops ahead when the rains came. This swung the balance in favour of the heavyweight and with his final turn Peter made 7 hoops, several without pioneers, (the longest break of his career) to steal it by two hoops!
Results
Watford names first:
David Drazin & Peter Chadwick beat David Haslam & Jane Collier +12
Mark Homan lost to George Jeffrey -11
John Bee lost to Peter Allnutt -3T
Mark Homan beat Peter Allnutt +24
John Bee beat David Haslam +7
David Drazin lost to George Jeffrey -3
Peter Chadwick beat Jane Collier +2T