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The Woking Mary Rose Team (Photo: George Noble)

Woking beat Wrest Park 4 - 3 to win the Mary Rose trophy at Surbiton. Hot, sunny weather but lawns soft and easy.

The match was played on an unusually hot day at Surbiton on Saturday 1st October. A heavy dew meant the balls were wet, even in the early afternoon. The lawns were somewhat slower and easier to play than usual.

In the doubles, Malcolm and Alan cruised round to 4-back and peg respectively, then spent an hour messing around until Alan completed the peg-out from about 9 yards. Meanwhile John comfortably beat Collin +15.

The real drama of the morning was the match between Annabel and Terry. Annabel had started her triple then, having run 5, she missed a slightly hampered roquet, conceding the innings to Terry. He then took both balls round to peg, missed with his first ball but decided to peg out the second. This let Annabel back in for her balls were together. Starting with both on 4-back, Annabel was able to complete the victory neatly in two 2-ball breaks, by +1. From expecting to be 2-1 down at lunch, Woking were suddenly 2-1 up. Lunch tasted so much better!

In the afternoon, Alan beat George and Bryan beat Malcolm convincingly. The match score was now 3-2. Just seconds after Bryan pegged out on one lawn the result of another dramatic game on the other was about to be completed.

Collin and Terry fought a long game, full of mistakes on both sides. Eventually, after Collin had blobbed rover at least three times, all four clips were on the peg and Terry was in play but with no clear chance of a peg out. Terry attempted to leave Collin's blue and black as far apart as possible on the west boundary but unfortunately he sent the blue off the lawn leaving red and yellow about 20 yards apart. Collin hit in from 30 yards down the west boundary and laid up in corner 1 for the peg. Terry shot at the Collin's balls and missed. Collin rushed poorly to the peg and rolled up leaving both balls by the peg. We all watched nervously as Terry shot and missed by a fraction, leaving Collin a simple peg out. +2. A lucky escape that sealed victory for Woking.

The final match was an anti-climax as Annabel succumbed to John (who thereby won both his singles games).

The result of this extremely tight contest was determined by two games which see-sawed from one side to the other and back, both eventually won by Woking on the smallest of margins, +1 and +2. The trophy was presented to the Woking team by Quiller Barrett, CA President.

Round One (Woking First)

Malcolm Bigg and Alan Edwards bt Bryan Harral and George Collin +25
Collin Southern lost to John Bevington -15
Annabel McDiarmid bt Terry Mahoney +1

Round 2

Collin Southern bt Terry Mahoney +2
Annabel McDiarmid lost to John Bevington -6
Alan Edwards bt George Collin +6
Malcolm Bigg lost to Bryan Harral -14