MacRobertson Shield Day 1: England trail Australia 1-2

[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent at Mission Hills
18th April 2017 (The MacRobertson Shield)

On day 1 of the MacRobertson Shield at a gloriously sunny Mission Hills, England made a good start, but Australia came back to take the lead in the 5-day test. On lawn 2, David Maugham and James Hopgood won their doubles match against Robert and Malcolm Fletcher +24tp(M) +26tp(M), finishing well before lunch. On lawn 5 (the nearest of the far bank of three lawns), Stephen Mulliner and Samir Patel lost to Simon Hockey and Greg Fletcher -26tp(F) -14. On lawn 1, Jamie Burch and James Death won the first against Ian Dumergue and Stephen Forster +25tp(B), but lost the second -13 otp(D) and the third -17tp(D), having got the first break.

Meanwhile, the USA went 2-1 up against New Zealand. Jeff Soo and Stuart Lawrence beat Joe Hogan and Chris Shilling +26tp(L) +26tp(L) and Ben Rothman and David Maloof beat Toby Garrison and Aiken Hakes +21tp(R) +26tp (M), but Danny Hunnycutt and Stephen Morgan lost to Paddy Chapman and Jenny Clarke -17tp(C) -17.

Tomorrow, England and Australia play singles while USA and NZ have a second round of doubles. The singles will be:

Jamie Burch v Simon Hockey

Stephen Mulliner v Robert Fletcher

David Maugham v Malcolm Fletcher

Samir Patel v Ian Dumergue

James Death v Stephen Forster

James Hopgood v Greg Fletcher

Follow the action on the event's website 2017macrobertsonshield.com, or the official score and commentary site, croquetscores.com.