GC North Team Experience Unusual Conditions at Dyffryn

The GC Handicap North team travelled to Dyffryn to play their second league match. The National Trust had decided, without discussion with the croquet club, to heavily top dress the lawns two days before the match. The lawns therefore resembled a beach with large areas of rolled sand interspersed with sections of glass like lawns. Also the hoops had been reset the previous day and were extremely tight. Due to the conditions it was decided to have 50 minute limit per game, however still very few games were actually completed before time. There were scores as low as 3-1. The team of Miriam Bolger, Norman Connor, Pete Riley, Howard Grove and Tony Curson were behind for most of the match but won 3 of the 4 singles in the final round to draw the match 10-10. It was a very long day, play was from 10.00 to 6.15, with very high temperatures. Some hoops taking up to 25 minutes to be scored with consequent hold ups to the secondary games. Miriam completed the final win some 20 minutes after the other games had finished. All members contributed to the score under very difficult conditions.