Federation Team into Semi-Final

The Bath Federation team managed to avoid the dreaded four-way tie in the Central division by defeating a spirited Glamorgan side in a tight match by 3 games to 2.
The super fast lawns made it difficult for all players, even Chris Williams a -1.5 handicap player from Glamorgan.

In the morning, Robert Upton arrested his recent decline in form to hammer Bath captain, Pete Miles, by 26-1. He only really made one error in the game and Pete failed to capitalise on it missing a short roquet and never took croquet again in the game!
Paul Francis and Neil Pinker eventually triumphed by 5 in the doubles match after being a long way ahead after an excellent break by Neil. So finely balanced 1-1 at lunch.

In the afternoon games, Neil despatched Kevin Ham (4) 26-5 with an 11-hoop break followed by a series of short breaks with his second ball.
Pete was well behind in his game with Chris having played 2 bisques and only having one half-bisque remaining. This he used to great effect managing an 8-hoop break after Chris missed the hit in. A fortunate roquet after Chris missed his approach to 2-back with his second ball enabled Pete to get back into the game which he finally won by 8 hoops. Chris then told Pete this was the first Federation match he had lost this century (last losing in 1999)! Pete was glad he didn’t say that before the game started. Paul fought back well after Robert had got his first ball to Rover. Despite excellent roqueting statistics, Paul eventually lost on time by 5.

This means Bath have won the division and will be playing Broadwas at home in the Semi-Final (date TBA). We also managed to keep the vast crowd (Roger H and Richard J) entertained for the afternoon!