Short Lawns Tournament
At the latter end of the season, thoughts of AC players turn to Short Croquet, with 75 minute fully-bisqued games played on half-lawns.
The internal Short Lawns League is still in full swing, with the semi-final and the final scheduled to be played at Finals Day next Saturday, but 12 of us also got together for a bit of Bank Holiday croquet fun at the end of August, using Lawns 2, 3 & 4 set up as six half lawns.
The format was block play for the first three rounds, and Lynne Passfield, Margaret Murray and ‘Barby’ (a fusion of Barb Freda and her partner Gary Thomas – both very new to the game) won Blocks A, B and C respectively. Special mention must go to Gary who won his two morning games in spectacular fashion against Martin Alabaster and Andy Wagstaff, before going off to work in the afternoon, leaving Barb to continue the good work.
The 4th round was a play-off between players from different blocks, as ranked after the block play. Lynne and Margaret were both winners again, beating Block B’s David Prescott and Block C’s Martin Alabaster, while Barb took on Roger Hayes, who had been runner up in Block A. This last game was extraordinarily close, and was played effectively ‘untimed’ because no one had started the timer at the outset, but Roger managed his 2 mandatory peels and the inevitable peg-out, ending up 14:13, despite a remarkably stout defence by Barb!
Notable too were very close games played by Tony Jackson against Lynne (7:8) and Mike Henebury against Margaret (11:12), but Lynne was winner overall with 4 wins and a nett match hoop score of 29, against Margaret’s 4 wins and her nett score of 20.
We thought we might manage without prizes this year, but Martin thought better of this and very generously provided a splendid bottle of wine for Lynne, our overall winner, while Philip de Glanville (player/Manager) came up with a box of chocolates for Margaret and a chocolate orange for Hester, in lieu of a wooden spoon!
It was a really good day, played in an atmosphere of great spirit, and the standard of play bodes well for our two Club teams going to Budleigh for the SW Short Lawns tournament at the beginning of October.
