Another Win for Federation Team

With three wins each so far Bath and Taunton have been sharing top-spot in the Fed Central league tables, so the result of our clash (at home on the Rec on Saturday 27th July) would be important. The lawns had been cut three times that week and were playing beautifully, and the weather was kind to us – warm and sunny, but not uncomfortably so.

Captain Neil Pinker was unavailable but said he trusted us to win without him and indeed we did, quite comfortably.

David Prescott (AC6) played his usual graceful, fluent croquet, making short work of Taunton’s captain in the morning and had another well-crafted win over their number two in the afternoon. As a result his handicap has come down to a well-deserved AC5. Lynne Passfield is now an AC11 and continued her recent run of excellent form with another two ten-hoop wins; her bold attitude to croquet is certainly paying off. Philip de Glanville (AC7) and Hester Henebury (AC9) suffered through a painfully slow, and frustratingly low-scoring, game of alternate stroke doubles in the morning. Our only decent break came from a lucky long hit-in with just a few minutes left on the clock! Fortunately Philip was given a chance to play proper croquet in the afternoon and got a +15 win, but Hester’s frustrations with the morning game lingered.

The final score was 5:2 to Bath. We have just one more game in our division, playing Bristol B in Bath, and anything other than a rout should see us through to the semi-final in September.