Short Croquet Semi-final Success!

Bath’s Restricted Short Croquet team have sailed through to this year’s final, having beaten Taunton Deane Croquet Club quite comfortably at their semi-final in Taunton on Wednesday 7th September. The score was 11:5 in games.

The lawns had benefitted greatly from the recent rain, which held off thankfully until the team were on our way home. They were positively slow for the first hour or two, which took a bit of getting used to after the very slick lawns to which we have become accustomed in the last couple of months. However, with a bit of sun and a fresh breeze, they speeded up very nicely. Even so, games were relatively low-scoring and only three of them reached peg-outs.

Neil Pinker, Martin Alabaster and Sue Duncan all scored three wins out of four, against a team in which their stronger two players had a great deal more experience, but clearly less skill, than the Bath players. Tony Jackson also held his own, with two wins, in one of which he pegged out, and he entertained us with a remarkable final game in which he overhauled his heavily-bisqued opponent in fine style in the last few minutes of play and won on a nail-biting Golden Hoop.

Now we face Cheltenham in the final, at Budleigh, on Sunday 25th September to defend the title won last year.

The winnning team with captain Philip de Glanville.