Match results 28,29 April 2018

Chester croquet teams were in action in three North West Federation matches this weekend.

On Saturday, 28 April, Chester played at home against Southport in the Handicap League. The weather was better than expected. It was the first match of the season for both teams and both sides felt a little lacking in practice after a long winter break and a slow start to the season because of cold, wet weather earlier in the month. In the morning, the Chester team of David Boyd (captain), John Dawson, David Guyton and Robin Tasker won the doubles game by one hoop and one of the two singles games giving a 2 -1 lead by lunch time. In the four singles games in the afternoon, Chester won two of the games giving a final win of 4 – 3 for Chester.

This match was a good example of gender equality in croquet as Southport was represented by an all ladies team playing against an all mens team for Chester, but the result could easily have gone either way, Chester were just lucky to have won the match with that one point victory in the doubles.

In the golf croquet league, Chester was represented by Jayne Taylor (captain), Chris Thomas, Janet Jackson and Jill Foley who played away in the beautiful setting of the Crake valley in the Lake District. The games were hard fought, the final score being 11-7 to Crake. Person of the match was Chris Thomas who won all of her four singles games.

On Sunday, the Chester team of Jerry Guest (captain), Elmyr Hughes and Paul Watson played away at Bury in the Advanced B league. In the morning Jerry and Paul won the doubles but Elmyr narrowly lost his singles game. In the afternoon however, he won his game 26-0, a fantastic result, but the other two singles games were lost, giving an overall score of 3-2 to Bury.