In a busy opening month of the new season, Chester Croquet Club has played in four North West Federation league matches.
The first on Friday, 11 April, was a short lawn match away against Bowdon Weekdayers. Bowdon fielded a strong team and achieved a well-deserved 12 – 4 win against Chester.
On the following Saturday, 19 April, the Fylde team playing at home in the first golf croquet handicap match of the season was much more welcoming than the weather . When you see your mallet swaying as you line up a shot you know it may be windy ……. Fortunately the rain held off for the most part but, boy, was it cold. Everyone was layered up, some wore gloves and some had the benefit of thermals.
Anyway, back to the match. The contest was actually a lot closer than the overall 11 – 7 win for Fylde would indicate, with many games being real nip and tuck contests. Lots of “oohs” and “aahs” with even some laughter thrown in for good measure. No bragging winners and no sore losers – perfect.
The Chester team for the match were Arnie Banford (captain), Christine Fryer, Mel Hagan and David Johnson. Christine Fryer was the stand-out performer, winning every one of her games. In three of them, she held her nerve perfectly to win the golden hoop, so congratulations to her.
Fylde were excellent hosts, offering copious quantities of tea, coffee, biscuits and boiled sweets to keep us all going. The big bonus was that the traffic was very much quieter than we had expected and had no delays in either direction.
After two initial losses, fortune turned in favour of Chester in the two following matches.
On Wednesday, 23 April, Chester played another away match, this time against Bury Sovereigns in the golf croquet level play league. For this match the Chester team were David Boyd (captain), Edward Baskerville and Sarah Clements.
The sun shone brightly in the morning. In the initial round, Bury took the lead but by lunch time Chester were ahead 6 – 3. By the final round at the end of the afternoon, Bury needed to win all three to draw the match. David Boyd sealed his match with a jump shot hoop to secure the 10th win and Edward Baskerville also won his last game to give the final result of an 11-7 win for Chester. Sarah Clements won 5 out of 6 games but was beaten in the last game by Bury captain David Barratt on the golden hoop.
The final league match of the month was an association croquet 26 point handicap match at home against Crake Valley. It turned out to be a warm and pleasant April day and the lawns were in good condition apart from the ever present slope which always proves a challenge to home and visiting teams alike. The Chester team were David Guyton (captain), Elmyr Hughes, Richard Smith and Paul Watson. Crake fielded a very competent team bolstered by plenty of bisques – free shots – 43 for the day against 1 for Chester.
In the morning round, Richard Smith and Elmyr Hughes won their two singles matches by 10 hoops each despite facing a combined total of 16½ bisques, but David Guyton and Paul Watson lost their doubles match by 2 hoops after facing 3 bisques. Four singles games were then played in the afternoon. After time was called on the first three, the overall score was 3 – 3 leaving the match to be determined by the result of the last game to finish. At that point Richard Smith was 2 hoops behind in his final innings. As a well experienced competitive player he held his nerve and gave careful attention to the positioning of the balls and lining up for hoops and managed to score 3 more hoops to win the game. The overall result was a breath takingly narrow 4 – 3 win for Chester by a single critical golden hoop.
