Thursday, 15 May, was the occasion for a local Derby match between Chester Chariots and Chester Centurions in the NW Federation level play golf croquet league.
An early start was requested by captains Edward Baskerville of Chester Chariots and Rick Davies of Chester Centurions which was fortunate as the last game did not finish until 4.30 pm: a hard fought match.
Under blue skies, hot sun and on exceptionally fast lawns Rick’s Centurions with Martyn Seal and Jude Wise ran 100 hoops against Edward’s Charioteers with Sally Slater (winning 5 games) and Chris Thomas 92 hoops. However, that was not quite enough for the Centurions and the match ended with a score of 10-8 to the Charioteers. Indeed, at the lunch break Centurions led 5-4. So well done Charioteers winning 6 games in the afternoon session.
Centurions could perhaps feel robbed when hoop 10 was run in a game, only for the ball to roll back through the hoop within the 5 seconds permitted! That could have cost the match! Nevertheless, six team players departed, glowing after more than six hours of very competitive croquet.
