After a week of fine weather, the weather was again kind to us on Sunday, 12 May, when we managed to hold this high handicap golf croquet doubles competition, with 12 competitors forming 6 pairs, each pair playing all of the other five pairs during the day. There were some very close games, hard fought, with very few going to 7 hoops within the 45 minutes. One of the last two games of the day proved to be the decider, with one pair winning 4 of their 5 games, and three pairs winning 3. The winners were Gail Thomas and Paulette Thomas. Of the three pairs that won 3 of their games, Liz Griffiths and Lesley Newman claimed second place on the basis of net hoop score, having run 23 hoops and conceded 19, whilst Liz Baskerville and Wendy Lord came third having run 21 hoops and conceded 20.
Many thanks to all who took part and made it a very enjoyable competition. But thanks particularly to Jude Wise and Doreen Curtis for their super assistance with the management of the day and the catering.
For those of you who wish they could have taken part, there will be another similar competition at the end of the season, the Hi-Tails. Hopefully the weather will be kinder to us than last year and we will be able to hold it. Look out for an announcement later in the year !
On the same day, a Chester team travelled to Fylde to play a 26-point full lawn association croquet handicap league match. The team of Mark Lloyd, David Guyton, Sally Slater and Robin Tasker (captain) faced a Fylde team on a lovely hot sunny day but also on well-grassed, challenging and bumpy lawns. This made for some entertaining – and some may say frustrating – play, and rather more jump shots than might normally be expected in an AC match.
In the morning session the Chester doubles pairing of Mark Lloyd and Robin Tasker was defeated despite a late comeback that at least made for an exciting finish, and with the singles games shared Fylde took a 2-1 lead into lunch. And a sociable lunch was enjoyed by all under the shade of a convenient tree.
In the afternoon with both the temperature and humidity rising four tight singles games were played and eventually shared to give Fylde an overall 4 – 3 victory. The match was played in good spirit and our thanks go to the Fylde team for their hospitable welcome to us.
At the close of play the sky had greyed over and the first few drops of rain were felt. There were increasing showers on the journey home and by the time the team reached Chester, the sky was black, the rain was torrential, and repeated thunder and lightning were all around. Thus came to an end the longest few days of sunny, warm and dry weather since last summer.