In the first of two matches in national Croquet England competitions during the week, Chester played away against Bowdon on Monday, 19 May, in the Mary Rose association croquet advanced level play competition.
The Chester team of Robin Tasker (captain), David Boyd, Elmyr Hughes and Mark Lloyd were narrowly defeated in a difficult tie against Bowdon who fielded a very strong team. Because of the recent dry and sunny weather, the match was played on difficult lawns but at lunchtime after the doubles and two singles games in the morning Chester held a 2-1 advantage. However in the afternoon the quality of the Bowdon players made the difference and the match slipped away from Chester resulting in a 4 – 3 win for Bowdon.
A couple of days later a Chester team of Robin Tasker (captain), David Boyd, Helen Brophy and Sally Slater travelled up to Penrith, to play the first round of the national association croquet handicap competition, the Longman Cup, on Thursday, 22 May.
It was a closely fought match, played in a beautiful setting next to the River Eden with the Pennines in the background. However, the lawns were incredibly difficult for both sides being extremely dry, fast, and deviously undulating!
By way of a golden hoop – a tie breaker if the score is even when time is called – in one of the morning games, Chester was 2-1 up at lunch, but Penrith pulled back to all square in the afternoon, and the outcome was resting on the final game. This went to the second golden hoop of the match, unfortunately lost after an excellent hit in by Penrith giving them a 4 – 3 win by the narowest of margins to proceed to the next round.
