The first beautiful sunny day in the season so far saw Chester Chariots play Llanfairfechan at home in the NW Level Play Golf Croquet League on Thursday, 2 May. It was a very tight match, with many games taking well over an hour and 4 going to the golden hoop. Sally Slater (captain), Jude Wise and Edward Baskerville took on a very strong team from Wales, but eventually lost by 10 games to 5.
Back to an overcast day on Saturday, 4 May, Chester met a different team from Llanfairfechan also at home, this time in an Association Croquet 14pt Full Lawn Handicap match. This was the first match of the season in the new 14pt format introduced this year by the NW Federation. The team of Brian Walton (captain), David Boyd, Sally Slater and Paul Taylor faced a team with a bag full of bisques which made for a challenging day, but all the team had some successes and there was even a golden hoop game. Fortunately, the rain held off and Chester won by 11 games to 5.