Another warm sunny day at Chester Croquet Club – perhaps spring has finally arrived – saw Ashby Croquet Club visiting us for the second round of the Murphy Shield. The Murphy Shield is a level-play golf croquet tournament, but each team is limited to just one player with a handicap of +1, the other players must have handicaps of +2 or more; and the total handicap of all four players together must be 8 or higher. Our team was David Boyd (+1), Mark Lloyd (+2), John Hampson (+2) and Sarah Clements (+4) and we faced Ashby’s team of Andy Sherwood (+2), Mick Haytack (+3), Stephanie White (+4) and Judith Rowe (+4).
The match started well for Chester with the home advantage of sloping lawns “tipping the balance” in favour of the home team. Chester won the doubles and both singles sessions in the morning and so were three-nil up by lunch. By the afternoon Ashby had adapted well to the local conditions, but even so Chester pulled further ahead with wins in the first three sessions. However, Andy Sherwood managed to save match point on the golden hoop of his second game with David Boyd, and then stormed through the final game to win the final session 2 games to 1 and make the score Chester 6, Ashby 1. Thank you to the Ashby team for an enjoyable and sociable day in the sunshine.
Chester now go on to play in the quarter finals, where we will play the winners of the Branston versus Croquet Durham match.
