Phyllis Court beat Ealing 5-2

[<<] [>>] by Christopher Roberts at Ealing
25 Apr (GC - Inter-Club Shield)

Phyllis Court completed convincing win at Ealing on a bitterly cold, and eventually, rainy day today.
The Inter-Club 'Murphy' Shield is the second tier national knock-out competition and is restricted by handicap, with teams permitted to field one player who has a handicap of 1, the other players must have higher handicaps and the team total must be 8+.
In the morning session, Ealing got off to a good and fast start when Simon Turner brushed aside Phyllis Court's Alastair Broom 0-7, 2-7, but parity was soon restored by the visitors Andy Jones victory victory over Jane Powell 7-2, 7-3.
Not surprisingly, the doubles match between players 1 & 2 from each team, was a much longer and closer run affair with most hoops well contested, as both sides took to long, and usually unsuccessful hoop shots, instead of more patient closer positioning.
After more than two hours, Phyllis Court's Rick Lilley and Mike Fensome defeated Ealing's Charlie Sale and Bridget Goodman 7-4, 7-4.
Ealing provided a lovely salad lunch over which the players and three visiting Phyllis Court supporters, President Frances Colman, Chairman Patricia Mulcahy and your author Chris Roberts, mused over the likely afternoon results from the position of a 2-1 lead held by Phyllis Court.
The match looked as if it would being settled in the bottom-half head to head games between the number 3 & 4 players which looked hard to call.
Phyllis Court's Jones had a close first game 7-5 win over Turner and then got well ahead early in the second game to win more easily 7-3, and, with the two senior matches progressing more slowly, eyes fell on the number 4 rubber where both Broom and Powell where hoping to recover from their morning woes.
Broom upped his game the better and must have been delighted to bounce back to win 7-3, 7-3, and in doing so brought home the fixture-winning fourth victory for Phyllis Court.
In the other two head-to-head matches, Lilley and Fensome both won their first games 7-3 and 7-2, but lost the seconds 5-7 and 6-7 to Sale and Goodman respectively, before the rain got heavier and both 'dead' matches were agreed as 'halves'.

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A digest of the results is available on Croquet Scores.

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Phyllis Court play Hurlingham (away) in the next round on a date yet to be decided.
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Match results - Phyllis Court names first:

Rick Lilley (1) & Mike Fensome (2) beat Charlie Sale (1) & Bridget Goodman (2) .. 4-7, 4-7

Alastair Broom (6) lost to Simon Turner (3) ............ 0-7, 2-7

Andy Jones (2) beat Jane Powell (4) ...................... 7-2, 7-3

Rick Lilley (1) drew with Charlie Sale (1) ................ 7-3, 5-7

Mike Fensome (2) drew with Bridget Goodman (2) .. 7-2, 6-7

Andy Jones (2) beat Simon Turner (3) ................... 7-5, 7-3

Alastair Broom (6) beat Jane Powell (4) ................. 7-3, 7-3