Chester beat Croquet Durham 4-3

[<<] [>>] by John Hampson at Chester
18 Jul (GC - Inter-Club Shield)

Summer arrived at Chester this week (and is forecast to last until Saturday when the rain returns). But we were able to welcome Croquet Durham with a gloriously sunny morning, a warm, but overcast afternoon, and a small tornado that crossed the lawns making everyone hold onto their hats for a minute!

The morning saw the first two singles matches shared: Chester 1 Durham 1, but the doubles match had only got to one game all by lunchtime; and the captains were getting hungry, so decided to have lunch then play the remaining singles matches, hoping for a decisive win one way or the other without having to finish the deciding game of doubles. However, the players on both sides 'conspired' against this plan and shared the four singles matches two games all. So at Chester 3, Durham 3, the final doubles game became the decider. It was a tense final game with a large crowd (more than ten!) and quite a few missed shots in the early part of the game, but both teams settled down and in the end Chester just edged the final game by 7 hoops to 5 to win the match.

Many thanks to Durham for an enjoyable day, which despite the closeness of the games and the resulting tension in the match, was played throughout the whole (long & hot) day in an open and friendly spirit. We hope to draw Durham in next year's competition and visit their lawns at Chester-le-Street.

And a special thanks to Tom and Sandy for providing a fabulous lunch which kept us all (and most of the crowd) fueled up throughout the day.

Chester now go on to play in the semi-finals of the Murphy Shield against Watford.

England: Inter-Club Murphy Shield, Chester v Croquet Durham

18 July 2024

16 Games

1 LLOYD & HAMPSON Mark & John beat STEADMAN & CARPENTER William & Andrew 7 4
2 STEADMAN & CARPENTER William & Andrew beat LLOYD & HAMPSON Mark & John 7 4
3 LLOYD & HAMPSON Mark & John beat STEADMAN & CARPENTER William & Andrew 7 5
4 CLEMENTS Sarah beat MARTIN Nigel 7 6
5 CLEMENTS Sarah beat MARTIN Nigel 7 4
6 CARPENTER Roger beat DAVIES Rick 7 6
7 CARPENTER Roger beat DAVIES Rick 7 3
8 STEADMAN William beat LLOYD Mark 7 4
9 LLOYD Mark beat STEADMAN William 7 6
10 STEADMAN William beat LLOYD Mark 7 3
11 HAMPSON John beat CARPENTER Andrew 7 4
12 HAMPSON John beat CARPENTER Andrew 7 4
13 CLEMENTS Sarah beat CARPENTER Roger 7 5
14 CLEMENTS Sarah beat CARPENTER Roger 7 6
15 MARTIN Nigel beat DAVIES Rick 7 1
16 MARTIN Nigel beat DAVIES Rick 7 5