Roehampton beat Nottingham to win the Inter-Club 4-3

[<<] [>>] by Tim Russell at Blewbury
2 Nov (AC - Inter-Club)

The 2024 season came to a close as Roehampton beat Nottingham 4-3 in a tight match to retain the AC InterClub trophy for the third year.

Roehampton scores first
Harry Fisher and Christian Carter lost to James Death and Omied Hallam -25 TP (D)
Mark van Loon beat Lorna Dewar +11
Joel Taylor beat Rick Harding +25TP
Harry Fisher lost to James Death -26TP
Christian Carter lost to Omied Hallam -24
Mark van Loon beat Rick Harding +26
Joel Taylor beat Lorna Dewar +6TP

The match was played at Blewbury - slightly delayed by Joel Taylor forgetting his watch/alarm was on US time rather than U.K. time (he had flown back from the States the day before). Most games were one sided with Nottingham's 1&2 James and Omied in good form. The doubles match saw Roehampton make a poor approach to hoop 2 followed by a missed angled hoop. James made no mistake with a trademark quick triple, although he added to the excitement by putting balls unintentionally in hoops. Just a modest irritation for a man of his talents. In his singles match he hit fourth turn, Harry missed the lift and James finished, though again with one or two balls erring into tricky positions. On Blewbury's evenly paced lawns, missed lift shots often cost games and James got his revenge on Harry, having lost by the same score last year to Harry.

Omied won his match without trying a triple. Christian missed fourth shot and the lift, but hit after Omied failed to finish. An ambitious attempt to get behind a ball on the North boundary to make hoop 3 failed and Omied finished.

The only close games in the match involved Lorna Dewar. In her first match against Mark van Loon, both players made hoop 1 with one ball before Mark took a ball to 4 back. Lorna missed the lift and Mark looked to have his triple under control until he overhit his ball beyond rover whilst approaching penultimate. His attempt at rushing to a peeling position at rover left too angled a hoop which he sensibly declined, but his leave was not particularly tidy and Lorna hit the lift. Mark had peeled her hoop 2 ball through one hoop during his turn and Lorna set off on her turn with bystanders rather puzzled by her line of play. It soon became clear to all, except Lorna, that she thought she was on a finishing triple peel turn. And she played it perfectly! Mark intervened as her yellow ball hit the peg and she started to remove the (non) pegged out red from the lawn justifiably pleased with her excellent turn. Then the dawning realisation of a 'senior moment'! Bad luck Lorna.

In her second match she took advantage of a short approach to hoop 2 by Joel who retreated to corner 4. An excellent hit in by Lorna saw her get round to 4 back. Joel missed the lift and Lorna set off on the second ball, but never got her partner ball into peeling position. As she neared the end of her break, her positioning became less tidy. She ran an excellent 45 degree angled penultimate but left herself a 5 yard roquet after penultimate which she missed into baulk. Joel made no mistake getting his ball round, Lorna missed the lift and Joel finished with a triple which contained some shots a couple of Mac players thought far too ambitious, but his non-playing captain had no such doubts!

A close match that could have gone either way.

Many thanks to Joe King for setting the hoops and to Blewbury for hosting the final for the second year running.