Good morning from Nottingham. It's a strange morning here. We seem to have fairly blue sky and sunshine, but it's raining. We've also had a fair bit of overnight rain, so these lawns should be really easy.

Watching all the players practice yesterday, they seemed to be able to do pretty much what they wanted, but we now have Martin French busily setting the hoops, so hopefully that will make things marginally more tricky.

There are three doubles today and we have the excitement of some technology available to our commentators. I hope you will all enjoy this and apologies in advance if I don't quite get the hang of it straight away. I'll be trying to produce graphics every now and then to show who is playing what colour, what the clip positions are and what the match position is.

The morning gossip is that Burridge and Mulliner have a 50 pound bet on USA v Aus. Stephen accepts that Aus (his pick) aren't looking as strong as he had though, but has refused to close his position for a 20 pound loss. In a very apt quote he says "risk is risk" and you certainly can't argue about that.

I still don't know who is playing on what lawns. I have the luxury of a co-commentator today who has volunteered to take lawns 1 and 2 and leave me to lawn 4.

Martin French has finished with the hoops and says "I've done the best I can, but the surface is very soft and damp"

It's now stopped raining and really does feel quite pleasant.

Nottingham is a wonderfully green setting if you can block out the road noise from the dual carriageway next to the lawns.

The CA Chairman has just arrived and is collecting signatures in her programme

We are due a mayoral visit at 11am

The Kiwis are now here, so hopefully we'll have lawn allocations soon

Aiton and Mulliner on 2

Maugham and Rutger on 1

and I'll be commentating on this one on lawn 4

Every so often I'll try and update the whole Test status page. To find this, go to the main page, the click NEWS, then click TODAY.

All the players started practicing in time today

We have the same hover -flies (look like wasps) that were at Bowdon. This means that the owners of the Yellow balls will be pestered most of the day

Skinley had a congratulatory message from Bruno the Wellington Alsatian this morning (wearing sunglasses), so great things are expected from him today. Michael revelled in the full English Breakfast. P.S Hi Gill if you're reading

T1 U to just S of C2 - this is a complete change of tactics

T2 Y 15y S of C3

T3 K shoots at Y from C3............................hits

T3 (cont) Fulford is laying up about 13y N of C4 with a rush on Y to C2

T4 R shoots at K from C3....................misses

Fulford clips K whilst casting and repositions it before rushing it about 2 to 3 yards S of C2 - he'll need a good take off now.

Ends up with a rush pointing North

which he cuts to near C3

Takes off to R in C4 - hits 5 yarder

Defensive roll to hoop 1 and he'll be returning to partner near C3

I like this choice of opening from Fulford and Lines. It has got the match off to a quiet start which is what you want when you are the stronger team. The supershot opening from Aiton and Mulliner goes against all my basic tactical play.

This is surprisingly aggressive. Y is shooting at K and U leaving R at hoop 1. There a gap of about 3 balls between K and U and it will give Lines or Fulford a laid break

Y.......................misses

Lines plays with an easy break. Gets a rush on K which I assume he was trying to take off the S boundary. Seems to hit the ground or something and rushes it 3 yards NE of the peg. Still a playable croquet stroke.

Good recovery. Lines has made hoop 1 with a break. Time to test some technology

So, just to clarify - the above shows the clip positions for all the balls. Lines has now reached to hoop 4, so we have....

For readers hoping for an update in the news/today section, it isn't working - we will try and fix.

Lines is round to 4-b with a diagonal spread with Y at the peg

Wright lifts R and is taking the lift from A-Baulk. UK are level with hoop 5.................................R hits centre ball

R has a break and is on hoop 2

This is just a 4ball break. Nothing clever so far.

The leave is unusual.

Y and R and just N of C4

U is 14 yards S and 2y W of C3

K is 3 yards SW of the peg

Unsurprisingly, K has lifted

K makes a target with U as the front ball...........................hits.

GB needed that

Rob's still got a bit of work to do to pick the break up, but has started ok and rushed Y 3 yards in front of hoop 1.

A good approach and he has a rush back to C4. All he has to do now is rush U to hoop 2 from 16 yards away and then get it over to 4-b after hoop 2 for the standard TP

Good stuff from Fulford. What would GB do without him.

Misapproaches hoop 5. Fails short jump - that was out of nowhere.

Discussion about whether it hit has foot or not

Ian Vincent is called

R is likely to have a 3 yarder on K, but NZ really want to play Y which has 6 to 7 yarder on U

K is replaced

R has hit K and rolled it 1 y NE of the peg.

U is being sent W of hoop 2.

R and Y are at hoop 1, guarding the shots, but R is N of hoop 1 because the last shot was a scatter. There may be targets available here.

U to corner 4. This has been a really defensive set of tactics from GB in this match so far and I thoroughly approve

Skinley (Y) hits his 4 yarder at R and now has a backward take-off to hoop 1. He's 4 feet straight and plays a really good shot to get a rush pointing East

Rushes it nicely South of K and he'll have a delayed tp ahead of him if he can rush to hoop 2.

Makes 2

Skinley has made hoop 4 and is setting up his delayed TP

Skinley jawses the peelee before hoop 6

After hoop 6, Skinley croquets K into penult - that may cause a slight probem, but no more than that

After 2-b Skinley tries to rush R in front of penult, but it finishes just to the side. It'll be a delayed double now

The Kiwis are finding the lawns very easy. That extra second slower really makes a difference.

It's a straight double with peelee in the jaws of penult

Peelee is now 3 yards in front of rover

Rushes peelee to 4 feet straight

Peelee fails and bounces to the side. This will be rover and peg and GB have got some benefit from their cornering.

K is 14 to 15 yards South C3

U is 15 yards South and 2 yards East of C2

R and Y are just North of C4, 5 feet apart.

I think we'll see K take the short lift

K lifts and is shooting at R from A-baulk............................

Decides to shoot at Y, to make the finish harder....................misses

Wright gets a slightly angled rover and stabs it through getting a rush on K to Y. Should be the end of game 1

Game 2

T1 K to 8 yards N of C4

T2 Y Duffer tice about 2 feet E of penult

T3 U shoots at Y missing to about 5 to 6 yards E of A-Baulk

T4 R hits U

Fails to get going and has a leave for Y at hoop 1

T5 K (at hoop 2) shoots at U near C4.......................misses

Y wibbles through hoop 1 and is hampered. This is a big  shot

Looking at a sweep

Hits - phew

A crack of thunder overhead. Was that God applauding Ians shot?

Ian needs to rush U to hoop 2 from C4 for a break

Rushes past hoop 2 and doesn't get in front with backward take-off. Joins R 10 yards S of hoop 3

Thunder, lightning and torrential rain

Your reporter will be staying outside ...........just for you

Play has stopped on both lawns

Some of the barer patches have the first signs of standing water

Adjourned for lunch

There are discussions taking place about moving this match to lawn 1 which is already puddle free

Lawn 1 is now being prepared for the resumption but still 20mins+ away I would have thought 

The balls are on the lawn and there is some talk about having a 5 minute hit-up

The players have almost finished their 5 minute re-warm-up

U behind hoop 2 misses K at hoop 4

R is taking its 7 yarder at Y................hits

Takes off within 2 feet of U. Croquets U to 3 and rushes K to 2 deliberately, thinking he's on 2. Takes off from 4 yards S of hoop 2 to hoop 1 and finishes in 2-b

Discussion

U has a 5 yarder on Y.

This is a massive error.

Calls on a referee to watch him try and get as close to C3 as possible. Finishes 6yards W of C3

U hits Y

Croquets Y to hoop 2 going to red. Takes off from R and gets a cut-rush on K to hoop 1. Misses cut-rush.

Y has good break prospects

Good pick-up from Lines. He's got a break now

Lines is round to 4-b. The break became increasingly untidy and the leave could still be anything

Lines continued to pursue his diagonal spread and has croqueted U off the W boundary going to the two balls at the peg. K (Skinley) has an easy chance for a break

With his first croquet stroke, Skinley sends Y towards 4-b. Will this be a TPO?

He hasn't done very well here. Red is rushed almost to the N boundary behind hoop 2. He needs a good take-off now.

A round of applause indicates it's near perfect

Rushes 3 yards NE of hoop 1

Has a 2 foot 30 degree hoop which he runs well, but fails to get a rush on U. U is sent to hoop 4 going to Y. Skinley has about 5 feet of room to get a rush on R to hoop 2. Takes off and is short. It will be a 5 yard backward take-off for a break

5 foot 10 degree hoop... this is important

Very good smooth stroke through to the boundary. TPO now?

TPO is refused

Bright sunshine now with odd rumble of thunder

Skinley is just going to 4-b but has made a mess of his parity and will be sending to U to 3-b.

It's starting to rain again

Skinley is trying to make an NSL with Y at hoop 4

It's a NSL. UK are laid up well North.

I expect R ro take the long lift

R lifts and walks to A-Baulk

then back up to B-Baulk to take the predicted long lift

R shoots at U.......................misses

Heavy rain..... Wright has yet to emerge from his shelter

I don't think Rob's too impressed with this delay

Yep, he's off to have a chat with Wright

That seems to have done the job. Wright starts.

I have to say that Rob has never done anything like that on the multiple occasions I've suggested we should do something similar.

U taps partner, takes off to R, croquets it to 2 and rushes Y to 2 yards SW of hoop 5. A good hoop approach leaves a 5 footer................

Runs it well and now has a standard TP to give NZ a 2-0 lead in the Test

Wright jawses the 4-b peel after hoop 3, but is short on his hoop 4 pioneer and has to approach for 8 feet West. It's short.

This is off red and will lose the game if he fails.

Fails, but bounces off to the E boundary. Rob will be taking this 6 yarder

This is what he does - come on Rob

R at U..................................hits

That could be huge in this match

Sends U short of hoop 2 and just snicks his rush to hoop 1. He needs to approach from near hoop 5. Good approach leaves 5 foot 10 degree hoop.

It's through and he has standard TP.

In fact, chances of a TP and TPO for extra Dream Team points!!

Fulford finishes +14TP (F)

Game 3

T1 U just S of C2

T2 R 16y S of C3

T3 K at R from B-Baulk.............hits

lays rush to C2 from max distance spot

T4 Y at K from B-baulk..................misses narrowly

Approaches 1 from the W boundary, runs 2 yard 20 degree hoop. Hampered shot and it's 10 yards long

Calls a ref. This looks difficult and aggressive to me. Potential mallet breaker. Dribbles it off - superb effort

Follows it up with a shocking croquet stroke leaving 6 yarder at R near the N boundary behind hoop2

Hits, takes of in front of 2 and runs it to boundary despite taking plenty of wire.

Rob has a break and is for hoop 5

K peels R through hoop 1 on his way to his hoop 6 pioneer 

Robert peels R through hoop 2 after 1-b

Robert has made a spread with R at the peg and Us rush pointing towards hoop 1

Y has lifted and is walking to B-baulk to take a very long lift shot at U

Y misses going off 4 fett North of U

Lines makes hoop 1 and has all the balls with partner at hoop 2

Lines has a standard TP

4-b peeled after hoop 3

Lines jawses penult after hoop 6

+24TP (L) in the third.

A good win from Robert and Ian. GB look favourites to take a lead into day 2 now