Match report
SWF B League Final - Mon 26 Sep 2011
The Cornwall B-League team of Jenny Burrows, Ron George and Tony Dyson met the Bath team in the final of the SW Federation of Croquet Clubs.
These two teams had won their respective area leagues and had then each played a semi-final. Bath had beaten Llandaff and Cornwall had beaten Nailsea Southeast.
The Cornwall team, having travelled to Bath the previous day, were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on arrival at the Bath Recreation Ground. The setting with the Abbey in the background was glorious although the state of the lawns was 'municipal'.
The format was for 26 point games with a three hour time limit on half lawns.
The morning went well for Cornwall, Jenny and Ron winning the doubles by 19 to 13 and Tony pegging out to win 26 -10.
Bath kindly entertained us to a very splendid lunch, after which all the Cornwall team were seemingly not as bright-eyed as in the morn.
Clocks were set for 2hours 45mins and it so happened that Jenny and Ron had started their games before that of Tony and his opponent. Time out had Ron trailing 14 to 23, Jenny 13 to 16 and the third game still had 5mins to play. On the bell it was level at 17 each.
Tony's opponent played his last turn and was unlucky to have his ball stick in the jaws of penult. Tony with his last turn managed to hit in on that ball from 3-4 yards on the side.
This might have given Bath that hoop but it bounced off and gave Tony a useful lead-in to hoop his own and clinch the game, 18-17 and the match 3 games to 2. Phew!!!
The name of Cornwall will appear on
the Shergold Cup for the first time.
Jenny Burrows, Tony Dyson and Ron George.