Cornwall Croquet Club

Sat 12 Jul 2014 - SWF Federation League (Played at Abbey & Glastonbury CC)

Abbey & Glastonbury v Cornwall

David Edwards, Des Honey and Peter Cutting travelled to Street in Somerset to play Abbey & Glastonbury. Having left the Cornish ‘missle’ behind, we were able to play in hot sunshine until later in the afternoon by which time the ‘missle’ had caught us up and turned into thunder & lightning. Most games though were played in good weather.

Although Abbey & Glastonbury won the match, it could have gone either way. For Cornwall, one of the problems was having to play all games on one undulating court - although it was the same for everybody, the home advantage was considerable.

In the morning, Honey & Cutting lost their doubles and Honey won his singles so there was still all to play for after lunch. Three games then had to be played - two 18 point games (both timed at two hours) one after the other whilst a 26 point game (timed at 3 hours) was being played in tandem to these - all quite complicated. Honey won the first 18 point game and Cutting lost the 26 point game (just!) so all was down to the last game.

Against pretty massive odds and a goodly number of bisques, Honey who was quite a long way behind, took his second ball from Hoop 5 (the start) to Peg in one go - quite an astonishing performance considering his opponent was on the point of finishing.

Unfortunately with 3 bisques against him at that point, there was little more he could do and the game went to Abbey along with the Match.

A very enjoyable day but Cornwall were 'up against it' in terms of local knowledge and handicaps, but well done Glastonbury never the less.

Final Score: Abbey & Gastonbury 3 Cornwall 2

Report by Peter Cutting.