On the hottest day of the year so far Blewbury beat Oxford University
3-0 in our first match of the SCF B League for association croquet,
level advanced play, after persuading Oxford to visit our courts for a
change. We solved their transport problem by running a car ferry from
Didcot Parkway before, and back to the station again after, the match.
Oxford began by taking a panoramic view of our courts to show their
groundsman what could be done if he tried. Peter Allan was the first to
finish his match, beating Mark Baker 26-7. Mark did ruefully comment
that he couldn’t help over-hitting on our faster courts.
Avril had a fierce tussle with the Australian Charlie Sharpe who was
really a GC player and showed it by running hoops and making roquets
seemingly at will, quite exceptionally for an AC handicap of 16. Their
match went to time with Avril just ahead at 21-20.
In the third match, Greg Simond had another sure eye for a roquet but
showed inexperience with his break planning. Paul Wolff ran out a
comfortable winner 17-5 on time, despite an infuriating number of
missed roquets in easy positions when the game was there for the
taking.
We consoled the Oxford team with cold beers from our fridge on their
way home.