Sidmouth Herald published 16 July 2010
Intermediate League Match Win v Cornwall
In the Intermediate League, a Sidmouth team of John Dixon (captain), Nancy Temple and Ian Friedlander were also at home to Cornwall.
Despite their two-hour journey, the Cornwall team were soon ready for action and, in perfect sunny conditions, provided formidable opposition.
The morning doubles game saw John and Nancy narrowly lose 15-18, but Ian retrieved the situation with a 10-point win.
In the three singles games after lunch, Nancy, in top form, won 25-9 and, in so doing, improved her handicap to 11. Ian lost a closely fought game, but John managed to hold off a late challenge by his opponent to win 22-19. Result: Sidmouth 3 Cornwall 2.
14 Point High Handicap Internal Competition
The 14 point High Handicap Tournament was held several weeks ago with the final held over until last week.
For new members, this is the first real chance to enter an Association Croquet competition and this year it was Colin Walls and Pam Bowra who made the final, with Colin eventually turning out the winner.
Philip Harris and Alsia Dixon performed well to come second in their respective groups.
SWF Federation League Win v Plymouth
The home Federation match against Plymouth was held last Sunday, with a Sidmouth team of David Clarke (captain), David Temple, Mike Taylor and Graham Harford looking for a third straight win.
The morning doubles pairing of Graham and Mike managed to scrape through 15-14 in a fluctuating game, but David Temple lost –3, unable to overcome his opponent’s numerous bisques.
David Clarke produced what turned out to be the best win of the day +10, bringing the lunchtime score to 2-1 in Sidmouth’s favour. The afternoon session saw three singles wins for Sidmouth with only Mike losing 21-22 in an exciting game.
Result: Sidmouth 5 Plymouth 2
Sidmouth v Nailsea SW SWF Golf Croquet
Last weekend, four players from the Nailsea SW Golf Croquet team came to compete against six Sidmouth players. As 20 games must be completed, Nailsea players were each involved in six games, compared to three or four for Sidmouth – thus, hopefully, not getting as tired!
At lunchtime, after two doubles and eight singles, Nailsea had a narrow 5.5 to 4.5 lead.
After lunch, unfortunately, the Sidmouth players were overwhelmed by the stronger performance of the Nailsea team, who won seven of the remaining 10 games.
Sidmouth won three of the four doubles matches, but only four of the 16 singles. Wins were by Keith Thorley, Muriel Philpott, Helen Pryor and Graeme Pryor. John Coombes drew one of his games. The final result, 12.5-7.5 in favour of Nailsea, was a fair reflection of the total hoops run (109-84).