NORTH WEST FEDERATION LEAGUE MATCHES:
The Midweek Handicap AC team experienced the highs and lows of Croquet in July. In early July, the team of Tony Thomas, Pauline Rooney, Peter Williams and Derek Lunt, played some excellent croquet to outplay a strong Chester side, to achieve a spectacular 6-1 victory and go top of the league. At the end of the month, a changed line up of Richard Harding, Tony Thomas, Brian Lewis and Peter Williams travelled through traffic and wet weather, to arrive just in time at Levens Hall to find a Westmorland side practising on some very ‘lumpy’ lawns. We gave 50 Bisques during the day and suffered a 7-0 defeat, sinking to a mid table league position, destroying our title hopes.
Our Golf Croquet HC team currently sit top of the league and have high hopes of winning the title. In mid July the team of Terry Dunbar, Mike Armstrong, Bryan Roberts and Esther Jubb travelled to the North Wales resort of Llanfairfechan and in scorching weather, everyone played really well and achieved a wonderful 14-2 victory.
Our Weekend Handicap AC team of Barbara Haslam, Richard Harding, Anne Mitchell and Peter Williams, travelled to Chester and in a hard fought match on the notorious Chester slopes just lost 3-4. Chester had a 2-1 lead at lunchtime, but the team fought back and levelled the score to 3-3. The outcome of the match was in doubt until the very last game, when with time running out, the Chester number one player achieved a late break to catch up from behind, to secure a 4-3 win for Chester.
Our Advanced AC team are having a difficult season and continued to suffer with a trip to league leaders Bowdon, the team of Alan Pidcock, Barbara Haslam and Brian Lewis played well on the maganificent Bowdon lawns, but went down 5-0 to the strongest club in the Federation.
The short AC team scored a spectacular home win against Bowdon in early July. The team of Richard Harding, Diana Williamson, Eileen Rossiter and Barbara Nodwell produced some great Croquet, despite the appalling weather, and ran out easy winners 11-5. The team are still possible contenders for the league title.