29 September 2010
Dulwich came agonisingly close to winning their first ever national team competition, losing 3-4 to Broadwas (Worcester) in the final of the Murphy Shield.
The final of this new level play Golf Croquet competition, for teams of four with a combined handicap of 12+, took place on a wet day under grey skies at Blewbury, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. Dulwich had successfully overcome Bury St Edmunds, Phyllis Court and Sussex while Broadwas had beaten Ashby, Kenilworth and Belsay Hall, so both teams arrived excited but somewhat tense. The lawns were well prepared but very wet and showed signs of end of season wear especially in front of hoop 3 on lawn 1 - not the best location to be playing 13th hoop deciders! Broadwas fielded a stronger team on paper with total current handicaps of 11 vs our 14, but you would not have known that from the play or the scores. Their team included Stuart Smith, the runner-up in the All England Handicap from the previous week-end (bringing his handicap down to 2 but after the cut-off date for determining eligibility for this competition- hence they could field an 11-aggregate handicap team), and one other AE finalist.
In the morning session in persistent light drizzle, John Guy (3) got Broadwas off to a good start with a win over Sue Lightbody (4) 7-6, 7-5 while the Dulwich doubles pairing of Ed Dymock (2) and Simon Whiteley (4) was one game all against David Parsons and Stuart Smith (both 2), as was Mark Ormerod (4) against Broadwas’ John Edwards (4) when hot soup was served to warm us all up. The first part of the afternoon session saw Ed and Simon going off the boil to lose their third game 3-7, but Mark completed an excellent win in his deciding game 7-4 over John Edwards. So 1-2 down but with the four singles matches still to play.
In short order Dulwich nosed ahead as Ed beat David Parsons 7-6, 7-5, and Mark beat John Guy 7-5, 7-5 earning him a handicap reduction to 3. This result maintained Mark’s unblemished record in this competition of 8/8 match wins - Mark has been a team anchor on each occasion. Meanwhile the two captains Simon Whiteley and Stuart Smith were engaged in what would prove to be the pivotal match. This was a long struggle where big-hitting, and long-hitting, Simon was clearing Stuart’s ball to all parts of the lawn (and the other lawn as well!) as well as making some accurate long jump shots to snatch hoops from the opponent. Stuart was responding with fine positional play and steady hoop-running under pressure. It came down to the third game where Simon took the 12th hoop with black to square the match. Stuart’s first shot with yellow to the final hoop 13 uncharacteristically fell short, while Simon sent his blue ball to a strong position 3 yards in front. Red then also fell short- Stuart was feeling the pressure?- when disaster struck Simon : a perfectly weighted shot to position with black , threading between yellow, red and the hoop, veered off course to strike red full on, promoting it to 2 feet in front of the hoop. Stuart then took position with yellow, wired from black, and Simon was facing an opponent with 2 balls close in front and no way of clearing the second ball. Now the pressure was reversed and the only option was to take on the hoop with blue. This failed over the tricky ground, and Stuart had a straightforward hoop to level the score at 3-3.
In the final match Sue had lost the first game against John Edwards 4-7 but fought back strongly to take the second 7-2. By now it was 5.30, but after a break for tea and to dry off, they resumed play in heavy rain. Sue won the first hoop but John came back strongly with some accurate clearances (including one clearance made by promoting Sue’s blocking ball by 7-yards!) and long distance hoop runs, one the whole length of the lawn, leaving Sue 1-4 down. Sue kept her head, making one excellent hoop when 3-6 down to save the match, but John eventually was left with a tap-through on hoop 11 and a 4-3 overall win for Broadwas.
John Handy, Tournament Director, refereed throughout the day and presented the shield, together with individual smaller shields to all players. Our thanks to Jim Bartlett, June and Susan at Blewbury for hosting us and to John for organising and refereeing the tournament.
With such a tightly fought contest it was no surprise that the final hoop count was Broadwas 105, Dulwich 105. Well done to all the team members who got us to the final, and brought us so close to victory, not forgetting David Collins and Janette Pheathean who played in the earlier rounds.
For the record, our best previous result in a national team event was in 1996 when we were semi finalists in the Longman Cup (association handicap).
The complete scores were (Broadwas first):
Dave Parsons (2) and Stuart Smith (2 but eligible as 3) beat Ed Dymock (2) and Simon Whiteley (4) 6-7, 7-5, 7-3
John Guy (3) beat Sue Lightbody (4) 7-6, 7-5
John Edwards (4) lost to Mark Ormerod (4) 4-7, 7-5, 4-7
Dave Parsons lost to Ed Dymock 6-7, 5-7
Stuart Smith beat Simon Whiteley 7-4, 5-7, 7-6
John Guy lost to Mark Ormerod 5-7, 5-7
John Edwards beat Sue Lightbody 7-4, 2-7, 7-4
Ray 24 September