Croquet club in two national finals

Phyllis Court Croquet Club players got through to two national finals in the space of three days last week, the first time they have done so in the same season.

They reached the final of the GC Federations Shield with a narrow 4.5-2.5 win over Meldreth, from Cambridgeshire, on Saturday. And on Tuesday they followed this up with a 5-2 defeat of Peterborough in the AC Secretary’s Shield.

Phyllis Court’s experienced team, captained by Chris Roberts (handicap -2), was the same one that beat Sheffield in the quarter-final three weeks ago.

Roberts again partnered Phyllis Court number four player Paul Franklin (8) in the morning doubles and the pair combined well to see-off the four extra turns of Meldreth’s John and Sue Bishop and use Franklin’s own two extra turns to better effect.

Franklin and Roberts won both games 7-6 and 7-3, to get the first match win on the scoreboard.

Both morning singles were drawn-out affairs and gave Meldreth heart when Phylis Court’s Patricia Mulcahy (5) went down to David Edwards (5) 4-7, 6-7.

There was disappointment too for the hosts’ Andy Jones (2) who, having won his first game 7-4 against Roger Wallbridge (6), lost 6-7, denying Phylis Court a lunchtime lead when that rubber was suspended at one game each.

Phylis Court got off to a cracking start in the afternoon’s second round matches by winning all the first games of all four matches.

Roberts had to defend six extra turns against John Bishop and the Phyllis Court player was again able to outmanoeuvre his opponent tactically to win 7-6, 7-5.

Franklin’s performance to defeat Sue Bishop 7-2, 7-4 put Phyllis Court in a great position at 3-1 up in the team match, but Meldreth were not done.

Jones and Mulcahy both lost the second games of their matches and there was last hoop drama in the deciding games of both contests. Mulcahy fell 7-5, 1-7, 6-7 which brought Meldreth right back in to the team match. But Jones tapped in for the game, match and fixture 7-5, 4-7, 7-6.

For the AC match, Phyllis Court fielded a team of middle to high handicappers, which meant all four of the visitors’ players were considerably more accomplished in the head-to-head match-ups.

However, Raghu Iyer’s Phyllis Court team established an early lead that they were never to relinquish.

Kevin Ward was the stand-out player for Phyllis Court as he swept to 26-0 victories. Robin Coates nearly followed suite with a 26-0 before the break but ran out of extra turns in the second session when 23-0 ahead, and Debbie Lines needed only two breaks to overhaul that lead, 23-26.

Iyer won 26-0 in the afternoon for Phyllis Court and, in a late finishing a game, Patricia Mulcahy held-off her opponent for over an hour with no extra turns left, to win 14-10.