Phyllis Court side to break new ground

PHYLLIS Court Croquet Club break new ground this weekend with a first ever club match on foreign soil, when they play in Latvia in the European Club Teams Competition.

Chairman Patricia Mulcahy leads the team under the on-court captaincy of Raghu Iyer, for a four-sided tournament which is one of 11 heats around Europe, where 44 club teams compete for places in a European final at Sussex County CC, at Southwick near Brighton, in October.

Kevin Ward and Alastair Broom also make the trip to the Latvian town of Ikskile to face the hosts and fellow visitors Tolkis (Finland) and Woodall Spa (England), with the two former sides fielding teams that look the strongest on paper.

Latvians Roberts Stafecks and Normans Zelcans, and Finland captain Lars Bowman, have all played in European and World Championships before and so lead their teams with experience, while Phyllis Court’s Mulcahy is not that far behind on that score, with her own World’s appearance representing Ireland last year.

The Latvian-bound Phyllis Court team is a B string from the Henley club, who are hosting their own home heat in the same European competition on June 7 and 8.

Phyllis Court A will be hosting Zurich Croquet Club (Switzerland) and Real Club Pineda de Sevilla (Spain), and following a withdrawal of a second Spanish team, and Phyllis Court C team will compete alongside their senior side.

New records continue to be set by Phyllis Court Croquet and today (Friday) they set one that will be hard to beat when they entertain a furthest travelling team yet, with the visit of Hyde Park CC from Adelaide, Australia.

The visitors bring a team of 14 players with very mixed abilities and Phyllis Court organiser Chris Roberts has selected a home team to match those playing standards player for player, for a match that will feature a mixture of singles and doubles games throughout.

Away from the international scene, Phyllis Court teams have been in national and regional action with the most marked achievement being a 5-1 victory over visitors Cheltenham in the national Federations Shield competition.

The striking aspect of this win was that Cheltenham were lead by England international player James Death whose hard-hitting style has seen him become a spectator’s favourite from his previous appearance playing for Nottingham.

Phyllis Court’s new protective catch fencing was erected for Death’s visit for this handicap match, but it was Phyllis Court’s Rob Eagle and Helen Essa who were cock-a-hoop at lunch following their doubles victory over Death and partner Baz Cuthbert.

Jeff Smith and Raghu Iyer joined Eagle and Essa, as all four home players each went on to win a singles match, for an even contribution to the convincing victory that sees this Phyllis Court team through in the competition to a potential national semi-final clash with the club’s other entered team, who face Bromley at the neutral venue of Surbiton CC.

On the regional front Phyllis Court A enjoyed a 5-3 win victory against Blewbury last week in their first Southern Federation Open League match of the season, in which Roberts won two matches and teammates Rick Lilley, Andy Jones and Robin Coates all won one and lost one.

Phyllis Court’s association croquet team, with captain Paul Franklin, Russell Robinson, Patricia Mulcahy and Kevin Ward, secured a 2-2 draw with Oxford University.