Green maintains fine form

PHYLLIS Court’s Julia Green triumphed for a third time in the National D-Level (10+) Series last week, this time at Camerton & Peasedown, near Bath.

The reward of another 10 series points moved Green to 30, well clear for clubmate Philip Rowley on 20 in the competition to be national champion at this level, with the rest of the country trailing 10 or more points in arrears.

Green was undefeated at Camerton with comfortable block round victories against Debra Sandrey (Winterbourne Valley) and Bath pair Christine Lutman and Lynette Labuschange, before increasingly more challenging games followed in the knock-out phase.

Bradford-on-Avon’s Carol Gorvett was brushed aside 7-3 before top seed Sue Wagstaff (Camerton) was beaten 7-5 and finally Green beat Clare Barratt (Winterbourne Valley) 7-5 in the final.

It was a busy week for Phyllis Court’s teams. Raghu Iyer, Patricia Mulcahy and Kevin Ward travelled to Blewbury to play a belated first fixture in the Southern Croquet Federation (SCF) Association Croquet Advanced (7+) League.

Mulcahy beat the hosts’ Andrew Petit by one hoop, but Ward lost by two hoops to Brian Jamieson.

Iyer’s match-deciding game with Deidre Cochrane was postponed due to the extreme heat, but he eventually came through strongly to win 21-15 to win the team match and give Phyllis Court confidence for their next match at Hamptworth next week.

In golf croquet, Phyllis Court D enjoyed another convincing win in the SCF Advantage League despite a poor start against High Wycombe Kites when they lost three of the opening four games.

Only the fast-improving Philip Rowley registered a first-round win but his teammates recovered well in the second round to tie the team match 4-4 and thereafter, it was all Phyllis Court as they restricted High Wycombe to a single win in the remaining seven games to record a 11-5 victory.

Dee McKibbin captained Phyllis Court in the absence of Ruth Raunkiaer, and won three times, a feat matched by Rowley and Bob Clapp and Carol Huntington contributed two wins.

Phyllis Court chairman Patricia Mulcahy made a good fist of her match with Neil Stewart but went down 6-7, 5-7, but Michael Marcel beat his opponent Noel Harris 5-7, 7-3, 7-5, for the fifth win that won the team match.

In their second matches, Mulcahy beat Harris 7-6, 5-7, 7-3 and Marcel beat Stewart 5-7, 7-3, 7-3.