Phyllis Court head north to Lake District for national finals

PHYLLIS Court Croquet Club have a last remaining interest in a national competition next week, with their second sting side heading to Crake Valley in the southern Lake District on Wednesday, for the final of the Croquet England Federations Shield.

The Henley club are the reigning champions of the Federations Shield and, as three-time champions of this advantage play competition in the last four years, this visit to Cumbria will extend Phyllis Court’s distance record for an English away fixture, previously held by the club’s A side in this event, when they travelled to Budleigh Salterton in Devon last season on their way to winning the title.

Phyllis Court’s B string scored a memorable victory against Cheltenham in the first round of this season’s competition, before beating Bromley in the semi-finals and in doing so have only used five different players.

Unfortunately, captain Raghu Iyer and Dee McKibbin are unavailable for the final, but ever-presents Helen Essa and Rob Eagle are re-joined by the reliable Jeff Smith from the first round victory, and their super experienced club president Frances Colman, who founded this competition for Croquet England five years ago. Phyllis Court bowed out of the National Inter-Club Championship (tier 3) following a cliff-hanger ending to their match with visitors Nottingham last week.

Host doubles pair Kevin Ward and Helen Essa fought back valiantly in the deciding game of the deciding rubber from 6-1 down and showed terrific survival spirit to steadily claw back the score to level at 6-6 and had the momentum going to the last hoop. A combative exchange was played out for 20 minutes with everything hanging on that battle but Nottingham’s Ian Dewar lodged his ball into the jaws of that final hoop, the end was nigh, and the visitors’ team victory was completed with his next stroke.

Rob Eagle had given his side the lead with a 7-6, 4-7, 7-2 win over Nottingham captain Cathy Turski, but the visitors had countered with the closest of wins from Celia Billau 1-7, 7-4, 6-7 over Jeff Smith.

Ward fought off a big reverse in his afternoon opener against Dewar to give Phyllis Court the lead 1-7, 7-6, 7-5 and Essa followed soon after in similar style completing a 5-7, 7-4, 7-5 win against Roger Steeper. Eagle looked comfortable in starting his afternoon with a good margin victory but then fell to Billau 7-2, 4-7, 4-7 and the Nottingham fightback was further enhanced when Smith lost to Turski 7-6, 7-4.

In regional action last week, Phyllis Court C secured the runners-up position in Southern Croquet Federation (SCF) Advantage League, with a close 9-7 away win against rivals Eynsham.

With the divisional title already in the hands of clubmates Phyllis Court D, this head-to-head with Eynsham had the second-place spot at stake for both teams, and a duly close contest unfolded. Honours were shared in the first round with wins for Phyllis Court by Smith and captain Eagle, and loss for Ward and Patricia Mulcahy, the former his first match of the season for the C team.

In the second round, wins by Smith, Eagle and Mulcahy established a slim lead that Phyllis Court were never to relinquish, and they stretched that to a four-win cushion as Ward broke his duck and Smith and Mulcahy continued their successes.

The C team went into the last round 8-4 up with the draw secured and one game victory needed for the team match win and, although Eynsham rallied with three game wins, fittingly captain Eagle saw his side home in his rubber.

Over the bank holiday weekend, Rick Lilley and Andy Jones took part in the prestigious Croquet England GC eights.

The Croquet England Selection Committee gave a third eight debut to Jones at Nottingham and Lilley’s steady improvement was recognised by a promotion to the second eight at Colchester. Both recorded some notable victories to improve their national rankings but failed to qualify for their respective knock-out phases.