Phyllis Court secure third spot in European League

PHYLLIS Court Croquet Club finished third in the European Teams League final last weekend in the culmination of the competition which involved
45 teams from 11 nations.

Phyllis Court A lined up against 11 qualifying club teams from England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain and Latvia, in a three-day tournament at Southwick, near Brighton.

Fielding their strongest team — Chris Roberts (handicap -2), Charlie von Schmieder (0), Rick Lilley (0) and Ian Norris (0), plus club president Frances Colman on international refereeing duty — Phyllis Court started as fourth seeds overall and second in their group of six behind favourites Roehampton.

The Henley side started well with a 4-2 win against Club de Campo de Vigo (Spain), before losing 5-1 to Roehampton with only Norris’s singles victory saving blushes.

In the third match Phyllis Court lost 4-2 against Balgreen from Edinburgh.

Phyllis Court had a good day two, beating Broadwas (Worcestershire) comfortably 5-1 in the morning, to require only a draw in their final block games versus Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri (Spain) to secure qualification for main eight-team knock-out.

Phyllis Court beat the Spaniards in both doubles rubbers before sharing the four singles two apiece for a 4-2 victory, which earned third place in the block and potentially easier quarter-final tie in the last period of play on Saturday.

Cheltenham were lined up as opponents with an unbalanced team of England internationals James Death and Sam Cuthbert and two mid-range handicappers.

Again, Phyllis Court got the best of starts with Roberts scoring from the boundary to win the lone doubles tie 7-6 with partner Norris, and both von Schmieder and Lilley winning their first-round singles 7-4 and 7-5. Norris secured the match win with a tough 7-4 victory over Debbo Albertsen and, after a 25-minute battle at hoop 13, Lilley added an extra win against Brent Watkins 7-6.

The unscheduled loss to Balgreen on the first day now returned to haunt Phyllis Court on Sunday when, instead of being in the favourable half of the draw, they had to face favourites Roehampton, now bolstered by England internationals Harry Fisher and Mark van Loon, and they put up a really good fight.

In the lone doubles game, Roberts and Norris matched Fisher and Nick Yates hoop for hoop until an excellent centre ball clearance from Fisher gave the London club a two-hoop cushion at hoop 10 and then the clearance of the match by Yates won Roehampton the game 7-4 at hoop 11.

On the adjoining court, Lilley also lived his opponent Van Loon for half the game by he was then blown away 3-7 while Charlie von Schmieder was caught by Tim Russell’s strong finishing come-back and went down 6-7.

This left Phyllis Court needing all four of the round two singles and when Norris was also taken out 3-7 by van Loon’s remarkable accuracy, the team match was lost.

Lilley was left in Russell’s wake 7-2, von Schmieder was beaten
7-6 by van Loon, but Roberts saved the whitewash with a 7-5 win against Fisher.

Roehampton went on to thrash Balgreen in the final 7-1.

The third/fourth place match Phyllis Court defeated Club de Campo de Vigo, with a 7-5 doubles win for Roberts and Norris, and 7-5 and 7-4 victories for von Schmieder and Lilley respectively, against Salvador de Sas and Alberto Varela-Grandal.

Norris secured the team win for Phyllis Court with his round two 7-5 win against Celastino Montenegro, before von Schmieder eventually won a long game 7-4 against Varela-Grandal to give Phyllis Court a 5-2 match score.