Nailsea and District Croquet Club

The Croquet Courts are in Kenford Park
off Avening Close, Trendlewood Way, Nailsea, North Somerset.

Advanced League Match Nailsea V's Cheltenham

Nailsea 6 - Cheltenham 3

Nailsea's advanced team which consisted of Marcus Evans, Kriss Chambers and John Grimshaw throughout the season had won 3 out of 3 matches and this was the last league match to play. If they win this match, then they will win the Parkstone trophy for advanced play, which Nailsea have never won before.

As it was a team of 3, the captains decided to go for 3 rounds of 3 singles games meaning an all play all situation.

The first round saw Nailsea's strongest player Marcus Evan lose -10 which didn't give the two other Nailsea team members much confidence but Kriss and John held their nerve and both won. Kriss winning +13 and John winning +9 on time. So Nailsea was 2 – 1 up in the first round.

The Second round again did not give Kriss any confidence as Marcus lost again -22tp and John losing -16. Kriss again held his nerve and came back from being behind to win +18tp.

This meant that the score was 3 all and Nailsea had to win 2 out of the 3 games on the final round.

Well what a final round it was. Marcus showed his A class level standard by winning comfortably by 15 points. But it wasn't looking at all good for Kriss and John as with only 20mins left, both players were behind and needed to win at least 1 game out of the 2 to win the league.

Both games were in a minute of each other when time would be called.

When 20mins was left in Kriss's game, his opponent was on peg and rover with Kriss on hoop 4 and hoop 1. Kriss was about to take his last shot and if he missed, the game would have been over. Kriss concentrated hard and hit the 25 yarder he needed too, with the ball for hoop 4. Kriss then calmly but surely went round to 4back and left a good tight leave which his opponent missed. Kriss then starts going round with his second ball starting from hoop 1 and as he runs hoop 3, time was called on his game. So this was Kriss's last turn. With his balls on 4back and just running hoop 3, and his opponent's balls on rover and peg, Kriss needed to do at least 2 peels and peg one ball out to be 1 point up. Kriss again slowly but calmly went round concentrating hard on every shot peeling his forward ball through 4back, penult and luckily rover whilst going round himself with his other ball. Kriss had done 3 peels but when he ran rover he couldn't peg out both balls. So after about 10mins thinking time he left the balls in a position which would be the most difficult to let his opponent back in. Kriss pegged out on of his balls leaving his other ball on the peg. As his opponent was on Peg and Rover and Kriss was on peg and 1 ball out, it meant Kriss was winning by 2 points. His opponent then shot and missed a 25 – 30 yarder which meant Kriss had won his game by 2 points on time. A huge cheer came from the Nailsea team and Nailsea spectators as Kriss had won his game and also won the league.

Kriss was relieved and completely shattered after his game. It also meant that the Nailsea team had won the 2 games they needed to win the league.

As for John's game, John played very well and managed to bring the game back from being behind to being level when time was called. The game was very tense after that as it was another 10mins before John finally scored the golden hoop to win his game by 1 point on time.

Nailsea have won every game in the first division of the Advanced League and has won this league for the first time. This is a fantastic result for a team that was runner-up in the second division last year. All the 3 players deserve credit, as they all played really well through out the season against all 4 advanced teams, playing some of the best players in the south west.

Congratulations to you all……………

Results:

Marcus Evans lost –10, –22tp and won +15,

Kriss Chambers won +13, +18tp, & +2T (25-23),

John Grimshaw won +9T (20-11), lost –16 and won +1T (13-12).

Please pay us a visit. Visitors and new members welcome at any time.
We supply all equipment.  All you need are flat soled shoes to wear on court.