With several players away on holiday and two called up to play for England, depleted Nailsea teams lost three matches last week.

'B' League:  Nailsea 1   Plymouth 6

Nailsea's 1st 'B' league team suffered a heavy defeat when they visited Plymouth last Thursday. The team started badly losing all three games in the morning though JOY WILYMAN had a very close game losing by just two points. In the afternoon three of the games were very close with MARY BARNES and GEOFF HUGHES each losing by a single point and 15 year old ANDREW LOWDON gaining the only win for the Nailsea team.

Results:

GEOFF HUGHES & ANDREW LOWDON lost -5T

JOY WILYMAN lost -2 & -7   MARY BARNES lost -11 & -1

GEOFF HUGHES lost -1   ANDREW LOWDON won +4

Longman Cup:  Nailsea 1   East Dorset (Parkstone) 4

The club suffered its second heavy defeat on Saturday, losing at home to East Dorset Croquet Club in the third round of the Longman Cup, a National Event. All eight players found the conditions very difficult with the lawns very dry and fast. Hoop approaches were difficult and all games were low scoring and went to time. Nailsea narrowly lost both doubles games in the morning and in the afternoon they lost both singles games. PETER DYKE and DAVID MURPHY narrowly managed to salvage one win for Nailsea, winning the afternoon doubles. However, the game was nearly thrown away by one of the Nailsea players, who thought he was playing the last turn of the game. Nailsea were two points ahead when he played a gentle shot and missed an opponent's ball. The opponent scored two points to draw level, but missed the next hoop, letting DAVID in. DAVID scored one more hoop to win the game by a single point. This is the furthest that Nailsea has ever got in the Longman Cup.

Results:

PETER DYKE & ADRIENNE GRIFFITHS lost  -5T

DAVID MURPHY & PAT LONG lost  -3T

PAT LONG lost -10T   ADRIENNE GRIFFITHS lost  -5T

PETER DYKE & DAVID MURPHY won  +1T

Federation League:  Nailsea 2  Bristol 3

Top of the table, Nailsea, suffered their first Federation League defeat of the season, when they lost at home to bottom of the table, Bristol. In the morning Nailsea narrowly lost the doubles, but PETER DYKE played well and had a convincing singles win.

In the afternoon, Nailsea replaced two of their players. J. DIXON had a good win and gained a handicap reduction to -1/2. PETER DYKE, playing an A class player, used his handicap advantage to gain a twenty point lead, but his opponent was in excellent form and gave PETER no easy chances once he had used up all his extra turns. PETER was unable to score any more points and lost by six. Unfortunately, DAVID MURPHY was off form and Nailsea lost the deciding game.

Results:

KRISS CHAMBERS & PAT LONG lost?-5T

PETER DYKE won +20 & lost -6   J. DIXON won +11

DAVID MURPHY lost -17

International Match  England 6   Wales 4

Two young Nailsea members played a major role in England's 6 - 4 win against Wales at Bath Croquet Club on Saturday. 17 year olds KRISS CHAMBERS and J. DIXON were on excellent form and won all their games, whereas the older two England players managed only one win between them. KRISS hit a 35 yard shot to win his closest and toughest game.

Results:

KRISS CHAMBERS & J. DIXON won  +26TP

KRISS CHAMBERS won +17 & +5   J. DIXON won +15 & +21

Nailsea Croquet Club Junior Golf Croquet Competition

Nailsea Croquet Club has a growing number of young junior members and on Friday they held their first Golf Croquet Tournament under the World Croquet Federation's new rules. Nine competitors took part with all of them playing each other. The competition is not yet complete, but at the moment 10 year olds LUCY MORGAN and DAVID STAFFORD are joint leaders with six wins each. BEN RALPH also did very well, winning four games out of six on his first visit to the club, and is lying in third place.