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23 July 2000

NDCC One-ball Competition, SWF Intermediate & Federation league

Nailsea & District Croquet Club had another busy weekend with their one-ball competitions on Saturday and two league matches on Sunday.

One-ball Competitions

There were two one-ball competitions – level play in the morning and handicapped in the afternoon. Each event was run as a Swiss. After two rounds of the level play BOB SERGEANT, MARY BARNES and PETER DYKE shared the lead, having two wins each. In the third round MARY beat BOB and GEOFF HUGHES beat PETER, so MARY was the outright winner.

Results: 1 MARY BARNES, 3 wins. 2= BOB SERGEANT, GEOFF HUGHES, PETER DYKE, BERNARD WILSON, ARTHUR GREEN and NICK CARTER, 2 wins.

As the level play competition finished early, it was decided to hold at least four rounds in the handicap event. After three rounds BOB SERGEANT was the clear leader with three wins and seven players had two wins. However JOHN PETERSON beat BOB in the next round and the tournament manager found that five players now had three wins out of four. These five players along with one person with two wins played a further round and NICK CARTER, SHEILA WARE and ANDREW LOWDON all finished with four wins out of five. The manager decided that the three should play each other in a block to determine the winner. NICK beat SHEILA and the other two games are still to be played.

Intermediate League: Nailsea 4  Kington Langley 3

A match report will be sent by GRETA STRINGER (Tel. (01275) 853 153

Federation League: Nailsea 6  Bath 1

In the Federation League match on Sunday Nailsea beat Bath by six games to one at home.

In the morning all eight players struggled to cope with the dry lawns and tight hoops. In the doubles the Bath pair used their handicap advantage to build up a good lead. The Nailsea pair had their chances, but KRISS CHAMBERS failed hoop one twice. When he did get going he took two turns to score four hoops. JAMES DIXON did better scoring five hoops with his first chance. Eventually the Nailsea duo got their act together and they won the game by six points. Both the singles games had exciting finishes. 15-year-old MARCUS EVANS used his handicap advantage to build up a useful lead, which he managed to hang on to until, with one turn left, his opponent took a one-point lead. MARCUS shot at his opponent’s balls, which were joined up on the far boundary, a 35-yard shot. He hit and scored the two points he needed to win by a single point.

PETER DYKE was playing well, hitting several long shots, and he too built up a useful lead, which he hung on to. With four turns left he was three points ahead. He was joined up near his next hoop with the rush the wrong way. His opponent shot and missed leaving his ball in a threatening position in the corner. PETER decided to hit hard away from the hoop, but his red ball jumped over yellow, leaving yellow by the hoop. His opponent hit and scored three hoops to draw level. PETER shot at his opponent’s ball on the boundary, but this time he missed. As the scores were level, play continued until another hoop was scored. The Bath player rushed his partner ball to his next hoop and stuck in the jaws. Then PETER produced the shot of the day. He shot from the corner at a single ball target in the middle of the lawn, a 25-yard shot, and hit it dead centre. He moved his opponent’s ball from its hoop and went on to score the one point he needed to win the game.

In the afternoon MARCUS played superbly to win by 24, JAMES won by 21 and KRISS won by 14 with a magnificent triple peel, but PETER lost another close battle by seven points.

Results:

KRISS CHAMERS & JAMES DIXON won +6

PETER DYKE won +1(T) and lost –7 MARCUS EVANS won +1 (T) & +24

KRISS CHAMBERS won +14TP JAMES DIXON won +21

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