On the hot sunny Saturday of Spring, RPCC won 5 games to 2 in an AC Handicap match against Merton, in the first round of the Longman Cup. As both clubs only have single lawns, Surbiton hosted the games, and they made us all very welcome.
By lunchtime Merton were 2-1 up, all games having to finish at the 3½ hr time limit, with one continuing on until a golden hoop was scored. However the packed lunches that everyone brought along must have had a Reigate-reviving effect; a clean sweep in the afternoon.
Full match details are:
Bristow/Ling lost -3T against Doswell/Sheehan
Peacock won +1T against Whiting
Slade lost -4T against Percival
Bristow won +10 against Percival
Peacock won +2T against Sheehan
Slade won +12 against Whiting
Ling won +19 against Doswell
A notable feature of the match, besides the team’s results in the afternoon (and especially Simon’s!), was an incident where yard line positioning was queried whilst Martin was in play, and a tape measure was acquired to verify that nothing was really amiss. On the other lawn, Alan made a few hoops in the wrong direction but recovered very well after retracing his steps; and John B confused himself at the start by getting round to hoop 6 with only 3 balls on the lawn.
All the games were played in a spirit of competitive croquet friendliness. – an enjoyable day out for all, but probably more so for Reigate. In the next round Reigate will take on the winner of Guildford v Woking.