Our U-league team B can only play at weekends, as several of the cadre have weekday jobs.
Weekend fixtures are not the easiest to arrange around the league, and as a consequence team B had 2 matches to play in September, squeezed in before the end of the season.
At Medway we had a low handicap team (Tedstone 2, Gunton 3.5, Gray 4.5, Bristow 9) and played on uncertain lawns. In the afternoon singles, played in handicap order, each member of RPCC was giving away at least 5 bisques to our convivial hosts. Medway used their bisques wisely, finishing the match 4-3 winners, and that was despite having to give us the doubles match because one of their pair was taken ill about half an hour into the game. Well done to them!
The following weekend at Rother Valley they fielded a strong low handicap team against us and the tide of bisques flowed in our favour. So much so that the team (Bristow 9, Slade 10, Dykes 16, Barnard 18) came away with a clean sweep 7-0. Playing croquet at Rother Valley is always a very pleasant experience – both the place and the people. This time it was all of that and more; enlivened by a colourful wedding ceremony, vows, best man’s speeches on the PA, bouncy castle and all that in the adjoining field. This can be seen in the background to the photo of Mike Barnard, in his first time out for the U-league team, pegging out in the final game of Team B’s U-league 2018 season.