Ladies Day at Chester

Not at the Racecourse but at Chester Croquet Club where ten players (from Fylde, Bury, Bowdon, Southport, Craig-y-don and Chester), gathered on a beautiful May morning –  5 gentlemen and 5 ladies, (handicaps 3-9), all set for the NW Millennium AC short lawn competition. The first two rounds were closely contested but by lunch the ladies were on top with Barbara Young (Bury), Gail Moors (Southport) and Sally Slater (Chester) all having won two matches.

After lunch, in the first semi final, Gail held her nerve in her concluding break to beat Barbara whilst Sally needed a Rover Peel (her first ever) to beat Jack Pattenden in the other semi final. The final was a bit scrappy with both players affected by tiredness or nerves.  Gail used most of her bisques making a 5 hoop break with only 3 balls on the lawn; Sally responded by taking her first ball round using only 3 bisques and after some further skirmishing Sally took her second ball round to make a nervy but effective peg out to win the title (her first major title). Barbara secured the third place to make it a clean sweep for the ladies.

Overall an excellent day with some very good play on the slick lawns. The benefits of the full bisque format (i.e. no base as in previous years) were evident in that two thirds of the games finished in peg outs.

Thanks go to David Boyd for managing the event and to Pat Clare and her catering team for providing an excellent lunch and tea.