Longman Cup- Ashby beat Bury 5-2 by Tim King (24/07/07)

Richard Sanville (11) & Geoff Ellott (16) beat Malcolm Hardman (14) & Graham Saunders (16) +13; Tim King (4.5) lost to Justin Brightmore (11) -14; Jeremy Staley (10) beat Paul Kenworthy +4(T); King beat Kenworthy +9; Staley lost to Brightmore +22; Sanville beat Hardman +3(T); Ellott beat Saunders +3.

The seven game format proved, as so often, to provide an exciting day of croquet and the Ashby courts once again demonstrated excellent drainage properties with having no ill effect from recent downpours, although slightly less grass would have been ideal. The weather co-operated and the participants only endured a very few spots of rain. During the day, Brightmore played the best croquet for Bury and when he won in the afternoon, this took Bury back to one behind at 2-3. All the attention turned to the matches of Sanville-Hardman and Ellott-Saunders both on the same court and with plenty of changes of innings. Saunders was in good shape, having built a strong lead of nine hoops with both balls on rover. Ellott, however, began finally to discover some form and claw back, although Saunders did manage the first of his rover hoops. Meanwhile, Sanville had established a lead but Hardman began his recovery. For twenty minutes or so, Bury began to look good for a victory from behind. Ellott though sealed the win for Ashby despite being pegged out and a little later time ran out for the Hardman recovery to give a slightly generous scoreline for Ashby. In the quarter final, Ashby will play Fylde.