Patel wins the toss and takes play. Malcolm chooses b an k.

G1
Y supershot halfway between peg an h1
B max position
R misses b to 5y s
K hits B an cuts it to 4y N of h4, takes off to r an will be playing the big croquet stroke

Doesn't get a rush to 1, big croquet stroke which he plays well. Fails I think a 1y hoop giving Patel a 5 yarder with y
Y misses 5 yarder to SB
K misses 7 yarder at K giving y a 1ft rush to c1 (why I said a rush I don't know but I'm sticking with it! ha)

Scanning around the other courts, Tim is in play, Clarke an Chapman sitting down, Greg an Jenny sitting down. Will try an get some more commentators onto these other games including Garrison an Westerby's doubles match on L7

Patel sets a leave, oppo ball by h1 an h4 but outside the box. Malcolm shoots with the h1 ball and Samir is on first break

Good pickup an approaching h4 in complete control

Made 3b an having a spread. Looks pretty good from here

Malcolm lifts the peg ball (K) and heads to c3
Touches the hat.. walks up, Mallet down, no mucking about it straight into it. Doesn't like it straight away. He's missed to peg high on EB - approx. 6yN of r an y. Not sure what happened there, didn't look like a bevel.

Patel rushes y over to B, loads 2 an rushes B back to k finishing 1y N of it. Digs blue out, reasonable rush to h1 a approaching from 2y straight. Fails h1 - looks like R will have to go back through the hoop to hit him. R appears to have goten lucky an landed straight in front runnable to y.
K shooting at B on EB.. much nicer looking shot but misses by a foot

Patel picks up a break, has made h4 and looks to be positioning the balls for a delayed TP. that won't be happening as he has just got hampered out of h5 and misses hampered shot t NB.
Malcolm hits 9 yarder with B, makes h1 but is hampered afterwards and retires to c2

Patel plays y an hits 12 yarder on r, will be making a leave.
Clip positions
Y 4b an in play
R h6
B h2
K h1

Patel makes a leave, Malcolm misses, Patel's goes to peg with a leave;
R an Y in c4y with a northwards rush
K halfway up EB
B over by WB peg high? (I think!)

B goes to c3 an making a triple target..? Hits K

Clip position
R 6
Y peg
K 1
B in play with a chance of a break

Malcolm has made hoop 1, good croquet shot gets a nice rush to H2 an should be away

Making h4, complete control. I'm expecting him to go round an take Y off so it will be; Fletcher peg an 1 vs Patel 6 an box. Still a long way to go though

Fletcher is try to peel 6 or put it in the jaws after 6? Why? Possibly not thinking of pegging y off as surely r is better on 6 than 1b? Not sure whats going on there. Peel/jawsing fails and now doesn't has a rush to NB to load tb. Rushes 2b pioneer into good position, takeoff back to 1b and is fine. Where will red go now?

No rush out of 2b.. K goes to 4b but looks like he was trying to get it N to make the h6 peel easier.. Patel an Burch sitting beside me confused about whats going on

2nd peel attempt coming up.. on the ground lining it up, big split angle going to 4b so a tough shot still. Feeling from 18 inches

Fails the peel again, possibly rush peelable though?

Doesn't get the rush peel. Surely that's a good thing - still puts it back in position though. Straightens it up with a cannon. 3rd time at the attempt. This is from the most difficult position now, 2ft angled

It's in the jaws this time. I know I don't really understand the top level game yet an all of the players are significantly better/smarter than me, but I'm still really confused about what he wants to achieve

Rushes K to c4.. 12y take off to get a rush on y to the peg. Good shot, pegging out from 1yS of peg.. must be going up to r as well after all that effort?

Gets the peg out but R finishes 2ft NW of 6.. rushes peel out of 6.

4th attempt from a foot in front. HES GOT IT!!! r now on 1b. B goes into c1

We now have, Fletcher on peg an 1 Patel 1b alone.

Guessing Patel will take croquet from C4, put that inbetween 1b an 2b going to c1, take off an finish with a great squeeze if he fails to take position?

My guess is a good start.. Taking croquet from c4.. pretty good shot. K 7yw of peg, 5 yarder on b in c1

Middles it. big take off shot coming up

Patel gets a great squeeze. 2ft 1b with B level with 1 on SB. K retires to C3

Patel rejects out of 1b to what looks like hoop running position, I disappear to check out the other games, currently Patel is on 2b and Malcolm is up to H2. Patel takes position at 2b with Malcolm 7y apart near c2. Hits 7 yarder takes off to ball at 2b, rushes it to 5y w of 4, takes off back to near c2 an finds a wired spot

Wired spot on 1 ball - otherwise it would be a wiring lift. DUH!

Malcolm now up to H3 an laid up in 3. Samir in c4 still on 2b

Patel goes 5y e of c2
Malcolm makes 3 with a return rush at r. Finishes 2ft W of it. Good chance to make a few hoops here

Nope its a leave. B an K laid up in c3 with a rush to 1b. Maughams y (h1) is 3y NE of 4 an r is 6y SW of 1. R shooting at y... not a good looking shot this time, misses to EB level with 4

Got my tabs mixed up again. Back to Malcolm an Samirs game:

Malcolm up to h6 and laid up W of h2 - one ball open on Patel (2b) who is in c2. Tries to play a promotion to get the wire on both Its a nice target now. B definitely open, can hit 3/4 of K but h2 is definitely a potential problem. Maybe 2 balls gap between them but I don't think so. I think he will shoot at this

Goes an has a look.. yeap he's shooting. Lines it up... Good contact but needs a hill... ugh oh its going to h2!
Not a bad result, bounces off the wire into c2. That could have been a lot worse for him. Malcol takes his 9inch rush to 6, approaching from 1y in front

Makes 6, gets a rush to NB maybe 2y W of 2.. he's playing for the take off. Good shot, gets I an has a slight cut to 1b

Makes 1b, Rushes oppo down to 2b. Taking on a 2ft hoop.. could be fatal!

Good shot, hammers through to the Boundary. Approaching 3b off R from 2yw of 5.. no change of plans, takes of to B, another good shot. Will be able to rush this into c2 if he wants to , finishes with B (peg) 1ft S of c2 and he's wandering down to c4. Will he put it there or on EB so its harder to roll to 2b?

He put it in c4. Samir hits, roll finishes with a 5y 50degree hoop (at a guess) so retires to WB 3yN of peg
Malcom puts K in c3, Patel shooting at B in c2...

Bald shoots with K.. hits the 13 yarder on B

While I went to get lunch we have Bald now on Penult (B) an Rover (K) with Maugham still 1 an 2b. Bald has the innings, Dave missed another 17 yarder into c4 and Bald is playing his penult ball going towards them.. finishes 7y short.. hits

I really don't know what day it is. Thought going to have lunch would have been the break I needed not to confuse the commentary tabs anymore. Turns out that's not the case. No more mistakes for the rest of the day from here on in though!!
Malcolm up to 4b laid up in c3 an patel goes to c3

Good couple of shots from Malcolm, up to Rover now an balls are close to c2 an c4.. Patel goes down to A baulk an shooting at rover ball.. middles it

Samir takes off to c2. Big roll down leaves 4y 2b with B 1yE of it

Rejects to 2y nnw of it

This should be the last shot for Samir, B an K in c3, R on WB 2yn of 1. R may be technically wired from K an still has B to play so needs to be careful here

Liked it for a while... nope doesn't get it. Malcolm should finish from here to go game up then I would think the players will stop for lunch

4y approach to Rover.. 1y hoop... creams it through. 7 yarder back.. finishes 2y sw of 6. Gently an peg one off if you miss or hammer at it?

Pegs out. Game 1 Malcolm 26-20

G2

The opening has begun with my back turned =/

Malcolm is on 4b with b and K has just failed a 5y 20 degrees h2 bouncing off the outside wire to finish on wb 4y s of c2. Samir 1/2 balls the 6 yarder with R. Both r an y on h1 and y is 4y ESE of h3 and B 7yS of 3

Samir starts a TPO, 1 peel done but sticks in 5. Malcolm hits and is 2 an penult with 2 balls at 6 to use to get to H2. On easy conditions I would give him a quite a good percentage to finish from here but at the moment I think its only 50/50. If he does complete it, I think he could be quite dangerous tomorrow

Didn't get quite as far as I thought, fails h2 from nowhere.
Samir has a choice of 9 yarders...

Samir hits with his h1 ball.. bad rush to 1 an is approaching from the boundary, over approaches and goes to eb 2ys of the peg which is 8yw of r.
K misses the 13 yarder at B into c3.
Y hits the 8 yarder in the middle, takes off to c3 and has space to load 2 with k getting a rush on b to h1

Samir has broken down an is on h5 with R an 1b with Y. Malcolm has just run h3 with B an K is on the peg. If he makes h4 the break will be laid out an will have a 4ball break for the match

Good finish from Malcolm to take the game and match. Well done on his first Mac match win of many i'm sure.
Just spoke to Malcolm, had a question from one of our readers about why he peeled Samir to 1b.
Answer "I thought he was less likely to finish of a squeeze than what he was from h6 and it would give me better control later on if the squeeze failed".
The battle of the Rob's is about to begin on L6 so I'll get onto that straight away