Testing, Testing...

Welcome to the commentary for the 2013 World Championship Final, between Robert Fletcher and Paddy Chapman.

Robert started playing at the Lismore Croquet Club, located in South West Victoria, in 2004. Robert is currently doing a course in Agriculture, through Ballarat University, while working in the family business. Some of his interests include: watching and playing sports like Tennis, Cricket, Snooker, Table Tennis, AFL, Hockey, and anything else that looks interesting. This is his 3rd AC Worlds appearance, and second final.

Paddy began playing croquet in 1999 and, under the guidance of seven-time NZ Open singles champion, John Prince, he has had great success within the New Zealand croquet scene. He has been selected for his third MacRobertson Shield later this year, and has been a playing member of three Trans-Tasman teams for NZ. This will be Paddy's fourth World Championship and his first final.

The final will be played on Surbiton Croquet Club's lawn 3. For those familiar with the venue, I'm at the end of the marquee, approximately in line with hoops 3 and 4. The green manager's tent has been removed (at least I assume it wasn't stolen) overnight, so there's a clear view across the lawn. There are already around 30 or so people here, but neither of the players.

The club has changed some of the flags this morning. The WCF, CA, New Zealand and Australian flags are on display, although curiously only the two national flags are fluttering in the breeze. The lawns have been cut this morning, and the hoops are in fresh holes. I've been out to have a look and they feel very solid and are snug. I suspect that we'll see some hoop failures today. The lawn has been measured as running as "three times the square root of 17". Which is 13 Plummers to the rest of us.

The players have both arrived and are setting up camp in the lawn shelter near corner 2. The referees are wearing white, although Paddy is in all-black national uniform. Robert is wearing his Australian jacket and appears to be looking at the order of play! I think they're waiting for the official bell for the start of practice, which has just been rung by the tournament campanoligist.

I've been joined by a pair of experts to assist me. One is Ian Plummer who will be the main referee for the day (Ian Vincent is the Tournament Referee in the event of any appeals). The other is James Death, but he's failed to notice that the manager's tent has gone, so I'm not sure how much he'll be able to help. Malcolm Fletcher has also arrived, although he appears to be a bit biased.

Curiously, I've not seen anyone testing east boundary during their warm-up. Robert played his second round match on this lawn; we're not sure if Paddy has played on it before.

We're off. Paddy has won the toss and opted to play first.

Game 1: Paddy (Blue and Black) v Robert (Red and Yellow)

1. K to 9 yd N of IV
2. R 6" S of corner II
3. U at K, misses N of K.

4. Y takes shot shot at K... hits, sending it 2yds N of Blue.

Rushes U to 3 yards from corner I. Long approach to 4 feet 30 degrees. U is on the line between 1 and 2, about 10 yards N of 1. No hesitation about taking this on.

Runs about 6 yards past blue, rush pointing back to corner I, rushes it to level with 1. Rolling up to red in corner II, rather making use of K, which is 3 yards off the boundary level with 4. Yellow is close enough to red in corner II, but U has barely gone past hoop 6.

First dance in corner 2 as Robert prepares the roll. A bit short on the roll and has a 2 yard 30 degree hoop. I'm told that's 0.52 radians.

Clubs it through to the boundary to the first round of applause of the day. Plays a good couple of shots and has a break.

We have confirmation from the manager that Paddy has played on lawn 3 this week.

Robert has made 5 and having had the early 2back pioneer, is having to rush to 6 from S of the peg. Calls a referee due to a squirrel protesting last night about the final not being on its favourite lawn.

Copes and is in full control having run hoop 6 into the knowlegable crowd. Return roquet bounces off hoop 6

Is having a diagonal spread, but has just failed 3-back. Is having a very close look at the ball, and mallet has gone up.

There seems to be some debate about whether the hoop is too tight, but it doesn't seem to have wedged. That said, they're taking some time over it. I did note before the start of play that yellow was being used to set the hoops, so it's probably the biggest ball. The clip has gone on.

5. Blue at red is obvious for Paddy if he wan't the QPO. Black at Yellow if he just wants a break. Opts for Black at Yellow. Sends Y to 2, gets a rush on Blue to Red, and rushes Red to 9" North of hoop 1. Enough room for a backwards take-off. Hoop and roquet and has a "nice four-ball break" (Robert Fulford)

Conversation between Paddy and Ian (the referee). I'll try to find out what that's about.

Ian Vincent reports that hoop 4 is going to be reset. Whilst it wasn't small enough for a wedge, it smaller than the other hoops and smaller than when it was set. The suspicion is that it's shrinking and therefore it's better to reset it now than to wait for a wedge. The discussion was to tell Paddy what they were about to do so that he could pause his turn at an appropriate moment.

Paddy has stopped after running hoop 2 while hoop 4 is reset.

Ian reports that hoop 4 was large enough for a 0.05mm gauge (which looks like a piece of foil to me) to fit on the large axis of yellow, but the 0.1mm didn't.

To give you a idea of 0.05mm, the gauge is effectively invisible to the human eye when looking side-on. 1/64" is 0.4mm.

Getting back to the game, Paddy has made hoop 4, and is popping R through hoop 1. Or more accurately failing to POP R through the near wire of hoop 1.

Commentary team thought he'd turn down further pops, but has tried to get it into position for a roll-peel to hoop 6, but has ended up in a position where he can only take-off to hoop 6. I suspect he will now settle for a ball to 4-back,.

The cooks have started cooking 200 sausages for lunch.

Paddy is planning a diagonal spread, but has 3-back to negotiate.

Commentators curse. He's got a short andgled-three back. Runs by a couple of yards. Looks to now be having an NSL, but we can't understand why he's left partner by the peg in a good place for a diagonal spread.

Yellow (for 3-back) in NSL position by hoop 3. Red (for hoop 1) is 4 yards off the boundary aproximately level with 6. Paddy (for 1 and 4-back) is joined close to maximum distance. James helpfully reports that "close to maximum distance" is 16 paces to 4-back.

6. Despite Paddy's leave encouraging yellow to play, Robert lifts Red. Clears some of the crowd from B baulk. Malcolm reports has he hasn't touched his cap in the stalk. That doesn't seem to make any difference as he centre-balls the rush to a yard from corner IV.

One of the commentary team (I'll leave you to work out who) points out the agreessive line of play to peel 3-back immediately while getting

a rush to hoop I. Robert picks the line of play favoured by more players, sending U to 2 yards from hoop 2 towards hoop 6 getting a rush

on K. Has a rush to hoop 1, but cuts it towards yellow and plays for a rush directly to hoop 1. Rushes 2 yards past hoop 1, and gets an

angled 18 inch hoop 1. Runs by a yard for a forward rush (that he didn't want). Curiously red seemed to jump as it ran the hoop.

Taps his forward rush a few yards but opts to take-off to get a rush on K rather than rolling yellow there. Uses yellow as a pivot for a couple

of hoops and sends it down to hoop 4. He has control at hoop 3 (off black). U is peg high about 2 yards W of the line between 3 and 4. Y

is 3 yards from hoop 4 on the line towards the peg.

Approaches 4 with K 2 yards from hoop 5 towards hoop 3, U about 2 yards E of hoop 5. Has the balls placed nicely at 3-back, but (to a sigh of relief from the referee) runs the hoop cleanly. Has a longer return than he'd like. Tries a gentle return roquet, probably trying to rush it into the jaws, but it slides past the hoop. Plays a take-off instead leaving Y 2 feet W of 3-back.

Rushes to south boundary after 5. The expert advisor recommends putting K to 1-back, but also thinks along side hoop 6 is OK (so that he can put blue as the 1-back pioneer when approaching hoop 6. Robert actually sends black to 4 yards E of 6, and it looks to be too far south to be able to rush it to 4-back after hoop 6. Rushes nicely in front of 3-back. Peel rejects from inside the jaws to back where he played the stroke.

Could have sent blue sideways towards 1-back to give a chance of peeling 3-back before 1-back and sends it as a reception ball. Runs by not very much so hits black. Sends that to 2-back but gets too far south of yellow and rushes it out of position. He didn't, however, rush it towards blue so it looks like he's still going for the finish.

Rush to 1-back isn't ideal, and has a long approach. Fails 1-back from 2 yards.

7. Blue hits red (about 10 yards).

Partner is waiting at hoop 1, so has a standard TP for game 1. Takes off to yellow (just missing the peg), which he'll want to send as a better hoop 2 pioneer than R on north boundary. Backward take-off to hoop 1 (again), but copes.

Some of the crowd have questioned resetting hoop 4. Note that either player can, when in play, ask for any incorrectly set hoop to be fixed. Once the incorrect setting had been identified by the referee it was clear that is was too small, and hence needed resetting once there was no longer a critical ball in the hoop. Robert did not get a replay since under law 53b(3) the striker is only entitled to a replay if it was possible for a ball to have wedged in the hoop. This wasn't possible (in any orientation), and hence there was no replay. Possibly a bit tough on Robert, but those are the rules.

Paddy is approaching hoop 5 with partner jawsed in 4-back.

Plate update (lawn 1): Game 1 of a best of three. Jose Riva is penult and peg; Paul Bennett is on a standard TP.

Bowl update (lawn 5): Game 1 of a best of three. James Hopgood +23tp against Nick Parish. Game 2, Hopgood has won the opening.

Sheild update (lawn 6): Game 1 of a best of three. Richard Smith is 4-back and peg against Lionel Tibble

Paddy has jawsed penult after 6. Rush peeled it after 1-back, but missed the rover peel by "an astonishing amount" (Ian Lines).

Made 2-back, has a 2 foot 40 degree angled peel attempt going to his 3-back pioneer (which is a bit further north than you'd like). Peel rejected.

Makes 3-back; sends a good ball to penut and tidies up peelee with a take-off. Asks for a refereee at 4-back. Can't see what's going on since he's in the way. Robert is out now as well. Looks like Paddy must have called a fault on himself.

Referee reports that Blue only just ran the hoop and mallet caught up with the ball. Fault.

8. Robert takes a look at the balls, decides that nothing rushes nicely to 1-back so turns down the 2 foot roquet with red (which was next to 4-back) in favour of a 5 yarder with yellow (which is for 3-back).

Barbqeue has just started up, to cook another 100 sausages.

I understand that the sausages for hot dogs which were supposed to be enough for the final weekend were all eaten yesterday, so an emergency order has been delivered by the local butcher.

The sun has finally made an apperance which has warmed things up significantly, although it's still genreally overcast.

Robert is hhaving his break. Paddy's rover ball has gone to rover, but that was the natural line of play.

He's run penult as has stopped to think.

Blue has come down south of Rover, so looks like a Riggall.

Peeling from a little more than a foot

He's got two side balls. Blue is west of the hoop. Red is East of the hoop, a little north of the hoop.

Plate: Jose Riva won the first +11.

Bowl: James Hopgood is on a tp in the second.

Robert can't get these balls to sit where he wants.

Peels deep. Yellow may have run to a position where he can't hit either side ball. It's through, but no problem since he rushes Red to E boundary, approximately level with 5. Blue is for 4-back. Debate here as to whether yellow should go into corner II or level with penult on W boundary. Robert favours the latter.

9. Clip update, Blue for 4-back with lift. Red for 1-back, on E boundary level(ish) with hoop 5. Yellow for peg, on W boundary level(ish) with hoop 6. Paddy lifts blue to B baulk and shoots at yellow. Very close, but missed.

10. Big cut-rush to approximately rover. Rolls blue to near IV, quite close to the "wired from the peg" position. Big roll with partner towards 1 back (red's hoop) and corner II. Red closer to IV, yellow lands a foot north of 1-back; ideally for propping if he wants. Tony Hall reports that Red and Blue are wired, so propping would be a bad idea. Yellow goes 5 yards south of red (i.e. a 5 yard rush to corner I).

11. Paddy looks at red and yellow, and then plays to corner III.

12. Robert hits Y with R, and is thinking about a wired rush. Doesn't like it and rolls to corner I leaving a rush for R to 1-back

Weather update. The rain that has been forecast for 3pm has been removed from the latest forecast, although there are some showers in the south-west of the country.

13. Paddy moves just out of corner III.

14. Robert improves his rush.

15. Paddy deems.

16. Robert rushes to 2 feet NW from 1-back. Some debate here about whether he should have rushed to the hoop 3 wire, or indeed whether he should roll back to corner I from there since he's not going to get a forward rush.

Makes the hoop with a backward rush, which he takes to corner II. Takes off to somewhere E of hoop 2 (but why not attempt position at 2-back??) and retired to corner IV. Nearly hit a member of the crowd who wasn't paying attention but they leapt out of the way in time, at the expense of their hot dog.

17. Paddy shoots at Roberts peg ball in corner II. Misses.

18. Robert has a rush south if he wants it, but I think he could just ignore if he wanted. Commentary consensus is to rush S of hoop 1, send the ball towards 3 going to partner and roll back to corner I. Instead, he taps partner, takes off to 6 yards from partner in corner IV, hits partner (and misses the crowd) and lays a rush for red to 2-back, presumably trying to get R wired. I'm wired from Red by the crowd.

19. Paddy shoots. Likes the look of it, but misses. "@@@@@@ close" apparently. Video evidence shows that it started missing on Paddy's left, but hilled in to miss by almost nothing. Jim's examining the footage to get a measurement.

20. Robert should finish from here. Get's Paddy's ball out to 3-back, and rushes nicely to 2-back. Three ball break for game 1.

James Hopgood has won the Bowl, +23tp +26tp beating Nick Parish.

The Intimidator points out that this means that he's finished two games in the time that Robert and Paddy have needed for one.

Went to get lunch, and come back to find Robert approaching rover from a yard to the side.

Safely through and copes with the rush back to the peg. Robert +4

Robert Fletcher leads Paddy Chapman 1-0 +4

2 hours 17 minutes for game 1. And now lunch.

Correction. 3 hours 17 minutes for game 1.

Referees are out checking all the hoops.

Plate Paul Bennett is having a break with Jose Riva for 6 and 4back

Game 2: Robert (R&Y) v Paddy (B&K). Robert leads 1-0

1. Robert supershot with Y. 2 yds NW of 5
2. K to just out of corner II
3. R shoots at K, misses S of K. Looks like there will be hole in Paddy's target.
4. U buts R, cutting it into the corner.

No cannon, gets a rush into court. Approaches hoop 1, but fails from about a foot.

5. U is S of the hoop, but Y hits U anyway, to south boundary.

Managerial discussion has decided that if the match doesn't finish they will conclude tomorrow. There was some debate about whether they would stop before any game which might not finish but the players have agreed to play on for as long as possible today, to which Gabrielle has pointed out that they're going about that the right way.

Robert has rolled U to to, but got a longish rush on K to hoop 1, but cut it to 2 yards SW of hoop 5. Approaches to a Y ESE of hoop 1, and retreats to corner IV.

I am told that the balls have been measured and the yellow has been replaced with another ball, presumably one which is closer in size to the others. Foretunately, the replacement is also yellow.

6. Paddy shoots with the ball near hoop 2 and the ball near corner II and misses. Black is 7 yards north of hoop 1.

7. Robert rolls out from corner II, get no rush on black. Take off is short. Has a 10 yard wide join on east boundary. (Y in corner, R 10 yds north).

8. Paddy shoots K (from 7 yards N of 1) at U (at hoop 2), hits. All clips still for hoop 1.

Paddy takes off to Y, from there to red, rolls to a yard past hoop 1 and retreats to N boundary, north of U.

9. Robert shoots with Y at U and K, misses. Didn't look like it was a target, but there may have been some interest in both balls.

10. Paddy with K, gets a rush of sorts to hoop 1 which is 4 yards short. Take off to a yard in front of hoop 1, about 20 degrees. Runs hoop with little wire, and has a 5 yard return. Hits.

Three ball break, presumably to 4-back.

The offending yellow ball from game one has been examined in detail, and it turns out that it wasn't round either. Both players were informed before the start of game 2 that it had been replaced.

Paddy has collected red before 4 so now has all the balls. They're placed for a break, rather than popping.

My expert has been distracted by a game of backgammon, although he's been replaced by Susan and her coach.

Paddy, when sending yellow to hoop 6 has managed to hit his pioneer en-route to his pivot. Take-off to pivot to get a rush back to hoop 5 wasn't good, although he's recovered with a good approach.

Paddy is approaching 3-back. No pops, and looks like he want's a diagonal spread. We've been here before.

This time 3-back offers no resistance. Sends R to 2 yards from W boundary, but hits Y to just the wrong side of the peg. He looks at his options, and opts to send yellow 6 yards ENE of the peg, and joins with U just N of corner IV, and K 2 yards further N. Black is for 4-back; everything else for hoop 1.

11. Robert lifts R from W boundary and takes the shot from A baulk at U. Hits.

The crowd looks to be up to arond 175. The manager is wearing a snazzy red blazer. Must be hunting season.

Robert has rushed to 6 yards from hoop 1 as the run comes out. Some blue sky around, and more to the west. Approaches to a yard straight in front of hoop 1, runs to a forward rush on Y. K is near hoop 6, but he rushes it well enough to hoop 2. Doesn't look at the TPO so I assume that this will be a ball to 4-back, perhaps with some pops.

After 1-back, Blue gets left near maximum distance position, but about 2.5 yards from the boundary. Rush to 3-back goes a bit too far and has to approach sending K a little W of the hoop. Has to make 3-back, rush partner to the boundary and then return to position black. Rushes K almost into the jaws, but can position it in a tight NSL position.

12. Paddy takes a close look at K on hoop 4, so perhaps it doesn't rush as nicely to hoop 1 as we think. However, lifts blue (his hoop 1 ball) and lines up a target with a part of black in his line. Hits black.

Sends black to hoop 2 and rushes Y to a yard in front of hoop 1. Misapproaches to 4" to the right of 2" in front of the hoop. Joins N of partner at hoop 2, leaving a 7 yarder at partner.

13. Y shoots at R (18 yards). Misses. Ooohs and Aaahs from the crowd, although I don't think it was that close.

14. Paddy hits U and K, and has another go at his TP. The crowd has been counted (rather than estimated) as 152.

Paddy's rush is 2 yards NE of hoop 1. Copes with that much better than the previous turn. K is about 10 yards from hoop 2, but on a nice line; and he has a useful rush out of hoop 1 so should have a chance at setting up a standard TP.

Rush across to K hits the peg, so he has to leave a ball in the middle of the lawn. Should be no problem for the break, but will make the TP harder. Peel attempt after 4-back is long and angled, and fails. Set up to peel before 6, but misapproaches 5 to about 40 degrees. A little jump continues the break, but he doesn't get enough control to keep peelee in front of 4-back and sets up for a Wylie peel after 6.

Rush after 6 is a little short of 4-back and hasn't got a good angle. He could have a go at the peel leaving a southward 4 yard rush and putting up with a poor 2-back pioneer, but opts to send the ball to 2-back instead and tidy up his break. After 1-back, sends red towards 4-back for a peel attempt after 2-back, Y is at 3-back, K at 2-back. Gets a forward rush out of 2-back, so rushes to the middle of S boundary and send peelee to 4-back. STP attempt?

After 3-back gets too close to R. Doesn't think he has enough space to send R past 4-back while maintaining his rush on partner, so rushes R past 4-back and takes off back to partner. Great rush to straight in front of 4-back.

Yellow is about a yard SE of penult. Red isn't ideal for cannoning partner across to penult, so yellow is OK as a spare ball for the penult peel although I think I'd move it if I had the option! 4-back peel goes through keeping blue in the jaws. Runs blue at a sharp angle under referee supervision and rushes red to close to corner IV.

Sends R 2 yards S of the peg, and also too close to the centre line for my liking. Rush to penult is OK, and he takes it to 3 yards N of penult. Will be playing this with a bit of split to get a rush on yellow. Nice peel to a yard past the peg, and has a rush on yellow to penult.

Runs penult a bit too far, so has no rush, but should be able to get it clear enough to send it down as a deep ball.

Improved line of play by my expert's coach, that a promotion is perfectly playable. Paddy spots this too and is lining up a promotion on black (which is 5 yards away), playing to maintain a rush on red back to peelee. The commentary table says he should have played it straight to maximise the chance of a good cannon. Paddy takes his rush on R and sends it as a good side ball. Rush on peelee is about 5 feet at about 10-15 degrees.

The referee says he's happy with any shot which doesn't leave a contentious jump shot. The peel sticks N of the hoop (just), and Paddy has a jump to continue his turn. The jump hits the crown, lands on the hoop-side of black and carries itself through by about 7 yards. Black has sprung out to the side by about 9 inches towards the side ball.

Sends yellow (for hoop 1) towards hoop 1, getting a rush on red. Rushes R (for 4-back) into black trying to create space to leave it on the back of rover, but hits black full ball. Expecting him to leave red behind rover and roll over to E boundary with partner. Sends R towards 4-back, but too far leaving a 10 yarder from B baulk. Rolls off in corner IV and 2 yards north.

15. Robert doesn't even look at finding a triple target (and 4-back may be in the way anyway) and lines up the shortest shot at R available. Hits.

Sends partner R to 4-back trying to get a rush on U into corner IV for a cannon. Favourite here was to send red closer to hoop 2 (towards hoop 6 looked playable) and perhaps being a bit more speculative on the rush to corner IV (being happy to just rush it a yard closer). U was 5 yards N of corner IV, not the 2 typed above.

Gets no rush to hoop 1 and has a roll from corner IV. A touch short on length, but about 3 yards from the hoop. K has gone quite close to the boundary. Robert declines the hoop and joins (of a sort) with partner. Y is quite close to corner III, so it's a 7 yarder back at red.

16. Paddy has a 28 yarder with K (E boundary) at U (4 yards N of IV). Doesn't like it.

Did anyone have more than 24 hours as their fantasy world croquet tie-break?

17. Robert hits partner to hoop 5. Thick take-off to corner III and arranges a good rush to hoop . R is 4 yards E of the peg, K 2 yards from the boundary level with 5, and he has rushed to 4 yards S of hoop 1.

Copes, but with a rush back to S boundary between 1 and 5. Splits U to hoop 3 going to black, getting a rush on K. Makes 2, send R to a good position from about 15 yards and has a standard TP.

4-back jawses, and has a good enough rush on the escape ball. Hoop 4 pionoeer is 2 yards from hoop 4 on line to hoop 6.

Gets a more angled hoop than you'd like, but runs cleanly to boundary.

Hits his reception ball hard (looked to be just making sure he hit it), leaves it at hoop 5, and rush-peels 4-back to N boundary. Takes-off to hoop 5, but gives himself another angled hoop, this time without a boundary to catch the striker's ball.

Copes with the hoop to cross-wired from blue, so shoots at black. Nice cut to E of red!

Sends K a bit past the mid-line of the court getting a rush to hoop 6. Rushes to level with 6, where he can't put it into peeling position while going to blue, which if you're keeping up you'll remember is a bit south of the peg. Thinks about approaching penult from where he is, but takes off past blue. He very nearly hits it on the take-off, but he has a good rush back to hoop 6.

Tim Murphy says: Your friendly support staff is back on board :-)

Runs 6, sends black a bit far (almost into the jaws of 2-back), didn't get a rush on peelee so will be thinking about a death-roll. Some debate around whether black is OK to death-roll too, but the consensus is that there is a large enough landing area from which you can rush it into a wire.

Doesn't quite get a rush far enough north and tickes it into a position from which he can attempt the peel.

Welcome back Tim. Does this mean that people can leave comments/questions?

Death roll goes through nicele and lands 5 feet from yellow. Rushes it nicely into the wire, where it springs out to a nice position.

Tim Murphy says: I'm the only person who can add to the commentary. Although comments/questions from others is on the to-do list.

Reg says that a referee should be put in charge as a result of the slow play...

Has a angled peel attempt at rover before 3-back, but has a nice angle. Round of a applause and a shout from Stephen Forster as the peel goes through, but striker's ball passes the 3-back pioneer so has to approach from 3 yards SW.

That was a shout of "good shot" above. And Reg want a smiley face for the line above that. :)

4-ball break is uneventful. +3tp

Robert Fletcher leads Paddy Chapman 2-0 +4 +3tp

Presumably tea will be taken before game 3 ?

Excellent lemon drizzle cake.

Game 3 Robert R&Y, Paddy K&U

1. K narrow supershot
2. R to 12 y N of corrner IV.
3. U misses from A baulk.
4. Y hits R.

Rushes to 3.5 yards S of hoop 1. Good approach.

Statto points out that if Robert wins this game, it will be the first time anyone has won a world Championship without dropping a game. In fact, before today, he's only conceded 89 hoops. Bad roll, so ends up with a 4 yard tonk to E boundary. Short take-off to blue, long-ish approach to hoop 2, and gets a 20 degree hoop, which he runs to north boundary.

Approaching hoop 5 with a tidy break

Robert seems to have finally found his stride and is playing with more fluency than ealier. Paddy is getting some advice from Oliver, who has slept through the majority of the match.

Rushes to E boundary after 3-back, took off back to the ball by the peg to glue it ont he peg and lagged back to 18" short of red. Could well have left a double from somewhere?

Black may not rush to 1

5 Paddy lifts Blue and looks at the short lift, then decides to line up the long lift from 2yds out of corner 3

Stalks the shot.....

and.....

misses through the middle of the target into corner 4

6 Rushes Y in lawn, stops it 3 yds past the peg getting a tight rush to 1.

Rushes to 2ft in front of hoop 1

Makes 1 and has a 3 ball break

Y is being sent to 4

Rain has started to fall.

... which has stopped the TV interviewing, so you get me back....

Robert is rolling from corner IV, rushes to just in front of hoop 4 and is playing to rush back to 4-back after hoop 4. I'd have been playing to rush down the other side of the hoop, but I don't suppose it will matter that much.

Particularly with a good rush, so a position where we can attempt the peel from about 1 yard at 45 degrees. Probably just dropping this in the hoop with a straight shot.

Plays it instead with a split shot to get a rush on black which (since the peel has failed) he now doesn't take. James, Robert, Phil and I are all bemused.

I try to get another opinion, but the referees refuse to express one.

I've found a quote at last, but the darts player doesn't want it attributed. "They're all mindless bonkers"

Robert takes off to hoop 5, as the sun comes back out. Approaches to a foot at a slight angle, but he's send blue to a position that it's easy to get cross pegged from.

Runs the hoop by a yard, and bonks his 6 yard forward rush, but doesn't find a nice position so leaves blue E of the centre line. Tries to rush peel yellow. It rejects, but to a position where he can have another go.

Declines to have another ago and takes off to get a rush to hoop 6. ??? The beer drinking commentator says "huh?"

He's run hoop 6, rushed 3 yard SE and is now rolling back to 4-back. Stephen Mulliner has just walked past and says "I can't work this out".

We think it should have left it where it was. He now has K 2 yards W of 4-back, and rushes Y into the jaws. Blue is 4 yards W of 4-back, and he gets a 2 yard rush while peeling Y by a foot, which he rushes 4 yards short. Copes with the approach. 1 yard hoop.

Just to recap, he's playing red and is now for 2-back, with one peel done. Y is a foot N of 4-back and K is 2 yards W of 4-back.

That sounds not too bad, but he's run 1-back to 4 yards in front of 2-back, so his return roquet is about 12 yards, pointing at hoop 2.

Stalks...

Misses

Y for penult is a foot N of 4-back
R for 2 back is on N boundary N of hoop 2
K for 1 is 2 yards W of 4-back (and 2 yards W of yellow)
U for 1 is 5 yards S of hoop 2

7. Paddy fingers off the lift in favour of his 2-yarder, takes off the red and rushes it off the line. Gets a rush to 3 yards N of hoop 1 and has another backward take-off to hoop 1. Although to be fair, when he rushed to in front of hoop 1 he failed to approach it, so he's got a better record with this line. Takes-off to 2 yards in front of 1.

Fails hoop off the inside of the right wire finishing a foot W of hoop 1.

8. Robert shoots with R from a couple of yards S of 2 at the balls at 1. Hits U cutting it to the W boundary, which gives him his break back with potential for a delayed double. Makes 2-back with a rush to E boundary level with Y. Sends K to the Eastern end of the box, but maintains his rush on Y. Rushes 2 yards short of the hoop, so no death roll to 3-back. Take-off to blue while straightening up the peel.

Longish rush to 3 back which gets tonked. 5 yard approach.

Adjusts it.

Again.

Approaches to 6" having tried to roll away, but came back. So probably went straight on average. About 30 degrees. Runs to a 4-yarder at blue.

Jawses peel before 4-back, having put blue a yard S (slightly E) of the penult. Nice tonk to 4-back..

Makes 4-back sending K 2 yards W of peg. Rushes U to Y to get a tight rush to keep Y into the jaws. Stop-shot peel sends Y 2 yards NNE of rover and has a 1 yard roquet on blue.

"Not much that can go wrong from here"...

U is a good deep ball; K is a yard E.

Rush goes to a foot, but not quite straight.

Lines it up carefully

About to play the stroke

Peels nicely. R a yard through, and Y about 2 feet from blue.

Robert Fletcher beats Paddy Chapman +4 +3tp +26

Robert Fletcher is World Champion

For completeness...
In the bowl, James Hopgood beat Nick Parish +23tp +26tp
In the plate, Jose Riva beat Paul Bennett beat +11 +12
In the sheild, Richard Smith beat Lionel Tibble +13 +5