Similar weather conditions today, the lawns have been cut, so they are maybe 200 milliseconds faster than yesterday. There seems to have been some interaction in Dawson versus Goacher, and Wilkinson versus Higgins, with numerous silly errors. Tibble versus Smith seems to have been fairly clean with Smith TPOing Tibble.

Hopgood had a good pickup against Brown on Lawn 1 early in the game following a very defensive opening (Brown EB, Hopgood C2, Brown shoots into C4) after Brown cornered. Hopgood went to 1b with a DL that Brown missed a few yards outside Corner 3. After rushing the peg ball (Blue) into corner 3, and croqueting Blue out 7 yards into the lawn (on a line just off the rush line to H2) to get a good rush on Black, Hopgood feels rather unlucky to have rushed Black into Blue requiring an approach to 1b from 6 yards East of the hoop The approach to 1b was slightly defensive, sending one ball an inch off the West boundary getting Red directly in front of 1b. Thus, a perfect 4 ball break to Robin, and two missed long lifts later and Robin is finishing a TP. Sigh.

Looking around, then as I said yesterday, poor pioneers aren't a problem.

Well, Robin failed to finish his TP by putting his rover escape ball into the jaws of Rover. But sure enough, a good leave, and another miss (short lift shot) from Hopgood gives Robin the game.

Looking around, then as I said yesterday, very angled hoops aren't a problem. Might as well be playing GC here given shooting is so key.

Lionel's GC practice is getting him out of serious trouble, having made three major errors in a game and having some poor pioneers, he's managed to hit three 17+ yarders to get back in the game. So Hopgood loses another game -17tp, despite not making an error, but just by narrowly missing a couple of lift shots. That said, I liked Lionel's approach to the game. Having jaws penult after 6, he manages to send his 3b pioneer into the peg after 1b. He rushes peelee down to just in front of rover. Well who needs a 3b pioneer, eh? Have a go at rover before 2b, why not? And so he does. He's arguably lucky peelee bounced off the hoop, as he didn't have any control to get a rush after 2b. Ho hum. Robin suggests Lionel writes his own commentary which would go "I won!".

There isn't much interaction going on. Robert had a nice break 4th turn to 4b with 2 pops against Richard Smith, after Richard had hit 3rd turn and done a "not-so-proper" dream leave. Richard did a leave with Robert's 4b ball at hoop 3, his hoop 1 ball down near corner 4, and a rush with Richard's hoop 3 ball to hoop 3. Robert says he forgot he had popped, and shoots with his hoop 1 ball at his 4b ball. Richard says he would make a point by TPOing off his popped ball, but I'd say Robert saved Richard a lot of effort by leaving both his hoop 1 and 4b ball at hoop 3. Anyway, Richard duly did his TPO, and Robert got going off the squeeze, but missed a ball in C4 after H4. So that game is ongoing.

James's torrid time continues against Jeff. Jeff got first break after he missed his duffer, but James missed two 8 to 9 yarders. Sigh. Jeff subsequently stuck in 2b giving contact. James went to hoop 6, with a good diagonal spread. Jeff of course took his long lift with his 2b ball, and did a cross wire at 3b with him laid up in corner 2. So in retrospect, it was an error not to peel Jeff through 2b, so that if he did hit in with his forward ball, he was less likely to get as good a leave. James shot and narrowly missed, so Jeff is on a standard TP.

I can't see much of the other two games, but the same players have been on most of the time (Gabrielle and David), and it looks like the odd missed lift.

The great Mr Cordinley is here trying to cheer me up with a beer while Jeff finishes his triple. Phil hasn't yet formed an opinion on the standard of play or the conditions. Which means he is being diplomatic.

Gabrielle has done all the peels of a TP, so that looks like a 9th turn triple, after a defensive opening, and Lionel narrowly missed 4th, 6th, and 8th turns.

After a couple of good shots, Robert has a three ball break against Richard, so will turn this TPO into an OTP. This involved an approach to hoop 5 putting his reception ball near the peg. Robert clearly ran hoop 5 far too hard, with the third ball not yet in play, but hit the peg full on, bounced back, and got a rush to hoop 6 on the ball by the peg. Some people have all the luck.