Good morning from a dry if very chilly Nottingham. Today is the last day of block play and this morning features the 1v2 games.
I'll be commentating on the game on lawn 1 between Gabrielle Higgins and Sarah Hayes. For those of you wondering who Sarah Hayes is, it's Sarah Burrow - she was married about 7 weeks ago.
t1 Gabrielle plays blue to 9y N of c4
2. Sarah plays yellow to c2
3. Gabrielle shoots black at blue from a-baulk - may just have decided to join up, since it missed by a couple of feet on the left.
4. Sarah shoots red at blue from a-baulk...........hits

A big thank you to all the volunteers who wielded orange snow shovels to disperse the water on the lawns yesterday

Sarah is one of the quicker players in the event and has already croqueted blue a bit in-lawn and obtained a rush whih she taken to 4y S of c2
Turns down the take-off behind partner and croquets oppo2y SE of h2 which should give her the opportunity to lay up wired in c2

Yes, Sarah hits off the boundary giving herself a 3" rush south which should be wired

Actually, it's a bit longer than that, so maybe Gabrielle will be open on something........doesn't look like it..........Gabrielle plays the ball at h2 to c4 - sound choice

Sarah rushes to 4y S of hoop 1 and will be approaching trying to obtain a rush east. Perfect approach leaves a 9" hoop and gets a 7 foot rush to blue which she cuts to 5 y south of blue leaving plenty of room to send partner to h3 and get a rush on blue to h2

Poor stroke leaves Sarah with a cut rush back to the ball in c4. Misses the cut rush.

Gabrielle now has a similar cut-rush which she middles leaving her with a 10y take-off to get a rush on the corner ball. Sends oppo in-lawn making no attempt to get the rush and then rolls over to try and guard C1 but finihes a bit short. I think Sarah will shoot from h3 to h4 anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

So a choice between shooting from E of h4 to balls S of h1 (looks free) or from h3 to h4 for a 4 ball break

Sarah takes the shot from h3 to h4 as anticipated..............strikes it well with a fairly wristy irish grip and misses by a whisker.

Sarah is using a round Pidcock with what look like brass ends whilst Gabrielle is using a D ended Pidcock with brass ends.

Gabrielle makes h1 and rushes back to Sarah's, ball on the S boundary

Gabrielle sends her h3 pioneer 8y S of the hoop but gets a good rush t h2 which she rushes 3y E. Overhits the approach and is now at 45 degrees. She has a perfectly sound option of returning to partner, but these hoops are very easy to run. Returns to partner near c4. I think that's a good choice at this early stage of the game

Sarah plays the ball at h2 to c3....too defensive for my liking.
Gabrielle has a yard line rush to h1

Gabrielle turns down her rush and plays her h2 ball, taking off to c3. She rolls that ball into the lawn, getting a long rush pointing at the peg - not great.
Just makes the roquet gently and tries to roll up to h2 from 12 yards.............she's straight in front, but about 5 feet back........smoothly through and gets a rush, so should be round now

Gabrielle makes h3 and takes off to partner near c4, but goes off the lawn.
Sarah has a 8-9 yarder.........hits

Sarah has a 5 yard approach to h1 where she get perfect position, but opted to send partner near c1, so has an 8 yard return roquet which she bevels and misses by several balls.

The home-based players are going to have to lift their game if they hope to be successful against the top Antipodeans

Gabrielle shoots from h2 to h1.............misses very narrowly

Sarah has some work to do from here since both her balls are for h2. Rushes to h2 and makes it with a rush pointing at h6 which she rushes to h6. She's in no-woman's-land now. I guess she'll roll to h3.

The roll finishes short ad she makes a leave for her h3 ball.

Gabrielle takes a very long shot from just out of c4 to near c3................misses

Sarah shows she has a good stop-shot by sending Gabrielle's ball all the way to h4 with minimal room. She now has a break

Whilst we have a 4 ball break in progress, perhaps this would be a good time to say congratulations to Ian Burridge for winning the Eastern Championships, beating Maugham 3-0 in the semi and Wilkinson 3-0 in the final. It was his first Championship win for 20 years!!

Paddy is taking some photos this morning. If you'd like to view them, please go to https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.946146922122434.1073741831.760862987317496&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.946146922122434.1073741831.760862987317496&type=3

Sarah reaches 4-b and has made a reverse OSL.
Recap
Gabrielle 1+4
Sarah 2+4-b

Amazing as it might sound, it is possible that the sun may break through!!!

Gabrielle lifts her h4 ball near the E boundary at takes the short lift into c2..............

Good strike and a hit

Gabrielle ends up with a cut-rush to h5 which she overcuts leaving it W of h5. Rolls up to h4 off partner..............short very angled..........trying to flip ..........hits outside of far wire.

Sarah shoots from h5 to c2 at partner.............hits, but it's only her 4-b ball. She'll now need to take-off from c2 to near c4 to make a leave

On lawn 7 Jenny went 4th turn from a c2 opening with an NSL and Rosey Landrebe has replied 5th turn.

Sarah has made a leave. Gabrielle corners her ball near h3 to c1

Sarah has a rush to h2 and the other ball is 2y NW of c4

Sarah makes h2 and gets a rush to the ball in c1 which she declines and rolls to guard c3

Nope, she's ended in front of h3 and takes it on (that's the wrong choice)
Runs the hoop and returns to partner.
This means Gabrielle now has a much more free shot

Gabrielle takes her free shot from near c4 to near c3....................hits

It's her h4 ball, so she's got plenty of work to do to pick up a break

Recap
Gabrielle 1+4
Sarah 4+4-b

Gabrielle has made a leave near c4.

Sarah plays 5 feet E of c2
Gabrielle didn't leave herself a rush to h4, buit should still be able to make it. Sarah's other ball is 4y NE of h6

Gabrielle takes a perfectly sensible line of going to the ball at hoop 6 and I assume will make another leave

This time Sarah shoots from h1 at partner NE of h6...........misses

Gabrielle plays a series of decent strokes and now has a break

Gabrielle underapproaches h6, but it's really difficult to fail these wide wired hoops if you hit it into the far wire and she sails through

Gabrielle reaches 4-b. She has made an NSL with Sarah's h4 ball on h4 and her other ball between 1 + 2
Recap
Gabrielle 1+4-b
Sarah 4+4-b

I would have liked to see Sarah's h4 ball floating E of h4, Sarah's 4-b ball in the middle of the W boundary and Gabrielle tight in c2, but the leave she has made is ok -it just gives Sarah too much should she hit

Sarah lifts her h4 ball to c3 and takes the long lift.................hits. That's 2 balls at her hoop and another near h5 for her now.

Surprisingly, Sarah doesn't make h4 straight away but opts to rush over to partner 6 yards W of h5. Her rush to h4 finishes 4y short

Approaches to short angled position and runs it by 4 yards

Expect a ball to the peg

Sarah has reached the peg and has made a fairly horizontal spread.
Recap
Gabrielle 1+4-b
Sarah 4-b+peg

Gabrielle lifts her 4-b ball which was at the peg and goes to c3 to take the lift...............

misses.
Interestingly, Sarah left a very short rush which was a perfect double from the boundary in front of h1. I'd have been tempted to play my h1 ball and take that.

Sarah has made 4-b and her penult pioneer is 2y W of penult.....should finish.

Jenny won 8th turn +17 against Rosey

Sarah goes into her penult pioneer whilst loading rover, so will need to approach from the side.......it's short..............clangs.

Gabrielle has a range of potential shots. It's not clear that Sarah can do anything with her penult ball - can't see from here.
Gabrielle takes a 6 yarder with her h1 ball at rover............misses.
What can Sarah do?

Sarah is looking at a short angled penult..............plays it gently and only goes 95% through.
Gabrielle can now shoot at the ball almost through penult from the N boundary or at a completely open ball 3 yards SSE of penult.
Calls for a ref and shoots at the ball in penult............misses everything.
Another good chance for Sarah

Sarah taps her ball through penult and rushes partner 5 feet NE of rover. Approaches with a roll, runs the hoop and pegs out +17

That's all for now. The main relevance of that game is that it means the number 3 and 4 seeds are likely to swap for the KO, so Gabrielle will go in Jenny's half and Miranda will go in Alison's half.