11th WCF Golf Croquet World Championship

Good morning all.

Play started about 9am, I got here about 9.24, so it's very well under way.

##Salah Hassan v Will Gee (and Phillip Drew v Mike Crashley)##

This morning's feature match is Egypt's Salah Hassan vs William Gee (Eng) on lawn 3. We'll also be following an all-kiwi match of Phillip Drew v Mike Crashley on lawn 4.

We got here to see Matt Griffith holding his own against world #1 Hamy Erian on lawn 1, but passed by to check out the pick of the morning matches of Salah v William Gee on lawn 3.

Salah was well in control at 4-1 up, and took position all over hoop 6.

Will went well down his mallet and hit somewhat across his jump stroke, but it was a tidy stroke which brought the game back to 4-2.

(Phillip was 5-3 down, but played very well to draw the match back to 5-5. He then played a good clearance to get the first shot at hoop 11, but after some excellent previous play, bounced out of a relatively straight hoop to give Mike the crucial hoop Mike leads 6-5)

(Phillip then had control at hoop 12, but has bounced badly out of another hoop (to about 9 yards to the side)

Salah is now in the jaws of hoop 7 and Will is playing another jump stroke, but it was a very long and very angled attempt. He has bounced off to somewhere blocking yellow at blue. Blue will have a much easier jump - about 4 yards and 15 degrees.

Blue misses the hoop.

(Phil has run hoop 12. Red looked in a bad position to approach 13, but black runs the hoop into red, knocking it away from hoop 12, towards 1)

(red plays up deep, black is in the jaws of hoop 13! - rather an interesting place to be actually. Yellow has a very bobbly shot, which is well short, and blue plays up short too - not a great set of shots really)

Gonna change formatting - stuff in italics is Phil v Mike_

Salah has run 7 (5-2 lead) and things are pretty competitive at hoop 8

great shot from Mike!! - runs a 4 yard hoop - hits it in the middle and clears black, rolling through the hoop. Mike Crashley takes game 1 7-6

Salah has a longish-range attempt at 8, but misses. Blue is right in front of the hoop - might have to hop over, but it's very easy.

Black clears yellow from the boundary .Yellow misses the clearance from a mile, and Will again holding the mallet a very long way down executes a very controlled jump.

Salah leads 5-3

Red approaches to 18 inches and 20 degrees - good pressure there.

Black takes 3 yard straight position.

Yellow plays in to 5 foot position.

Not near. Missed by about 2.5 balls on the right.

Red runs the hoop to 5 yards north-west of hoop 10. Salah leads 6-3

On other lawns Chris reports Hami leads 5-3

Back with Salah v Will... red took position, black cleared yellow to the north boundary ,yellow nailed blue in the middle and blue's shot misses by agani 2.5 balls to the right. Salah takes game 1 7-3. He looked very strong in that game

The Atkins hoops haven't been all that popular with some players, but others, including Salah, are big fans.

On lawn 3 there has been some clearing, and again Mike clears Phil from in front of the hoop. Since we've been here Phil has looked dominant, and has had first go at almost every hoop. He doesn't like too much pressure though, and failed a couple of important hoops in game 1. Mike has just missed an 8 yarder and doesn't look too scary, but the scoreboard is telling a different story

On lawn 3, they're having a break.

Up on lawn 1 Tarek is now up 5-1 and has just failed hoop 7 from the boundary

Mike tried to clear from the east boundary and hit hoop 4. Phil failed a 4-foot straight hoop. Mike failed a 4 yard hoop 1 to near the peg

Shoukry won the first 7-2 against Martin Clarke, and was 2-0 up.

We're back to being competitive with Mike playing a good clearance

Lawn 3 has started - three decent balls to south of hoop 1.
Blue (Will) fails hoop 1, red clears black to wired from a slightly angled yellow. Black plays back in, yellow shooting at the hoop...

Yellow runs the hoop off the North boundary. Salah leads 1-0

Jared Keeman has joined us in the commentary team, reckons Phil has looked a bit rough today. He's predicting two number 4 qualifiers will get to the second round, Chris reckons one. Let's keep an eye on that.

I've just heard that Mike Crashley was delighted to get Phillip in his draw - not that many people you'd want to draw as block winners, so let's see if Crash can make the most of this

Mike Crashley runs hoop 1 with red to 5 yards north of hoop 2. It looks like Blue might have got in wired from it.

On lawn 3, red's in front of black up at hoop 4, but blue clears it from miles away
No, it wasn't wired - Crash clears blue to about 4 yards north of the western penalty spot. Black clears yellow well

Bit of worship here for Salah - don't blame them. Will hits the ball very straight, but doesn't have the depth of tactics.

Looking at block 1, Hamy Erian finished with 71 net points - that's 8 differential per match - very impressive.

Sherif reports Stephen Morgan had a 3-2 lead on Hamy - but has lost game 1 7-3

Crash clears black - Phillip is clearing yellow, an dblue will have an angled 2.5 yarder. Chris is whinging that he hasn't seen Crash play a good shot, but is appears Phil's hoop-running has deserted him

Missed awn 3... Will has equalised, and yellow has played up well short

Phil runs hoop 2 to level the game

Tarek Mamdouh has won game 1 against Duncan Dixon 7-2 if I'm reading the teeny numbers correctly. They seem to have put up a 0-0 for game 2

Crash takes good position with red, black plays short, yellow plays deep, blue misses... Mike Crashley leads 2-1, running hoop 3 by 5 yards

Salah misses a very short clearance and Will clears red well - Red has most of a ball to shoot at, but hits the left-hand wire of hoop 3. Will has an easy shot with black to take the lead.

Will bounces out of a 2 yard straight hoop!

Salah takes position. Will tries to clear - misses - that mallet sounds broken!! Jared reckons Pidcocks don't sound like that - mine did - when it was broken - before I gave up and sent it back!

meanwhile, black approaches 4, yellow gets inside it - great shot, blue plays down blocking black (!), red plays down. Very nice jump stroke by Phil 2-2

Mike takes position, Phil takes position, Mike takes position. Great clearance from Phil getting up to hoop 6

Salah fails hoop 3. He was walking forward during the stroke, and then tells Will off for being in front of him and moving during his shot. A few people wander about - no intent there at all

Mike misses the clearance, Phil gets some momentum with a smooth stroke through hoop 5 off the north boundary. Phil leads 3-2

Will runs an angled hoop 3 to take the lead 2-1. He has done well here - Red is very close to the wire of 3, and he can only play down to near hoop 5

Very good positional shot from Will with black. Yellow is short.

Blue plays in short too

Phil's all over hoop 6 as well.

4-2 to Phillip

Salah tries to clear black - rushes it into the jaws 4-2 to Will

Yellow takes angled position, Blue goes down the east-west hill, and is not in front. Red also fails to get position - poor, as yellow had a clearance on blue to corner 2.

Mike's in trouble again - has an angled go at getting into the jaws... no - changes his mind and is clearing black. Not great - Blue can clear red getting position. Good shot

Will misses the clearance (7 yarder), and Salah runs his hoop Will leads 3-2

red plays back up there - seems a little short. Black plays back in. Yellow has a 7 yarder hoop shot, or a 7 yard clearance on blue. Hits a bit of blue and a bit of red, clearing both a few yards

Blue takes position on lawn 3, red follows. black plays short, yellow clears blue, blue clears red. red comes in beautifully on the line between black and the hoop

Will clears red gently - a good shot.

Yellow plays back in, but goes too far and is open to black - Salah will have a 7 yard clearance though.

Blue plays back in deep. Salah clears black, red wicks off and goes through hoop 11 down towards hoop 1.

Black clears yellow well

Quite a high-ranking commentary bench now - Khaled Tharwat has just joined us, next to Chris, then me, then Jared Keeman, Josh Freeth has just arrived after a well-earned sleep-in, then top Belgian Pierre Beaudry and injured English lady Sue Lightbody who is still sporting a big bruise on her injured ankle.

ok.. blue, yellow, red in front of hoop 6. Black clears yellow from corner 3 to the middle of the west boundary. Red's in front of 6, but won't be for long. Blue clears red. Yellow had played up to east of the hoop

red plays in but is short

Phil's all over game 2, leading 6-2

Black takes great position with black - Salah has an in-off opportunity... poor shot! - rushes black into the jaws!

Will tries to rush-peel - doesn't hit it clearnly enough.

Salah has a 30 degree 2 yard jump. Hits the wire, and black takes the hoop - Will leads 4-2

Phil takes game 2 7-2 - much better looking play there

Looks like 2-2 in Duncan's match. C'mon Whakatane - bring us your big numbers!

Back on lawn 3, Will tried to clear red, nicks it, and is level with hoop 1 - not a bad second prize.

Salah runs hoop 7 with red to half-way down the lawn. Black takes deep position, Yellow gets nice position in tight, and blue clears yellow with a nice contact

Red takes position, black has cleared it, and now nothing is in front.

Yellow lags up behind blue. Don't like that - I fancied going for the central clearance as a good shot would have left him in front of hoop 8

Blue takes position, red hides behind blue from black. Black plays for the block on yellow at blue - too tight really - offers up the double-clearance.

Poor shot by Salah - walking forward again and he gets second prize - nicks black going over to level with hoop 9. Will runs a very floppy hoop 8 Will leads 5-3

Aha - no-one could read the numbers on day 1 at Whakatane and Stephen Mulliner went and made the big numbers - please can we have another set Stephen???

Game 3 has started and Mike is in trouble at hoop 1 already

_Phil runs a good angled 5 yard hoop 1 1-0

The scoring system at Katikati was an ok second effort - they kept an accumulation of numbers in each game 0,1,2,... so at least you could count the teeny splodges. Makes our corflute and whiteboard markers with HUGE numbers look rather good for the under 21s

Mike has a 2 yard jump shot at hoop 2 which will see Phil unable to get ANYTHING near hoop 3. Plays it flat, not a great stroke

Salah fails to get position from the side boundary.

Record of 18 readers - let me know, [email protected], if you're having any trouble, or are coping ok, with the italics for the other feature game.

Salah plays that bad red into the jaws of 9, and Will is holding his mallet about a foot up to play a jump stroke - hits the side wire.. Looks like he has both mallet and wrist injury with a black support on there.

Salah clears Will to corner 4, and Will plays to halfway. Will leads 5-4 as Salah runs hoop 9 to south of hoop 10 - still pretty far back (8 yards?)

Meanwhile Phil has taken a 2-0 lead, having previously cleared a ball to get 5 yards from hoop 3. Mike approaches the hoop, Phil misses the clearance, Mike runs hoop 3 by south of the peg to get on the board. Phil leads 2-1

Phil takes good position, Mike is short with red, Phil takes good position with black also. Yellow shooting...

Hamy 5-3 up in the second, just failed hoop 9

Crash clears blue - runs on into the jaws of hoop 4!

Actually - he got the double clearance, and black is to the side of the hoop where it looks utterly harmless. Blue clips the wire of 4, but hasn't disturbed anything.

Mike take position -just in case

Salah is in front of 10 and Will's shooting from near corner 4... lovely clearing shot

Not a great tactical position from Mike - black clears red going in front of hoop 5 - yellow will stay put.

After a good 20 yarder from Will, Salah misses a 9 yarder - that's a big turnaround. Black fails hoop 10 onto the wire and yellow plays up beautifully to 2 feet backfrom the line of where black is pinned on the wire.

Blue has played to halfway, so has black, red next to the hoop, yellow tempted to stay put - Phil is a very good jumpshot player, but blue is very angled. Nope - runs hoop 4 2-2

blue takes good position, red clears it centrally - good option, as black was in a good position to block the shot for yellow.

Black plays in, yellow misses a 6 yarder.Will has cleared Salah from in front of 10, but Salah returns the complement, and Will clears red from the middle of east boundary. Nothing anywhere near hoop 10 now.

(quick report from the distance lawn where i have a clear, but useless view of the scoreboard - Duncan and Tarek 2-2, and in a neutral position at hoop 5)

Back in the decider between Phillip and Crash Phililp is now all over hoop 5

Salah has hit another clearance, he's in front of hoop 10 with yellow and clears hoop black. Black clears yellow, but yellow's back in front - a bit short and long, but easily runnable

Behind us there was an almight crash, and the peg is in pieces! (this happened at Katikati yesterday with Mohamed Nasr playing also)

blue plays in - giving yellow the offer of a clearance to hoop 11. Red plays in - not in front - missing an opportunity there!

Crash just just missed a clearance from the side boundary at a ball in front of 5 by about 3 feet, and Phil runs 5 by 3 yards Phil leads 3-2

Duncan has taken the lead 3-2 - Lachlan Hughes up there leading the applause.

Just over half the eligible players have entered the plate competition, so good crowd here. Several of the Egyptians are trying out new metallic Australian mallets - Omar Fahmy has one of them and is putting it to the test in the plate

Bit of blocking and clearing - Blue now the only ball near hoop 11 - it's in front of the hoop, and Salah looks a bit unsure about his clearance.

Salah misses, and Will runs the hoop by inches to take a 6-4 lead.

_Up on lawn 4 Phil has missed a clearance and red is now in hoop 6. Black hits the wired from the north boundary and is lying all over blue - yellow can play to halfway to hoop 7 - but he's going for his double clearance.

It looks like Hamy has won his match, so Chris is about second on.

I'll stay with this to the end, probably, then watch Chris. I'm not on for a few matches into the next rotation.

Salah takes angled position at 12, black is well short - not where what happened there - just lagged short apparently - very short. Yellow takes very good position, blue misses, and it's 6-6

Black takes excellent position at 13 - lovely shot.

Back on lawn 3 it's 3-3, and Phillip is in front of hoop 7/

Crash hits the clearance, and is in the jaws of hoop 7! He's only about 50-50 on his 8 yarders at the moment, but hits this well

Salah shoots at black - misses. Blue plays up, shoots again with red ..he's talking after this, but the entire set of lawns slopes towards the west and he misses.

one-all

Crash runs 7 down to 8 - nice stroke

Hi to Danny - conditions.. Stephen Morgan has joined us, says he has run two hoops from 16 yards, his oppo several from 10 yards. About 10.5 seconds speed, even coating of grass.

Gentle smattering of thin cloud, I think it's quite warm

No sign of Mohamed Nasr and Chris is next up on lawn 1 against Walid Wahban

Duncy is up 4-2 in game 2. He's gritty.

I blinked again! - Crash is now up 5-3 - this s a lot of pressure on Phil now!

three very good approach shots to hoop 9, and Crash is shooting - blue and black are very close together, and yellow clears black. Blue for the hoop...

_Phil missed most of these in game 1, got them all in game 2, and runs this well to the north boundary. There is a big wired area for Crash to aim for now Crash leads 5-4

Red is poor - well right of the hoop, decent black, good yellow. Phil needs to hit this 8 yarder

in the middle!

red plays back up, black will clear yellow (I think it's blocking)

yellow plays half-way between black and the corner, blue has to clear this... misses

We're back on lawn 3 for the decider - disastrous start for Will - attempted clearance of red from near corner 1 peels red!

Crash fails hoop 10 for a 6-4 lead and black clears it. Yellow's now in front, but black is all over that. Blue takes position.

It must be George Coulter behind me - haven't seen him since the U21 worlds

LAwn 2 - Salah has got perfect position with red at 2 and Will is shooting from hoop 4 ... misses narrowly and Salah leads 2-0

Back on lawn 4, yellow is right in front of the hoop, blue is jumping... looks good, but he's not claiming it. Black is angled, but has a clear shot - I think red will try to nudge yellow in front - no - just takes blocking position.

blue tries the jump - second prize as yellow is cleared, but he's going to need to clear red with blue. Yellow should be playing back in front.

Nice to meet Stephen Morgan finally - the 8th seeded player in his block qualified, but draw world number 1 Hamy Erian. This is only his 4th golf croquet tournament, and he has done great here.

_Mike plays yellow in - blocks red's shot at the hoop!! Phil misses with blue, red plays to position, black hits teh double clearance - Phil's back!

Yellow takes position, blue plays in, red clears blue. black plays in

yellow takes better position (must have missed something there! - blue runs the hoop from about 17 yards!!! 5-5

Stephen is a professional croquet coach! - at Florida in the winter and in Rhode Island in the summer. He's teh guy you want to visit - liked very near the centre in Florida! Good news is the AC worlds is in Florida next year. Hope I can get time off!!

Mike takes position at 11, Phil takes position, Mike takes position, Phil clears red. Red moves black a little further away from the hoop - black plays back to unrunnable

Sorry - forgot there was a came on lawn 3.. Salah is taking control there - Will misses a shortish shot to go 3-1 down, three balls approach hoop 5, Salah clears will, Will misses. Yellow is right in front of 5...

Salah runs hoop 5 off the north boundary. 4-1

Mike clears Phil again, Phil plays back to good position - Mike will need to run this hoop at this opportunity - nice shot - runs hoop 11 to 2 yards short of the peg ...Mike Crashley leads in the decider 6-5

Blue takes position at 6, red plays perfectly to in front of it -must have had some hill to achieve that??

Rachel has relocated to join us - lathering on some sunscreen

Pierre came and reported some scary stuff on lawn 1 - Chris 2-0 down with Walid jumping him at hoop 2. More applause though as Chris has leveled that one.

Blue clears red, red misses and Will runs hoop 6... Salah leads 4-2

Phil has some control at hoop 12, and Mike misses a clearance. Phil now has a clearance on yellow to get up to 13 - and he's taking it on.

Phil clears yellow - but it bounces off the peg, and black only goes as far as the peg.

_Mike has a go at the hoop - bounces off the wire - it's 6-6!

Walid has run a 45 degree hoop cleanly to take a 3-2 lead over Chris.

Back on lawn 3, Will has taken on a 7 yard hoop 7 - fails it to hoop 4 (!)

Salah takes position from the north boundary with red. Black nicks this from the side boundary. Yellow will take position from the north boundary - that's a good shot

_Mike takes position with red. Black clears!, Black to boundary north of hoop 3, red to corner 3 - that's a really good shot. Mike takes longish position with yellow - black is all over that. Blue takes good position - red needs to clear that to stay in the match!

(sorry - missed final underline, that should all be italics)

Red takes position inside blue - not sure if it's blocking - too hard to tell from this angle. Black clears yellow - it's not in position, but it's in control. Yellow playing back to block... gets good position, but not blocking

blue clears red, but blue is straightish and south of the hoop - Crash is favourite if he can find the wire with red. Plays deep

Back on 3, Will has failed hoop 7, and Salah runs it well Salah leds 5-2

Phil misses a 3-4 yard clearance on yellow!! - Mike has a shot for the hoop - about 3 yards

Big upset here... Mike Crashley beats Phillip Drew 7-6 2-7 7-6 This ends a really good run fro Phillip in this tournament, and is an impressive result for Mike.

Back to lawn 3 as Salah has cleared Will to east of hoop 3 with yellow, red is in front of hoop 8 - good clearance.

That's one player who finished 4th in his block through to the second round of the KO.

Salah and Will still competing for hoop 8. I might be next on, so this won't go the distance.

Will plays a great clearance from near the east boundary - hits red in the middle. Red plays back, black plays in, yellow clears black powerfully - both balls towards the south boundary

blue takes position - red has a 3-4 yarder... bounces out.

Chris is 4-3 ahead

Will taking position, blue is all over red.

Think I'm on next - off to the loo!

sorry - I'm outta here!