Ok, so we've lost all the Australians, and the Egyptian girls. Blocks won by top seed Harry Dodge, local hero Joshua Freeth, classy Egyptian Karim Ghamri and up and coming kiwi star Felix Webby.
I missed the action today, but have three lads and a referee/groundsman, so I'll write a few words, but first the KO draw (using WCF Block Seniority Method:

Harry Dodge v Shaun Theobald

Marwan El Sabarouti v Laura Gannaway

Jasmine Rule v Edmund Fordyce

Lachlan Hughes v Karim Ghamri

Joshua Freeth v James Simons

George Coulter v Hemi McLaren

Liam Reeves v John-Paul Moberly

Giles Lusty v Felix Webby

That's a pretty accurate draw, as we've used the WCF block seniority method, and cross-checked against who Edmund and George are to play.

ok...

++Bit of information on Day 3 at the U21 GC world championships and a preview of day 4++

hmm. formatting...

Bit of information on Day 3 at the U21 GC world championships and a preview of day 4

Worst shot of the day...

Harry Dodge v Marwan: The chaps are saying this was an absolutely spectacular match.
Harry was 4-3 up in the decider and Marwan jumped through a 3-yard 20-degree hoop 8 to level. Marwan then ran hoop 9 from the south boundary. He then ran hoop 10 from 9 yards, 20 degrees, to go 6-4 up.

Harry made 11 and 12.
Marwan took 4 yard straight position at 13.
Harry cut him to corner 3, getting in front of the hoop.
Marwan played to position.

Harry played a dodgy shot that ended up off the north boundary near Marwan's ball, offering Marwan a block.
Marwan tried to take position from corner 3 - finished a bit short.
Harry shot his shot at 13 right at the middle of the hoop - but it spat it back out!

Marwan tried to block from 2 feet away, and failed to block.
Harry ran a 7 yard 15-degree hoop 13 to claim bragging rights in the match.

sorry about that "worst shot of the day comment" - not meant there - the lads have proposed that as the next topic of conversation...

shot of the day - winning vote is Harry's shot to win on hoop 13.
Chris likes Ned's jump shot at hoop 3. He decided to jump through hoop 3 from the north boundary. Hit the crown on the full - rejecting back off the north boundary - that lad has some power!

Hemi tried to jump J-P on the 11th hoop and flew clean over the top - nicking the top of the crossbar and flying over.

Jack Williams had a better day today, taking a game off top-performing Australian player Karim Ghamri

Psychic parents: Edmund's mum has just asked if he'll be on "worst shot of the day'. Well Caroline - he did have a couple of offers in that category.

There have been a few upsets in the blocks, most notably being Giles Lusty having two very good days to qualify for the KO, and Felix Webby dropping only one game to dominate his block. Lachy Hughes had a nervous wait as Jasmine v George Redpath had potential to generate a 3-way playoff for 2 places. In the end there were no playoffs, however an excellent Barbecue, cooked by United croquet club, and generously provided by Craig Smith, owner of Ray Puckett Mallets (RPM) was enjoyed by 60 people, providing a great end to the block play.

Tomorrow's preview

This draw looks very unbalanced... both the Egyptian youngsters are playing well, Harry is playing to his seeding, and with Edmund Fordyce in the mix also, the top half of the draw looks incredibly strong.

No disrespect is intended to the other 3 housemates, with a disappointing matchup of George Coulter and Hemi McLaren - two great players who we'd hoped would meet up later in the tournament.

John-Paul Moberly looks a strong contender to make the semis.

Bit of a diversion... rating for Carolyn Fordyce's pie.. a berry crumble. Delicious. Overall rating 8/10. Really very tasty. Turns out Carolyn had a sickie to watch Edmund in action today. Tsk.

Tomorrow i'm picking games to go to form, with George v Hemi likely to be the most even.
Tomorrow we have both the first round of the KO, as well as the quarter finals. All best of three.
We will also have the plate preliminaries - two blocks of 6, with single 13-point games. After that the top two of each plate block go into a full knockout for the plate title, the next two from each block go into a full knockout to determine lower ranking places, and the bottom two of each block also play a full knockout for placings. All matches after the plate preliminaries are best-of-3 13-point matches.

Aha - Amir has posted the plate draw on facebook!

"Block P": Mary-Kate Prankerd, Hayden Kilpatrick, Jack Williams, Logan McCorkindale, Mahetab Abu El Soud, Nadine El Menoufi

"Block Q": George Redpath, Jez Reeves, Hannah Brown, Adam Marsh, Ned Wilson, Sean Pearless

G'night all