WCF AC World Championship

It's getting close to start time here at NCC on the first day of the KO. Ian and Dave are just finishing their warm ups. Game will be taking place on lawn 2... East boundary looks a bit interesting.

On neighbouring lawns 1 and 3 we have Reg Bamford vs Kevin Beard and Jenny Clarke vs Ian Dumergue so I might throw in the odd update

Ian will be playing black and blue. Dave, red and yellow

1. Ian puts in a supershot 3 yards N of 5

2. Dave plays yellow to middle of that lovely EB

3. Ian, playing blue, trickles a couple of yards in lawn from Yellow

4. red shooting from A baulk. Lining up a double I think?

Misses...

5. Ian, playing blue, hits his 2 yarder. Almost gets the cannon

Nice croquet stroke and rush to 1. Gets a rush out of 1 to ball on East boundary so should take it to 4B... should

Needing some repairs over on the EB, lots of holes.

This is turn 5 by the way.

It is lovely watching Ian trot after every rush he hits

4 ball break completely under control at hoop 4.

Blue clip on 4b with an NSL. That will make Ian feel a lot more comfortable I'm sure

Dave still contemplating his options

6. Dave lifts Y leaving red at hoop 4.
Shooting from a baulk.

Just misses

7. Ian with a good chance to take game 1 without Dave taking croquet. I don't think Ian has done many (any?) tps in the block play though

Poor rush to 1 and now has a quite angled hoop

Smashed through! Hoops have been put in new holes today but they are still relatively easy

Miss approaches hoop 3 by some margin. Disappointing scatter shot

8. Dave hits a 2 yarder with red and plays a good take off to get a rush to 1... Bad rush to 1 and fails to get in front

Ian's Black ball (for 3) is on middle of the west boundary

9. Shooting K at Y near 1

Long stalk... "Cmon" he mutters to himself.

Just misses

By a 'lick of paint' as Couttsie would say

10. Easy start here for Dave, playing R. Standard TPO if he wants

Im back after some wifi issues... Dave has taken R to 4b, popping blue through 3 along the way. Leave looking like is a reverse MSL with K (for hoop 4) at hoop 4

Blue is only a couple of inches out of Hoop 2 and I don't know how easily t will rush to 1

CLIP UPDATE: R- 4b Y-1 B-4b K-4

11. Lifts B to A baulk. Shoots done the line

Down the line

Catches a good chunk of Yellow

Crosswires R and Y at 2 leaves K a rush pointingat hoop1. Just out of corner 4

12. Dave misses into corner 4

13. Ian has a good chance of a 4 ball break here

Gets it going nicely. Will update if anything interesting happens

Something interesting happened. Failed to get in front of hoop 5 from a foot behind

13. Dave hits hits 7 yarder. Because of Ian's scatter shot he will be setting a leave

Leaves blue about a yard of the SB by hoop 1. k is near corner 3. Lays up with a 2 yard rush to 1

14. Ian goes back to what he knows and plays into corner 4

In other news James death just lost -2TP

After doing an Irish peek at rover and not being able to hit anything

Peel*

Dave lays up in corner 4 with a dolly rush to 1. Ian's K is still near C3 B is 5 yards W of peg. Shooting with blue at Daves balls

15.Snicks the ball in the corner!!!

Meanwhile reg on a standard TP in game 1

Ian is playing his 4b ball so will be setting a leave

Trying to leave red near 5 wired from Y near C4. Lots of staring at the spot going on here

Retired to South of C3 leaving black a rush to yellow

16. don't think Ian got the wire but Dave retires to corner 1 nevertheless... Ian's quite happy about that I think

17. Rush up that nasty EB finishes 10 yards north of yellow

Doesn't really get the rush to 5. Approaches from 2 yards South of H4

Pumps it past the hoop. At least yellow got sent up to 1b... No short shots for Dave

CLIP UPDATE. B and R are on 4b, Y on 1 and K on 5

18. Dave shoots and misses at Ian on EB.,, he hasn't hit a long roquet yet

19. Ian (K) sends yellow in lawn but only gets a cut rush to 5 which he plays reasonably well. Nice approach from a couple of yard to the side and grovels through

I'm going for a wander to check out the other matches Ian has a 3 ball break

Ian has a nice break going and is approaching penult

Bad approach leaves very angled hoop

Stalks it from the north boundary

Runs it up to rover... Couple of good hoops this game from Ian

Ian failed to get a rush to rover and sets and ugly leave with B in corner 2 K in C4 and leaves R peg high on EB and yellow near h2

Dave shooting at partner

Misses again

Ian has another shot up the EB

Misses this one

Dave has now made hoop 1 with both of Ian's balls in corners... No chance of a break

Put B to h2 and lays up in C4 with a rush to K which is just out of C3

Rush is actually pointing at middle of WB

Ian shooting with B

"Go right go right go right!" Says Ian and the ball obeys

Rushes red to c3 so should make a couple of hoops this turn

Or not. Decides to send red inlawn wired from B and K

Leaves the rush for his rover ball

CLIP UPDATE. B and R on 4b K on Rover Y on 2

Hmmm Dave choosing to take yellow at red... Quite a big shot here

Missed

Ian will play his 4b ball now

A decent chance to finish here

Bad croquet shot leave 3 yarder at 4b pioneer

MISSES!!!

Easy pickup for Dave here.

Standard TP here so Dave should go 1-0 up having not hit a long roquet

Approaching penult with 2 peels done. Reg has 5 out of six peels in his sextuple in game 2 against Kevin

DAVID MAUGHAM TAKES THE FIRST GAME +6TP