Good afternoon everyone.

Over on lawn 2, Stephen Forster & Rosemary Landrebe took game 2 (26tp-0) to level the match 1 game all, and are in game 3.
At the moment all clips are on 1 except Greg Bryant's black, which is proceeding merrily around a laid break and approaching Hoop 4.

That was supposed to be lawn 4.

On Lawn 3, Claire Bassett & Greg Fletcher are in game 2 against Jenny Clarke and Josh Freeth.
All clips are on 1 except Greg's Yellow, which is on 3.
He has just walked on the lawn to take a 2 yard shot at a ball in corner 3, with his other ball in lawn 3 yards towards hoop 3. Should be able to do some sort of load-and-hold or stop shot to get a ball halfway down the lawn and hold a rush to 3. The other oppo ball is on the South Boundary in front of 4.

T

T

The pace has slowed down a bit now that one match has finished, but the atmosphere is quite a relaxed one (given that team events often aren't - especially early in the day/series) and both players and spectators seem to be enjoying themselves.

Lawns have quickened up slightly since this morning, but the amount of rain Brisbane has had in the last two months means that, unfortunately, the ground is not as firm as it usually is, and the grass is Very green.

For those of you who are wondering what has happened to Robert Fletcher (formerly named in the TT team and scheduled to play until a couple of days ago), he has simply had some very unlucky timing again with work commitments - something which he can't escape, being a partner in his own business, and the other main partner (brother Malcolm) being here... Hopefully all is going well with him and sooner or later we'll see back again more regularly in big tournaments. Hopefully it's not too long!

Edward Wilson is nevertheless ecstatic to be a fully fledged playing participant in this event, and his good results this morning suggest that he's well prepared to fill the gap in the team left by Robert's last-minute departure. As this is his inaugural international team event, we are all behind him and wish him a long and successful run of such events.

Back to the action...
On Lawn 4, Greg Bryant is still strolling about the lawn, and is currently up to 2 back... He's had 1 go at popping Stephen Forster's ball through 1, but has given up on that now.

On Lawn 3, Greg Fletcher now has a laid break and has just run hoop 6.

Lawn 4.
Bryant has made 8 hoops, and set up a nice defensive leave.
He's set a rush in C2 for his partner, leaving Landrebe at the peg, and Forster just off East Boundary level with 5.
Landrebe takes the short shot from B-balk, and misses.
Pam Fisher now chipps yellow (oppo) in 5 feet and overcooks her rush to 1. Has a rush to red on EB though, so we'll see what happens.

Takes the rush but pulls up short. Will be doing a defensive roll putting partner towards Corner 4, while trying to get behind red. Does it wonderfully and has a rush to 1. Partner only went level with 4 (2y off boundary) so she has room to get behind it later if she holds a rush out of hoop 1.
Rushes well to 1.

Lawn 3, Greg Fletcher finishes his 9, sets up on EB with a rush towards the peg, leaving Jenny's ball in the middle of 4 (trying to encourage her to shoot by leaving her at 4, but not sure in the middle of the jaws was intended - she has been getting Josh to take shots most of the day), and Josh Freeth on West Boundary 3yards north of the peg.
However, Josh picks up his Black and will be shooting down the east boundary.

Lawn 4,
Pam rushes after 1 to the middle of the south boundary, splits perfectly to 3, trying to get behind partner near the boundary level with 4, and just goes out with striker. Forster (Red) shooting from 3 to 4 - misses into corner 4.
Australians still on 1, Fisher on 2, Bryant on 4back

Lawn 3,
Freeth misses down the line and goes out level with 4 on East Boundary. Ausst

Ausstralians thinking.

bombard attempt in the wings.

Bombard misses... Claire Bassett hits oppo on EB and sends it towards west boundary level with 5. hits blue in the jaws of 4, croquets it up between 3 and 6, and lays up back down near C4.

Nothing much happening on lawn 4. Bryant doing a setup at the moment. Will leave his partner with a rush to hoop 2 from up near corner 2, and opposition elsewhere...

Freeth shoots from WB level with 5 to AUS balls just out of C4, and misses.
Claire Bassett will now turn, hit, chip a ball in, and rush partner to 1.

Bryant sets with Forster at 3, and Landrebe just south of 4 (Bryant is for 3back), and sets a rush for Fisher.
Forster shoots at Bryant's black and...

His one!

Tally Ho!

Lawn 3-
Claire Basset made 1, but not 2 (didn't see what happened).
She has been shooting well today, but not getting the breaks going. That'll come soon.

Anyway, she is now on North Boundary in front of H3, with Greg (partner) at 3. Freeth has hit an 8 yarder at partner in C4 and will be doing a lawn length takeoff.
Both NZ clips still on H1. Aus on 2 and 4back.
Freeth takes off into the leg of 3, and is wired from everything. He can hit back sort of towards partner down south, and does so.

Bassett shoots at partner and misses... ending up next to Freeth on south boundary. Bad miss, but, given that NZ haven't scored yet, and AUS are 1 game up, there's plenty of play left in this game.

Forster fails 1back leaving Bryant a 2 yard roquet to the ball in 1back. He had a load at 2back and a pivot, so should be another set up for Greg B.

Hello folks, back again.

Lawn 3:
Freeth has run hoop 3 and has a ball at 4 and a forward rush, so this should be 9 for him.
Lawn 4:
Fisher only made it to 4, and Landrebe seems to be in. Still for hoop 1, so some work to do there. Clip positions are NZ 3back and 4, vs AUS 1back and 1.

I've been asked to say a few general words about today's tactics - aggressive/defensive, so..

In general, the Australians have been the more aggressive side, however in most of the games I have seen, they have been reading the situations well, and doing good tactical setups when necessary - not trying to dig out breaks.
Having said that, the hoops - while tight - are certainly not exceptionally firm, and in general, once a break gets going, whoever gets it going keeps going. You would expect that with the caliber of players present, but for a first day, it has been particularly apparent. Conditions are not that tough in general, but very few breaks have been dug out by either side when the balls have been on boundaries etc.

NZ seem to have more unequal abilities in their doubles parings, which has resulted on the stronger player doing more setting up and taking more crucial shots that would normally be the case. It's been hard to judge how well most people are shooting (we'll see more tomorrow in the singles), but generally setting up has been effective - very few of such leaves being hit.

As far as stroke play goes, most players seem to have learned the speed of the lawns quickly, and croquet strokes have been pretty good.
Hoop running has been good, but the conditions haven't really tested people's approach shot ability so there haven't been many tough hoop attempts.

Mentally, the Australians seem (as a whole) relaxed both on and off the lawn - when they've been ahead they have been confident but not careless, which is a good sign for them (us).
New Zealand have been under pressure more so far, and that's understandable given that the come into this series us the underdogs on ranking, but most of them are making good breaks and playing solid, confident croquet, so their confidence seems understandably solid at the moment. We'll wait to see how things develop as the series goes on...

Back to the matches:
Lawn 4, Rosie Landrebe is still going - just run 4,
and on Lawn 3, Josh Freeth is approaching Hoop 9 with the intention of laying a 2-4 leave (lose ball at 2, as usual with most players). The ball at 2 is Claire Bassett's Red, so no worreis there. Greg Fletcher's Yellow is parked next to 4, and looks rushable to 1.

Flet

Flet

Fletcher picks up the 4 ball and hits down the East Boundary.
One set up coming up.

Clarke's hoop 1 ball ends up 2y north of 4, and Freeth's 4back ball 4y north of 4back.
Greg (4back) sets a rush to 2 on the west boundary, just south of 2, for Claire (going to 2).

Lawn 4, Landrebe still waltzing around on a 4ball break. Has peeled partner through 1back, but unlikely to continue the straight sextuple (or if so, it's a difficult ball movement)....

Lawn 3.
Freeth fires at the ball at 4, and...

takes many casts...

and misses.

Lawn 4 -
Rosie Landrebe stops at 4back, sets a diagonal, with Bryant the Westerly ball - he shoots from where it lies at the balls on the East boundary, and misses.
Forster (who is apparently still on 1back, and did not - as I stated incorrectly above - get peeled through 1 back) now has a tap on and will need to rush to 1back from where he is, as the ball at the peg is too tight to rush up in that direction, but can be rushed to 2back later.

Lawn 3, Bassett approaching 3 (didn't get in front earlier - she set up, NZ missed) from north boundary. Fails hoop. Josh Freeth's 4back ball has a 5 yarder on her ball for NZ to take the innings.
Not sure of the time situation, but this game could well go to it.

Lawn 4 - Forster seems to have rushed that peg ball to 1back (nor sure whether he bombarded it clear, or rushed it straight north and rolled in to 1 back (1 think the latter). Anyway, he's now rolling for 2 back from near hoop 5. Good position, and runs cleanly and will have a 4 yard return.

Lawn 3
Freeth hit, and is setting up for Clarke.
Bassett's red is North boundary behind 3, and Fletcher's Yellow is 10y west of peg, and slightly north.
NZ balls are camped about half way between C1 and H1 (Jenny's hoop)

Forster lining up for a straight Triple.

Attempts the first peel and jawses peelee. Plays a good half jump and continues!

Lawn 3
Fletcher runs to C4, and Clarke makes 1 and rolls up to 2, but overroles.Sets a rush

Lawn 4. Forster doesn't look at the second peel, and just continues his break.

Lawn 3. Bassett shoots from NB to C4 and misses. Freeth makes 2, rushes to 3, makes 3, and has 2 balls in C4 to play with. Should be a break to the peg once he gets them out.

Sorry, replace Freeth with Clarke above... Freeth is wandering around the lawn with his mallet so much that I have been getting confused.

Lawn 4.
Forster's leave is: Black (Bryant - for 3back) fractionally north of Rover, Yellow and Red (Penult and Peg) on West Boundary 2y north of peg high, and Blue (hoop 4) 2y south of penult.
His own rush (or rather, Landrebe's) is pointing to corner 2, and is 4ft long.

Lawn 3.
Clarke makes 4 and continues a 4ball break. Interesting to see whether she tries a triple. My guess is no, but we'll see..

Lawn 4.
Much discussion between the New Zealanders. Aus seems to have succeeded in getting Pam Fisher to play (h4), but if she hits, she has a good chance of a break.

Looks like Fisher shot at black from B balk - ending up on SB 4y W of center line.
Landrebe rushes to NB in line with 5 and 6, and takes off to black at Rover. Tries to rush it through to Blue, but just crawls through. Setting a leave.

Misses a 4 yarder at Blue on the South Boundary... First easy shot I've seen her miss today. Bad timing, as Pam Fisher should be able to load 5, get a rush on her partner, black, to 4 (it's currently 3 yards North West of 1.

Lawn 3. Clarke going around. No peel attempts, though she did put an escape ball there once. Up to 2back now.

Lawn 4. Pam fails a straight and relatively easy hoop 4. Rosie Landrebe shoots from 5, and hits. Could be a finish.

Rosie rushes one of the balls at 4 to her own on the north boundary, rushes partner to penult, and makes the hoop.
She gets a reverse rush towards the north boundary, 4 yards in lawn from which sits Black. Blue is 5ft NE of 4.
1 hoop and 2 pegouts to go to give Australia Game 3.

Lawn 3. All clinical and boring. J. Clarke still going around merrily.

Oh, and she's made one peel. Currently up to 4 back.

Looks like it's all over on lawn 4 (proved Rosie doesn't miss another short pegout).

Pegout successful!
Landrebe & Forster play very well to win in 3 against Bryant & Fisher. 25-26, 26tp-0, 26-12.
Australia are up 3 matches to 0.

Over on 3, J. Clarke peels penult on the way to 4back. Only a straight rover peel to go and this match could go to 3 games. It's progressing hideously slowly, so I might fall asleep before the end.

Jenny plays a great croquet stroke from up near the north boundary to put peelee 5ft straight in front of rover. She is making penult from 1ft, and has another ball halfway between peg and rover.

Sends oppo deep and has a short ball, and will be peeling Rover from 2ft straight in front.
Timer goes.

Peelee goes through 2yards, and striker stops in jaws. Consultation - don't know why, tis easy.
Time wasters?

Anyway, Jenny makes the extraordinary decision to run the hoop gently, hit the shallow ball, takeoff to behind the deep ball, rush it to partner, approach partn

Anyway, Jenny makes the extraordinary decision to run the hoop gently, hit the shallow ball, takeoff to behind the deep ball, rush it to partner, approach partn

partner, and rush partner to the peg. Josh shows here where to where she should rush it. She rushes elsewhere, but who cares, she has a 2 yard pegout and this Should be Game 2 to New Zealand!
Great to see a good contest.

Pet

Pegs out in 1 stroke. Well done NZ.
Bring on Game 3 - and a break from commentary for me..

Final score of game 2, 26-11.

p.s. To Max Woolf - I don't drink coffee, so I don't care. And the weather is overcast, but mild. We've had 9 drops of rain this arvo (7 on my computer, and 2 spotted by Elizabeth Fleming somewhere else). Nice breeze now.