Good morning from Wellington Municipal Croquet Club.

The sun is shining.

The top 3 matches in the draw are here today, the remaining 5 at Kelburn. The commentators' car has just dropped me off, expect commentary from one or two Clarkes starting close to 9.30.

Here we have:
Reg Bamford v David Maugham on lawn 1.
Pete Trimmer v Simon Hockey on lawn 2
Brian Cumming v Ed Wilson on lawn 3

Still untimed best-of-3

I am in the veranda at the front of the nice traditional clubhouse. Lawn 1 is to my left, lawn 2 to my right. I'm pretty much looking along the South boundary of lawn 2, which is 18" from the North boundary of lawn 1.
Lawn 3 is behind me up a slope, so I am unable to do detailed commentary. I might pop up to see where the clips are every now and then, or send a runner.

Players are practising.

Lawn 2 is starting.

T1 Trimmer Black from 1yW of 3rd corner plays due South to 2yS of peg-high.
T2 Hockey Red to 2nd corner

Tossing up on lawn 1.

Trimmer is looking where he needs to go off to get a rush to 2nd corner.
T3 Trimmer from A-baulk plays off E bdry. Maybe a bit N of ideal position.

Lawn 1
T1 Bamford Blue 9y N of 4th corner
T2 Maugham Yellow to 2nd corner.

L2T4 Hockey Yellow shoots at Blue from B-baulk. Misses to 1'W of 4th corner/

L1T3 Bamford Black hits Blue from A-baulk.

L2T5 Trimmer Blue taps Black, rolls toward 4th corner, hits Yellow. Stops it up lawn, leaves rush to 1.
L2T6 Hockey yellow to 3rd corner.

L1T3 Bamford takes off to Yellow, rolls it to near peg high on W bdry. Lags 2y short of partner.

L2T6 Trimmer Black rushes to 3 or 4 yards from hoop. Decides not to approach. Leaves rush presumably wired from Red.
L2T7 Hockey Red from 2nd corner to 1'N of 4th corner.

L1T4 Maugham Red at Yellow from 1st corner. Misses to 2nd corner.

L1T5 Bamford Black rushes Blue 6yN of Yellow. Thickish take-off, fair rush to 1. Makes it.

L2T8 Trimmer Blue makes 1, rushes Black back to 8y W of 4th corner. Little roll, hits Red.

L1T5 Bamford just needs an OK croquet stroke from 2nd corner and he has a 4-ball break. In fact it's better than OK. So now how many hoops?

L2T8 Trimmer stops Red to 5yS of 2, goes off S bdry with 5' rush toward 3rd corner.

Lawn 3 Wilson round to 4-back already, having a diagonal spread.

L2T9 Hockey Red to 1st corner.

Sorry just lost load of typing. Blasted trackpad.

I had been typing that I've already mucked up the turn-counter on lawn 2. And now missed a turn.
Anyway still 1-0 in hoops to Trimmer.
In a radical development Hockey has not cornered, but had a 13-yard wide join in A-baulk.

Bamford will be making 9 hoops

Lawn 3: Wilson has failed hoop 2 on 6th turn.(having made 9 4th turn)

Lawn 2 Trimmer Black over-approaches 1 from 1st corner. Having leave in 3rd corner. Yellow is 5y SW of 1, Red 5y NNW of 2.

Lawn 1, A cat has just jumped over the fence and is now spectating from the W bdry.
L1T5 Bamford's clip is on 4-back, diagonal spread.

Lawn 2. Hockey shoots! Red misses Blue (20y).
Trimmer Black has chance of break. He stoops Red nr end of B-baulk, rushes Blue 9yE of 1st corner. Hard to see from here how much room he's got behind Yellow. Croquets Blue just N of peg high, couple of yards in. Doesn't get rush on yellow. Stop shot approach sends Yellow 3y NNE of 4. Good shot. Runs hoop 1, hits Blue.

L1T6 Maugham lifts Yellow (ball near W bdry) to A-baulk. Misses "short" shot.

Trimmer plays excellent roll to near 4, getting rush on Yellow. Rushes Yellow N. Now approaching 2 off Red. 4 or 5' hoop. Not fancying it. Back to mother.
Hockey misses 14-yarder.

L1T7 Bamford Blue has made 1 without a rush. Now doing a shorter Hogan roll from 10yN of 4th corner. Good shot. Standard TP coming up.

Trimmer Black plays good rush from 3 to 2, finally a break on lawn 2.

Lawn 3 Wilson wins first game +26tp (8th turn).

L1T7 Bamford lining up 8' peel of 4-back after 3.

L1T7 Bamford's peel goes thru by 4'.

It occurs me that some of my readers may be unfamiliar with imperial measurement. y is yards, ' feet, " inches.

Trimmer has reached hoop 5.

In 1840 Wellington decided to have a Town Belt, an undeveloped area around the city. A forerunner of the UK Green Belts. Anyway we are in the Town Belt here. On Sunday I had a lovely walk up Mount Victoria (not a mountain, but a hill affording great views of city and surrounding area. Just below the summit is a lovely forested area, with waymarked paths. The shade was important, fairly warm (25). (Not so warm today as yet.) So from there I ambled a mile or two South and found this lovely Club in a park. Then strolled back by a different route and over to Kelburn.

L1T7 Bamford's TP progressing nicely, but his 2-back pioneer is 4y N of hoop. Still able to have a go at rover peel before 2-back. Jawses it.

Lawn 2 Trimmer Black is round to 4-back. (Blue clip is on 2.) Yellow has been left on the left-hand wire of 2. Red should be in NSL posi but is in fact 1" N of right-hand wire of 4. So something to aim at from A-baulk. Black rushes Blue off W bdry. Takes off back towards red. Is he trying to bombard Red into jaws from 25y?!! Black finishes in yard-line area. Taps it 2yN of 4th corner. Maybe more of Red visible from A-baulk than I thought?

Bamford wins Game 1 +26tp (7th turn).

Hockey lifts Yellow to A-baulk. Centre-balls Red. (Blue ball is 2 or 3y N peg-high on W bdry).
Yellow takes off to Black.

Lawn 3 Wilson has "made 9" 7th turn, POPping oppo to 1 and 3.

Hockey Yellow playing big roll. Black to 5yE of hoop 2, Yellow close enough to Blue. Attempting pass-roll approach to 1. 5' hoop available, but concedes break if he fails.
Retires to Red nr middle of E bdry. 1y rush pointing to end of B-baulk.

Lawn 1 Ref has quick wiggle of hoops. Firm enough it would appear.

L1T1 Bamford Black 10y N of 4th corner.
L1T2 Maugham Yellow to 2nd corner.
L1T3 Bamford Blue hits Balck from A-baulk.

I could have cut and pasted that.

Trimmer Blue shoots Blue at Black (17y). Misses.
Hockey has a break if he can rush to 1 from 20 yards.

Hockey makes 1.

L1T3 Yellow is rolled 4 or 5y N of peg-high nr W bdry. Blue lagged to give Black 8' rush.

L1T4 Maugham Red shoots at Black from 1'W of 3rd corner. Hits!

Lawn 2 Hockey appears to be planning a TPO. Hurrah!

L1T4 Maugham has made 1 with pioneers at 2 and 3.

Lawn 2. Hockey Yellow jawses peel of Black after 3. In making 4 he flicks Blue, so not the rush he wanted.

L1T4 Maugham has made 1 with pioneers at 2 and 3.

Lawn 2. Hockey Yellow jawses peel of Black after 3. In making 4 he flicks Blue, so not the rush he wanted.

Maugham has all the balls where he wants them.

Hockey gets forward rush after 5. Rush-peels Black thru 4-back. 1-back pioneer is 5yE of hoop.

Hockey Yellow fails to peel Black thru penult from a few feet. Black bounces to side. Will he continue with TPO? Runs 1-back a bit further than he wanted.

Maugham up to hoop 5.

From North boundary Hockey Yellow sends Red as 3-back pioneer, maybe 4y SW of hoop. Hits Black at penult. Takes off to Blue at 2-back.
Experts think he should give up on TPO.

Hockey plays poor rush to 3-back. Blue is 7y N of 3-back. Approaches sending Red toward E bdry. Makes 3-back, hits Blue.

Maugham has left Black at 2. I guess if you have a leave named after you, you really have to make it.

Hockey Yellow croquets Blue off the lawn (13yS of 2nd corner) going to Black.

Clips: Hockey Yellow 4-back, Red 1; Trimmer Black penult, Blue 2.

Lawn 3: Wilson makes another TP to win match 2-0.

Trimmer ignores the 3-yard roquet for Black, lifts Blue to B-baulk. Has 7-yarder at Yellow, but makes it a bit longer in order to make target with Black. Blue hits Black.

Lawn 1: Red clip is on 4-back. I presume Maugham had his MSL; Bamford has already lifted Blue to A-baulk.
L1T5 Bamford Blue shoots at Red, missing to his left.

Trimmer has failed hoop 2.

A spectator describes Ed Wilson's style as poetry in motion. I must confess I've never seen him play.

Maugham's rush to 1 should be good enough. He's away.

Hockey Yellow can't see much of Blue. Shoots at Red, missing.
Blue can run hoop 2 if he wishes.

Trimmer Blue runs 2, misses Black at 3 (15y).
Hockey Red hits Yellow (3y).

Maugham setting up for standard TP. Escape ball at 3 is 2' NE of hoop - not ideal.

Maugham's 4-back peel goes thru by 5y, getting good rush on Blue.

If you're following live, there's a 2-ball ending in Riva v Death at the moment, so I don't mind if you follow Jenny for a bit.

Maugham rushes back North after 4.

Hockey's run of hoop 1 earned a "Good hoop" from the crowd, so maybe not so good approach?
Hockey has chance of standard TP.

Maugham's peelee hasn't quite got close enough to penult yet. Not sure what he's planning... Black is 4' NW of penult as he approaches 6.

Hockey's peel of 4-back After 3) goes thru by 4y.

OK Commentator's failed again.
Dave is of course peeling Red, not Black. D'oh!

Maugham Yellow peels Red thru penult after 6.

Hockey again fails to get backward rush after 4.

Hockey has 5-yarder after 5. No problem, except he can't now get Black to 1-back going to Yellow. So instead he puts Black going to 1-back, getting rush on Blue (which was his hoop 6 pioneer) to 3rd corner. Croquets Blue 4y SSW of 6, fair rush to 6. 2y angled peel attempt bounces off 1y W of hoop.

Maugham lining up 4' peel of rover before 3-back. Pioneer is 4yW of 3-back. Jawses peel.

Hockey is thru 1-back. Death roll? (2-back pioneer is 4'N of hoop.)

Maugham's 4-back pioneer is 7y S of hoop. After 3-back croquets Blue to penult. Oops, Red isn't where I thought - rush peel fails. Take-off to Black OK, rush is not. Rolling up form 5y. 1y hoop...

Maugham fails 4-back. Middle of left wire.

Hockey's death roll of penult (going to 2-back) goes thru by 17y.

And now the 2-ball ending at Kelburn is over, I welcome back other readers.

Hockey has short angled 3-back, copes.

With Red 1yW of rover, Bamford has easy pick-up.

Bamford thru 1.

Hockey has straight rover peel coming up. 1' straight in front. Irish peel. Rush to peg....

Hockey's rush to peg is about 18" from peg.

Hockey wins game 1 +14tp

Paul Skinley is spectating at his home club. And helping the scorers, as he just asked me the margin.

Bamford has 4-ball break. Just made hoop 3.

Still a few clouds around. Coolest day of tournament so far. My sweater is on and off according to the sun.

I was leading the fantasy competition after 3 days, with all 6 reaching the knock-out. Sadly 4 lost yesterday, even more sadly 2 of them failed to enter the Bowl. I was worried that Jonathan Powe had also failed to enter as he's spectating beside me, but in fact he has a bye. I had the privilege of being Mangler at Powe's first tournament - the East Dorset June week. He played off 8, won everything. We cut him to 4.5 afterwards. Next year he was scratch and won the A-class. To have reached his current level so quickly is remarkable. And he's good at GC too, I understand.

Lawn 2
T1 Trimmer Black supershot 4y NW of 5

Sorry I failed to give the year of Powe's first tournament - it was 2015.

And I've made another error!
So let's start again:

Lawn 2
T1 Hockey Black supershot 4y NW of 5. Not Trimmer.
T2 Trimmer Yellow to just S of 2nd corner
T3 Hockey Blue hits Yellow (13y). Roll is short on Black. Yellow is 9y SSW of 2. Black is rushed 5'SE of 5. He's approaching 1!

Bamford round to 4-back, spread, with ball for rover by the peg.

Hockey's approach is short, but he still has sort of 3 ducks leave.

L1T4 Maugham lifts Yellow (for 4-back) to A-baulk. Misses. Player would have us believe it was close.

Sorry that was turn 8 on lawn 1.

L2T4 Trimmer hit something

There was only one "shock" result yesterday (ie won by the lower-graded player) - Cumming beating Garrison. Will there be more today?

L2T4 Trimmer has made hoop 1 - should go round.

L1T9 Bamford has made 1 and is hot favourite to get a standard TP.

Apparently Trimmer hit a target from B-baulk at the start of this turn.
He has just stuck in hoop 3. He is baffled by this development.

Hockey now rushing to 1 from hoop 3. Not bad, just under 5y in front. Makes it for the break.

Bamford's 5' peel of 4-back after 3 stops in middle of hoop.

Bamford Black gets backward rush after 4. Rush-peels Blue thru 4-back.

Hockey in full control.

The quarter-finals will be at Kelburn tomorrow (Friday), the semis here at Wellington Saturday, the final back at Kelburn Sunday. So each club has a day to prepare lawns.

Bamford is peeling penult from 2'.after 6. Peel goes thru by 1". You'd rather have it in jaws (so it can be rushed near rover).

Hockey has made 1-back and has left Yellow 10y S of 2nd corner and a yard or two in lawn.

Looks like Hockey is aiming for an NSL.

Bamford rolling Blue toward rover going to 2-back.

Lawn 2 clips: Hockey Blue 4-back, Black 1; Trimmer Red 3, Yellow 1.

Hockey seems dissatisfied with Yellow's position, taking off to it. Adjusts it South a bit and nearer boundary.
NSL, Hockey's balls 2 or 3y South of peg-high.

Bamford peels partner thru rover before 3-back.

Trimmer lifts Red from 4 to B-baulk.

Bamford has stuck in 3-back. Asks for referee to check for wedge. Death did the same at the same hoop yesterday, possibly the same ball!

Death didn't get a replay, and neither does Bamford. An error from the multiple world champion.

Trimmer Red hits Black, makes 3 off Blue, rushes near Yellow.

Lawn 1: Blue is near A-baulk.

Maugham lifts Yellow (for 4-back), taps Blue, croquets it to penult. Yellow is S of Black in 3-back. Roquet fails to get it out of hoop. Little take-off, rushes Red to 1y NE of 4-back. Makes hoop. Needs single peel to finish.

After 4-back Maugham Yellow rushes Red nr 4th corner. Croquets Red very close to rover - maybe an inch or so to W of hoop. Hits Black quite hard and rush-peels it by a foot or two. Take-off to Blue, then take-off to hoop from 2y E of hoop.Slightly angled. Fails hoop.

Clips: Bamford Black 4-back, Blue peg; Maugham Yellow penult Red rover.

Bamford obviously wants to play Black. Has 6-yarder at Red as it lies, but not sure how much he can see. Hits, cutting it 4y S of peg. Takes off. Umpire on to watch him hit Yellow out of penult. Rush to 4-back. Runs hoop to boundary.

Trimmer has reached 1-back on his break. Looks to besetting up to POP Black thru 1 after 2-back.

Bamford wins the match 2-0 (+5 in the second).

Trimmer Red lining up 4' POP of Black thru 1 (after 2-back). Blue is 3-back pioneer.
Peel fails into front of hoop. Can't tell from here if it's rush-POPpable.

Trimmer Red is making 3-back. Blue is 1y NNE of hoop, Yellow 3y NW of hoop. (Black in front of 1)
After hoop, Blue is croqueted to NSL posi. Yellow is rushed off the E bdry, maybe 10y N of 4th corner.
Trimmer Red now taking off from Yellow to try to rush-POP Black. A yard or two shorter than ideal. Umpire on. Needs quite a hard cut...

Thought Trimmer would hit it harder than that. Anyway Black's not thru, in fact it's 2" in front. Though not directly in front, to judge from the way Trimmer is lining up peel.
Black is peeled by 1'. Red lags 3y short of Yellow.

Lawn 2 clips:
Trimmer Yellow 1, Red 4-back; Hockey Blue 4-back, Black 2.

There must be an 8-yarder at Black from A-baulk, but missing it could cost the game. Anyway you want to play with your backward ball so...

Hockey plays Black as it lies, shoots at Blue (14y, not quite whole ball available). Hits it, rushing it off E bdry. Croquets it to 3.
Successful rush to 2. So despite, actually because of Trimmer's POP, Hockey has standard TP in front of him.

Sorry for pause but I was starving. Lunch here is excellent value, $10 for day.

Hockey jawsed 4-back peel after 3, rush-peeled it after 4. Now in ideal position at 6.

Hockey strangely ran 6 too hard, and roqueted partner ball out of peeling position. 2-back pioneer is 2y N of hoop.

Hockey again tries death roll. It goes well. Peelee looks to be in middle of penult.

After 2-back Hockey Black rushes Red to 3y E of 4-back, takes off, rush-peels Blue penult to S of rover. (Missing his rare chance to do 2 peels in 2 strokes!)
Hockey croquets Blue 10y N of 3-back, hits Yellow, runs 3-back to Blue.
Just a straight rover peel needed...

Hockey's penult pioneer is 2y E of hoop. Hence before penult he decides to rush peelee away from rover, to near 4-back, Good croquet stroke puts peelee 2' in front of rover.

Hockey has straight rover peel for the match. Blue (peelee) is 6" almost straight in front. Irish peel, Blue 6y thru, Black stops in jaws. Can run hoop. Does so.

Hockey is rushing to peg from 13y. Rushes to 4'.

Hockey wins match 2-0 (+17tp in the second).

Cries of C'mon Aussie C'mon from a certain element of the crowd.

So all over here at Wellington. I should be able to cadge a lift to Kelburn, may even do some more commentary....

See you later, Andrew