Croquet England AC Eights

Good morning from Hurlingham.

Lawn 2 is the first to see practice. David Goacher v Stephen Mulliner.

Lawn 3 is James Death v Harry Fisher.

Lawn 1 is Samir Patel v Gabrielle Higgins.

Which means lawn 4 is leader in the clubhouse Robin Brown v Debbie Lines.
But as that's on video I shall be ignoring it.

This is Mulliner's 46th Pres.
He has now won 100 games more than anyone else.

L2T1 Mulliner Blue 12y N of IV.
This game is SuperAdvanced.

L2T2 Goacher Yellow 9" S of II.
L2T3 Mulliner hits partner from A-baulk.

L3 has balls in middle of lawn.
Not sure what happened; Death has first break.

L1 is another corner 2 opening.
Higgins hit 3rd turn but has taken off into hoop 2

Peacock on lawn 2.
That's not some new croquet jargon, it is a bird.

L2T4 Goacher Red hits Black from B-baulk.

L1T3 Higgins decides all she can do is tap Black a foot south of hoop 2.
T4 Patel Red misses Black from B-baulk.

L2T4 Goacher takes off off the lawn.
T5 Mulliner picks up break.

L3 Death has made 9. NSL.
Lawns 1 and 3 are normal advanced.

L1T5 Higgins Black back to Blue.
T6 Patel Yellow misses red into 1st corner.
T7 Higgins ends up failing to approach 1 with a drive from 1st corner.

L2T8 Patel misses 18-yarder.

Sorry that was L1.
L1T9 Higgins has break.

L3 Fisher lifted the ball at 4, and missed. It looks like he hit hoop 4 from A-baulk. Or he may have taken the long shot.
Death has a standard tp ahead of him
I doubt that lawn will be interesting.

L2T5 Mulliner Blue makes 6 off Black, then rushes it off the west boundary 9y S of II.
He then takes off to Red and yellow near the peg.
Cross-peg coming up.

L3 Death has gravelled thru 1-back. The ref is on.

With the last stroke of his turn, Mulliner lags back to partner, slightly overhit I think.
L2T6 Goacher Red hits Blue from A-baulk (23y).

Death failed to hit anything after 1-back.
Fisher is presented a 4-ball break.

I may have missed a couple of turns on L1. Anyhow Higgins has first break.

L2 Goacher's rush to 1 isn't great.
Short angled hoop, he's through.
Needs a big croquet stroke now for the break.

Goacher fails to get rush on ball near peg.
He croquets it near 1 going to ball near West boundary. Now has to approach 2 from boundary.

Pretty good approach from Goacher. He has a four foot hoop....

Nicely run.
Goacher should have break now.

L1 Higgins' clip is on 2-back.
Must have bobbed hoop.
Patel hits 6-yarder.

Patel, Fisher, Goacher: each has 4-ball break.

L3 clips: Death red rover, yellow 2-back; Fisher blue 4-back black 1.

Fisher leaves an NSL with yellow at 4.

L3 Death lifts Yellow to B-baulk.
Hits Black (23y), rushing it off behind hoop 4.

L2 Goacher will be making 1-back, thus conceding contact.

Death has made 2-back.

L3 Death has made 3-back.
You'd expect him to finish now but that was true last turn.

L2 After 1-back Goacher Yellow leaves Blue 4' S of II. I thought you were meant to leave partner ball there?

L2 Goacher's putative 3-back pioneer hits hoop 5 and stops there.

###James Death beats Harry Fisher +17.###

L2 clips: Mulliner Blue 1-back Black 1; Goacher red 1 yellow 3-back.

L2 contact leave blue 4' S of II, black 10y N of I, red 4' W of IV, yellow in III.

L1 Patel made 9, slightly defensive leave.
Higgins missed 13-yarder.

Mulliner lifts Black.to yellow.
Croquets yellow near 1, maybe 2y NW of hoop.
Black hits Blue.
Looking to leave rush wired from yellow.
Blue is open.

Patel is picking up standard tp.

Goacher Yellow at Red (21y).
Hits!

Goacher Yellow takes off to Black/ Blue.
Taps Black.
Now rushing blue to 3-back.
Blue hits hoop 6.

L1 Patel jawses 4-back peel after 3.

L2 Blue is sent 3y NE of I.
Yellow lags to 4' shy of red.

L2 Mulliner Blue misses red (23y).
Goacher decides to play yellow.

L1 Patel jawses rover peel before 2-back.

Goacher makes one hoop and has a leave.
Mulliner misses long shot.
Chance of standard tp for Goacher.

###Samir Patel beats Gabrielle Higgins +19tp.###

Goacher red jawses yellow in 4-back after 3.

There are still a couple of pegged down games, which ideally would be completed this evening.

Personally I think the first game we saw on lawn 4 on Thursday should have been pegged down after Goacher had pegged out Debbie Lines, then the next round could have started an hour earlier.

But then we spectators would have missed the delightful 3-ball ending.

Goacher red rush-peels yellow thru 4-back before 5.

Goacher doesn't get forward rush after 5 and the subsequent roll sends blue 4y beyond 1-back.
Hrs still going for penult peel after 6.

Penult peel goes through nicely to near the peg.
Can he cope despite the poor 1-back pioneer?

Goacher is playing croquet stroke from end of B-baulk. Black is 7y or so north of 2-back, but importantly red has rush on blue.

Good croquet stroke after 1-back and balls are almost under control.

Gentle rain has started.

Goacher is thru 2-back and may get chance of rover peel before 3-back.

Rover peel hits both wires and bounces to the side. Goacher will need a straight rover peel to finish.

Things going slightly awry. The croquet stroke after 3-back left him 3 yards from partner, sonit got knocked a few yards from rover.
Then no rush after 4-back, so big roll required.
That went OK but he's now taking off to penult with the peg in play.

I still expect Goacher to finish.

Goacher has made penult with a useful rush.
Peelee about two foot from ideal.

Here comes the little rush to in front of rover...

...that should be good enough. May be too far to irish? There's a deep ball and a side ball.

Goacher does try to irish but doesn't hit it straight. Red bounces to the side.
Red tries to scatter, but hits yellow too full, red ends up near blue.

Clips mulliner blue 1-back black 1; Goacher red rover yellow peg.

Mulliner has misapproached 1-back. Short angled hoop. Ref is on. Hoop is run.

Mulliner has made 3 hoops. (So he's now 1 and 4-back. )
NSL with yellow at 4.

Everyone else is lunching.

Lawn 3 has been measured at 12.1 plummers, if you like to know that sort of thing.

In sending red deep, Mulliner croqueted it off the lawn. So the rush is not pointing where it should, rather at hoop 4.

This does "force" oppo to lift yellow.

Goacher lifts Yellow to B-baulk and aims at blue (the inlawn ball).
Hits it centre ball!

That's 4 out of 4 shooting for Goacher today.

Goacher makes a leave.
He has a rush from B-baulk, pretty much wired from both blue and black.

But not wired enough!

Blue hits yellow centre ball (32y).

Blue is for 4-back, so no hoops, just a leave.

Goacher finesses red near 4th corner.

Mulliner black makes 1 off blue.

The yellow is 5y east of 3.
Mulliner marches down to see where he wants to rush blue. Marches back, rushes blue near 3 rather than off east boundary. Good takeoff yields rush to 2.

Mulliner needs delayed tp to snatch game from Goacher.

I suspect I misled you re Patel v Higgins earlier. I see the score has been entered +17. So I think Higgins must have stopped at 3 for some reason, then got in with the hoop 1 ball, eventually failing 2-back.
This would certainly explain Patel's leave.

Mulliner black peels Blue thru 4-back before 6.
Leaves a cut rush to 6, undercut.
Reasonable approach, but fails the hoop.

It's SuperAdvanced, so Goacher has a lift.
Red hits blue (4y).

Goacher red rushes yellow about 3 yards beyond rover. Take-off approach. Angled hoop. Runs it to due west of partner.

Goacher undercuts rush to 7y east of peg.
To my surprise he doesn't attempt pegout going to black or blue.
Yellow is left 2 or 3y east of peg.

Black is near 2nd corner, not wired from yellow.
Blue is in A-baulk, wired from yellow.

Red is pegged out.

Mulliner Black hits yellow.

Black is now for 1-back, having been peeled last turn.

Mulliner plays thick takeoff to blue. Rolls northwards but blue goes off north boundary. Black is 7y short of boundary.
Yellow is 3y SE of 4.

Goacher Yellow misses peg into 2nd corner.

Mulliner Blue hits yellow.
Blue makes two hoops.

Mulliner 1-back and peg v Goacher peg alone.

Yellow is left near 4th corner, not wired from peg.

Black / blue near 2nd corner.

Goacher yellow to 3rd corner.

Mangler is on.

This game is being pegged down.
Probably should have done this sooner.

I'm going to start a new thread for the next round of games.

If this game is resumed later, I shall add it to this thread.

Goacher v Mulliner was completed on Sunday.
Mulliner won +1.