Ealing Croquet Club

The Ealing AC squad, comprising Tony Elliott, Colin McKenzie, David Graham and Sean Doherty, played their annual friendly match at The Hurlingham Club on 3 May.  However, the wet weather made the play more testing than usual, as two of the four lawns were unplayable due to large puddles in the morning, while parts of the two lawns we played on were distinctly soggy, with balls occasionally throwing up spray.

The morning consisted of doubles matches; Tony and Sean had a convincing 26-8 win against Jane O’Neill and Gail Freedman (with a particularly impressive final hoop and peg-out by Sean), while Colin and David lost 10-16 against Peter Spiller and Ludolph Van Hasselt (who had also played in the recent GC match at Ealing).

The rain finally relented over lunch, which allowed play to spread out over all four lawns for the afternoon singles matches. Ludolph won convincingly against Tony 26-10, while Colin never really got going against an inspired Jane, who won 26-1.  However, David managed a 14-7 win on time against Peter, while Sean used his bisques effectively to beat Gail 26-15, so the match finished honours even at 3-3, which was a fitting conclusion to our annual friendly.  Tea, cakes and convivial conversation followed, a good day out having been had by all.

Report: Tony Elliott / David Graham