CqE v Scottish CA 30-31 August
report by Peter Rothwell
The annual AC fixture between teams representing the English and Scottish governing bodies of croquet took place this year at the Meadows Croquet Club in Edinburgh over the weekend of 30-31 August. Whilst not a full international, the teams of six are selected with broadly matching sets of handicaps to ensure a competitive match played to level advanced rules and each proudly wear their respective national coloured shirts in a contest for the Glasgow Quaich.
Peter Rothwell from WPCC, taking part in his first national representative match, was selected as captain of the CqE side, and he and five other Englishmen made the journey north by plane, train and automobile with the aim of capturing back the trophy that had been won by the SCA for the last two years. The format is one round of doubles and two rounds of singles on day 1, followed by another round of doubles and singles on day 2, giving a 24 game match. For the singles games, each team is split into upper and lower blocks of three, based on dynamic grade with all-play-all in each block.
This year’s teams were:
CqE – Stephen Allen (0), Dom Aarvold (0), Peter Rothwell (1), Stuart M Smith (1.5), Steve Leonard (3.5), Tony Butcher (8)
SCA – Andrew Symons (-1, captain), John Owen (-0.5), Stefan Colling (1), Mark Shanks (2.5), David Houston (3), Roger Binks (9)
The lawns at Meadows CC were in good condition and covered in green grass which, at the time, was something not seen for several weeks at Wrest Park and many other clubs south of the border that do not have the benefit of watering systems. The CqE team took a while to adapt to the much slower conditions with many take-offs and hoop approaches being left short of their intended destination on the first morning. The initial round of doubles went the way of the SCA team, winning 2 out of 3, albeit with both wins being very close affairs decided by a single point. Peter was paired with Dom Aarvold for the doubles and a good break by Dom to level the game as time expired unfortunately could not be converted into a win as the Scottish pair hit in from distance to regain the innings and score the golden hoop. After lunch, the points were shared in the first round of singles, with Peter, Tony and Dom winning for CqE and Andrew, Stefan and Mark prevailing for SCA. By mid-afternoon persistent rain showers had set in and only three of the six games in the second round of singles were able to complete before play was suspended just after 7pm so that the teams could relocate to a local Italian restaurant, for some delicious food and a chance to discuss the day’s events.
Sunday morning dawned with fine but cloudy weather and the SCA team leading 7-5. The three unfinished games were held over until later in the day, to be played if needed. For the morning doubles, the team captains agreed to shuffle their pairings to avoid a repeat of the first day’s games. Peter took the opportunity to pair Stuart with Steve (former winners of the English National GC Doubles Championship) who promptly rewarded his decision with a win for CqE, but the other two games both went to the SCA, increasing their match lead to 9-6. The afternoon singles round saw each player take on their counterpart in ranking order. Andrew and John for the SCA and Dom for CqE each won their games as their respective rankings differentials might have suggested. This made it 11-7 to the SCA with 12 wins needed to retain the trophy. Peter and Stefan’s game was a hard-fought, even contest with relatively few errors and an exciting 3-ball ending which Peter won. This point for CqE kept the overall result alive with the match score on 11-8 and two of the three unfinished games from day 1 were restarted including the game between the two captains. From an overnight 9-17 deficit, Andrew played some perfect croquet and allowed Peter only one 30-yard lift shot, which somehow found a gap where there didn’t appear to be one (don’t they always?!) and ran out a 26-17 winner. The SCA team also prevailed in the other three games, making the final match score a slightly flattering 15 games to 8 with one game unfinished, and the SCA retained the silverware for the third year in a row.
The CqE team. Standing l-r Dom Aarvold (Bristol), Stuart M Smith (Budleigh Salterton), Stephen Allen (Hurlingham). Seated l-r Steve Leonard (E Dorset), Peter Rothwell (WP), Tony Butcher (Southchurch).
© Wrest Park Croquet Club