Close…..But no Cigar!
An exciting GC Level League home match against Reigate Priory yesterday ended in a narrow defeat for Tunbridge Wells, 3 matches to 4.
A fine doubles win for John Greenwood and Trevor Houghton-Berry against a Reigate pairing each with a ‘1’ handicap got us off to a great start, which was further enhanced with an excellent win for David Pratt in his first singles.
Perhaps us being 2-1 up at lunch was our undoing, as things didn’t go so well for us during the afternoon. As captain it was probably my fault, as my ‘cunning plan’ to disable Reigate with a large lunch backfired…. and it was Tunbridge Wells who ‘came out of the traps’ in the afternoon, more in need of an afternoon snooze!
Losing three of the four afternoon singles meant we succumbed to the narrow defeat, though David Pratt cemented his growing reputation as the ‘Harry Kane of Tunbridge Wells Croquet’ with another fine win against a Reigate player playing off an ‘8’ handicap, who in my very humble opinion as a club handicapper, was at least a ‘4’!
A fine day’s croquet and I feel an encouraging start to our campaign, even though ‘when the fat lady sang’, she was singing a lament for Tunbridge Wells, rather than a triumphal aria!