Narrow defeat at Bromley

We lost our second match of the season in the Croquet South-East Golf Croquet Handicap league, losing 5-4 to Bromley C on 16 June.

Bromley made very efficient use of their one lawn, which was well looked after, flat and the balls were fast and direct.

The morning went well and we stopped for lunch on an equal footing having won two of our singles matches (through David Pratt and Robert Hassell) and one of the doubles (through Kate Sander and Robert).

Sadly our luck changed after a very nice ploughman’s lunch with fresh strawberries and we lost both of our singles matches in the afternoon session. The final game was a doubles match with Kate and David taking on Bromley’s two best players, who had a starting score of -2. The game was neck and neck all the way through to the golden hoop. Kate played some exceptional shots, the last of which put her in the jaws, leaving Bromley with the only chance of success being a jump shot by their captain. He made an excellent attempt but hit the cross bar of the hoop, leaving us to take the final hoop.