Scottish Croquet Association

SCA v CA 2013

31 August and 1 September 2013, Meadows

The Croquet Association retained the Glasgow Quaich with a 15-12 win over the Scottish Croquet Association in their annual match, which it was the Scots' turn to host this year.

After two years of dominance by the CA - who won 21-6 in 2011, and 22-5 in 2012 - the team selections for 2013 gave the Scots hope of a closer match.  Indeed the SCA looked slightly stronger than the CA as measured by handicaps:

Saturday started with a round of doubles games, which should have given the SCA a lead if they had gone to handicap, but which in fact turned out 2-1 to the CA - John and Fergus getting the SCA's only win (by three points on time) against Phill and Roger, while Brian and Bill had an even narrower loss on time to Charles and Andrew, and Graham and Barry achieved the only peg-out to beat Campbell and Alan +7.

After lunch there were two rounds of singles games in which everyone encountered his non-opposite numbers in the same half of the team ranking (i.e. no.1 played the other side's second and third players, and so on).  The first singles round was split 3-3, with the only significant upset being Barry's +22 win over Fergus.  Even a successful jump over hoop 5 to hit a ball near corner 2 - acclaimed by those watching as the shot of the day - couldn't save Fergus, who struggled with the fast pace of lawn 2 while Barry took it in his stride and played some nicely controlled breaks.  (The middle strip of this lawn was timed at 14 seconds in the afternoon, with the greener part to the west playing at 12 seconds.)  The last round of the day went 5-1 to the visitors, with the Scots' only point coming from Brian's win over Graham, while all the lowest four in the CA line-up achieved results against handicap.  So at the end of the first day it was SCA 5, CA 10.

Dinner at Bar Italia had been booked for 7:30pm, but with several games reaching the 2.5-hour time limit a slight adjustment was needed, and it was about 20 minutes later than that when the 13 of us were all assembled (the 12 players minus Charles plus Jane Morrison and Sabine Murdoch).  We had a good dinner and a pleasant evening, and then retired to the homes of the SCA players, where the visitors were being put up for the night.

After a dry Saturday with sunny intervals, Sunday was cooler and cloudier, with a westerly wind and a touch of drizzle in the morning.  The programme for the day consisted of two games between each player and his counterpart: thus 12 points were at stake, and the SCA needed 9 of them to win the match.  The first round left the result still open, with another 3-3 split, though the CA's scores showed more class as they included the only triple of the match, achieved by Phill against John, while the "T" in each of the SCA wins was unaccompanied by a "P".  In the final round John got his own back against Phill with a score of +22 before Graham ensured the CA's victory with a +11 against Campbell; three of the remaining four games went to the Scots, who thus held the final score to 15-12 and ensured that none of them was without a win on the day.

Brian's good results - three out of four in the singles - won him a handicap reduction to 0, while on the CA side Barry's handicap of 7 (which was certainly not representative of his play in this match) came down to 6.  After an excellent afternoon tea (thanks to Matthew Woodward) the teams lined up for a photograph on the lawn, as seen below, though without the Glasgow Quaich as the CA players had forgotten to bring it with them.  We look forward to next year's match at a venue, yet to be determined, in England, from which we'll try to bring the Quaich back north of the Border.

Fergus McInnes

Results
(SCA names first)

John & Fergus beat Phill & Roger +3T (23-20)
Brian & Bill lost to Charles & Andrew -2T (14-16)
Campbell & Alan lost to Graham & Barry -7

Campbell Morrison beat Charles Waterfield +25
John Surgenor lost to Graham Gale -11
Brian Murdoch lost to Phill Scarr -11T (11-22)
Bill Spalding beat Roger Staples +1T (15-14)
Fergus McInnes lost to Barry Keen -22
Alan Wilson beat Andrew Killick +1T (16-15)

Campbell Morrison lost to Phill Scarr -4T (18-22)
John Surgenor lost to Charles Waterfield -19
Brian Murdoch beat Graham Gale +10
Bill Spalding lost to Barry Keen -13
Fergus McInnes lost to Andrew Killick -11T (14-25)
Alan Wilson lost to Roger Staples -18

Campbell Morrison drew with Graham Gale +6T (21-15), -11
John Surgenor drew with Phill Scarr -26TP, +22
Brian Murdoch beat Charles Waterfield +7T (21-14), +10T (23-13)
Bill Spalding drew with Andrew Killick +4T (17-13), -9T (12-21)
Fergus McInnes drew with Roger Staples -14, +18
Alan Wilson drew with Barry Keen -18, +6T (18-12)

Match score: SCA 12, CA 15

From left to right: John Surgenor, Campbell Morrison, Brian Murdoch, Bill Spalding, Fergus McInnes, Alan Wilson, Andrew Killick, Charles Waterfield, Barry Keen, Graham Gale, Roger Staples, Phill Scarr.