East v West of Scotland 2013
1-2 June 2013, Meadows
This year's East v West match, held as usual at the beginning of June, got a mainly dry weekend with sunny intervals; there were showers on Saturday, but they were very brief. A total of 11 players took part for the East of Scotland, and 12 for the West, though only two of the former and four of the latter played on both days. The East had its fourth win in the 11-year history of the event, by 35 points to 20 - the biggest winning margin since the West's 33-11 victory in 2007.
Each day's programme was a mixture of Association and Golf Croquet, played to handicap rules, with a full-length AC game counting for two points in the match score and a 14-point AC or GC game counting for one point. With a 9:30am start and a three-hour time limit on the AC games (an hour and a half for the shorter games), there was time for everyone to contest two points before lunch on each day, and four points on Saturday or three points on Sunday after lunch - allowing for afternoon tea and an earlier finish on Sunday.
Saturday's games were almost evenly balanced, and in the evening the score stood at 14-14 with just one game still in progress - AC between Alan Wilson (East) and Alasdair Adam (West). Alasdair had scored most of the points, and taken most of the time, with his 14.5 bisques, but eventually Alan got a break going; time was called at 7:56pm, and Alan came off the lawn about 15 minutes later having taken a 22-19 lead. Alasdair hit a long roquet in his one remaining turn, but failed to score a hoop; so the overnight score was East 16, West 14.
Sunday's influx of players included the three from Dundonald who had played, and taken away the trophy, last year - Marion Imrie, George Imrie and Marion Lauchlan. They were all assigned provisional GC handicaps of 10 for the first round (as no one could remember what handicaps they'd ended up with in 2012), but these were adjusted to 12 for the rest of the day in view of the results (3-7 losses in singles and doubles), and they had some close scores and one win in later games. Other points for the West on Sunday came from David Houston's AC games against Robert Inder and Hamish Duguid and from a GC win by Joan Marshall over Robert, but all the rest went to the East, which thus gained 19 points to the West's 6 and secured the Piersland Rosebowl for a place in the Meadows pavilion.
Fergus McInnes
Results
(East names first; 14-point AC games asterisked)
Day One:
Association Croquet:
Jola Jurasinska beat Rod Williams +5T (25-20)
Charlotte Townsend lost to Bill Spalding -11T (12-23)
* Alan Wilson beat George Anderson +8
* Fergus McInnes lost to Alasdair Adam -3T (5-8)
* Alan Wilson beat David Houston +11
Fergus McInnes lost to David Houston -26
Charlotte Townsend lost to Alasdair Adam -22T (2-24)
Alan Wilson beat Ian Wright +19
Jola Jurasinska beat Bill Spalding +25
Alan Wilson beat Alasdair Adam +3T (22-19)
Golf Croquet:
Fergus McInnes beat Andrew Davies 7-6
Matthew Woodward beat Andrew Davies 7-5
Jola Jurasinska & Kay Lucas lost to Andrew Davies & Joan Marshall 4-7
Matthew Woodward lost to Bill Spalding 2-7
Kay Lucas lost to Andrew Davies 2-7
Jola & Matthew lost to Joan & Bill 3-7
Kay Lucas lost to David Houston 3-7
Fergus McInnes beat Rod Williams 7-5
Charlotte Townsend beat Andrew Davies 7-2
Matthew Woodward beat Ian Wright 7-2
Kay & Fergus beat Ian & Andrew 7-3
Charlotte Townsend lost to David Houston 4-5 (reduced time limit)
Matthew Woodward lost to Rod Williams 6-7
Day Two:
Association Croquet:
Robert Inder lost to David Houston -19
* Jola Jurasinska beat Ian Wright +3T (12-9)
Hamish Duguid lost to David Houston -8T (10-18)
Allan Hawke beat George Anderson +12
Lyn Gilpin & Fergus McInnes beat Alison Ross & Ian Wright +7T (17-10)
Golf Croquet:
Lyn Gilpin beat Marion Lauchlan 7-3
Allan Hawke beat Alison Ross 7-6
Hamish Duguid & Vivien Wightman beat George Imrie & Marion Imrie 7-3
Allan Hawke beat Marion Imrie 7-3
Fergus McInnes beat George Imrie 7-3
Vivien Wightman beat Alison Ross 7-6
Hamish & Lyn beat Marion Lauchlan & Ian Wright 7-3
Robert Inder lost to Joan Marshall 5-7
Jola Jurasinska & Vivien Wightman beat Marion Imrie & Marion Lauchlan 7-3
Jola Jurasinska beat Marion Imrie 7-5
Robert & Vivien beat George Imrie & Marion Lauchlan 7-3
Robert Inder beat George Imrie 7-3
Hamish Duguid lost to Marion Imrie 5-7
Lyn Gilpin beat George Imrie 7-6
Allan Hawke beat Marion Lauchlan 7-3
Vivien Wightman beat Joan Marshall 7-6
Final scores:
East 35 (AC 15 + GC 20), West 20 (AC 11 + GC 9)