SCA (B) v Croquet North 2013
11-12 May 2013, Meadows
The Scots retained the Newcastle Breweries Trophy in their annual match against the North of England, played this year in Edinburgh, winning by 10 games to 6.
Croquet North had two players from Tyneside - Derek Watts (handicap 2) and David Turner (8) - and two from Middlesbrough: Peter McDermott (2.5) and Roger Staples (3.5). The SCA put up a closely matching team of two from Glasgow and two from Edinburgh: respectively, Bill Spalding (2), John Surgenor (2), Fergus McInnes (3) and Jamieson Walker (8).
The match began with two rounds of doubles on Saturday, with the start scheduled for 10:30am to allow time for the journey north. Both rounds were shared, giving a match score of 2-2 at the end of the day. The second round finished early enough in the afternoon for the first round of singles to be started, and the four games in that round were pegged down around 6:30pm, with about half of their two-and-a-half-hour time limit remaining. All the players repaired to Jamieson's house for a good dinner, prepared by him with help from Jackie Shannon. (Jamieson and Jackie also provided lunches at the club on both days.)
Sunday started with some welcome sunshine, but rain came on during the morning and continued intermittently into the afternoon. The first round of singles was completed, with Derek achieving the only win for Croquet North against Bill, while for the SCA John, Fergus and Jamieson had wins against Peter, Roger and David: match score 5-3. Then the lower-handicapped players on each side had games against the higher-handicapped members of the opposing team, with results as expected, to make it 7-5, leaving the visitors in need of all four points from the final round to take the trophy. John dashed their hopes of that with a +26TP victory over Derek, and Bill sealed the SCA's hold on the match soon after by beating Peter +21. The remaining games took a bit longer, but Fergus eventually pegged out with a score of +16 against David, and Roger scored one more point for Croquet North when Jamieson failed to catch up after time was called.
John was "man of the match", with wins in all his games and the only triple peel of the weekend, and his handicap came down to 1.5 at the end of it, while Peter's drifted the other way to 3.
Thanks to Roger for sending the photograph below, which shows the players on both sides and the trophy. We look forward to the return match next year.
Fergus McInnes
Results
Bill Spalding & Fergus McInnes lost to Peter McDermott & David Turner -3T (18-21)
John Surgenor & Jamieson Walker beat Derek Watts & Roger Staples +15
Bill Spalding & Jamieson Walker lost to Derek Watts & David Turner -1T (18-19)
John Surgenor & Fergus McInnes beat Peter McDermott & Roger Staples +8
Bill Spalding lost to Derek Watts -11
John Surgenor beat Peter McDermott +14T (24-10)
Fergus McInnes beat Roger Staples +11T (23-12)
Jamieson Walker beat David Turner +9
Bill Spalding beat Roger Staples +17
John Surgenor beat David Turner +22
Fergus McInnes lost to Derek Watts -18
Jamieson Walker lost to Peter McDermott -12
Bill Spalding beat Peter McDermott +21
John Surgenor beat Derek Watts +26tp
Fergus McInnes beat David Turner +16
Jamieson Walker lost to Roger Staples -2T (18-20)