Indoor Match against East Anglian Federation

Patricia Duke-Cox has submitted the following report.  The photo is by Duncan Hector.

Six Nottingham members had a very early start to travel to the Ross Peers leisure centre at Soham on Sunday 9th December to play on the indoor mat. Warming up and practice started at 8.30 a.m. and the matches began at 9.00. This event was the first of what is hoped will be an annual one since the Nottingham club provided a trophy in the form of a rose bowl courtesy of team captain Omied Hallam.

Nottingham teams were Sanaa and Omied Hallam, Brian Hallam and Bob Thompson, James Death and Patricia Duke-Cox. Doubles, 14-point games were played with 25 minutes being allowed for each team in each match. Their opponents were selected from experienced indoor players in the East Anglian Federation and comprised Jeff Race and Bryan Saddington, Mike Percival and Peter Allnutt, Duncan Hector and Peter Whiting.

During the day some filming took place. However it was noticed that the camera was not always on the players, as it was observed that even the big clocks timing the games were filmed! It seemed a pity that James’ jump shot was missed.

The experience was most enjoyable, but Nottingham members were beaten by a score line of 12.5 to 5.5 matches. Every team had at least one win, and only two games went to time.

GC World Team Championship

Reports are that England came second to the USA in their block of four, to meet Egypt in the semi-finals.

Sadly, England lost 3-9 to Egypt in the semi-finals, who beat New Zealand 7-6 in the final.  England beat USA 3-2 in the third place play-off.

Will Gee made an excellent start, being undefeated for the first two days, in either singles or, playing with Jacob Carr, doubles.  In particular, he beat Reg Bamford after losing the first game of the best of three.  However he was unable to maintain this form, either due to commentator’s blight or, more likely, an arm injury.

Full results are available at www.croquetscores.com