By John Thomson
The start of Spring heralds in the start of the croquet Spring Shield Competition.
Last Thursday 1 September Lilydale Croquet Club travelled to Mornington and took on a very strong Mornington side.
Lilydale had a first-time player in Michael Crawley. Michael has only been at the club a few months and has been improving all the time and has earnt his place in the team.
The games were very close with just one hoop deciding some of the games. In the final wash-up, Lilydale came home the winners, the final score was 3 games all with Lilydale 39 hoops to Mornington 32 hoops, which made Lilydale the winner by 7 hoops.
This win was made more remarkable by the fact that Lilydale has not been able to get on their court to practice for 2 weeks because of the rain and their only court being flood affected.
Next Thursday Lilydale plays Ringwood at Ringwood, this should be another close game.
