By John Thomson
This was supposed to be a home game for Lilydale but once again Lilydale’s one and only court was unplayable because of rain the night before so they had to hire Ringwood’s facilities again.
In this match Lilydale was taking on Sandringham who always field a very strong team, and it was no exception this time.
The first game was a doubles match. Sandringham got on top early and really put the pressure on Lilydale. Sandringham having a comfortable win with 7 hoops to Lilydale’s 2 hoops.
With four singles matches to play Lilydale needed to regroup quickly and put the doubles defeat behind them.
The first two games of the singles saw Lilydale winning one game 7 hoops to 5 hoops and Sandringham winning the other game 7 hoops to 3 hoops.
This put Sandringham in front at this stage 2 games 19 hoops to Lilydale 1 game 12 hoops.
The last two games of the day were the reverse singles and Lilydale had a lot to make up.
The first game saw Lilydale have a good win with 7 hoops to Sandringham’s 3 hoops, this put the both teams on 2 games a piece and Lilydale 19 hoops and Sandringham 22 hoops. The gap was closing and it was down to the last singles game to see who would win on the day.
This game was very close all the way through with neither team able to really get on top. It came down to the last hoop where Alan was able to play a lovely jump shot to win the game for Lilydale 7 hoops to Sandringham 5 hoops.
This saw Lilydale take out the day, the final scores were, Lilydale 3 games 26 hoops to Sandringham 2 games 27 hoops.
Well done to both teams, it really does not get any closer than that.
This win keeps Lilydale on top of the Level Play Ladder.
Last Saturday Lilydale Croquet Club held their Season Opening Day. This was well attended by many members and also distinguished guest’s, Aaron Violi our local Federal member for Casey and Bridget Vallence our local State member for Evelyn.
It was a lovely Spring day, and after the formalities were over everyone joined in to have an enjoyable day of playing croquet followed by a lovely lunch supplied by the members.
