By John Thomson
This week in the croquet Handicap Shield competition Lilydale hosted Sandringham. These two teams have always had some very close games and this week looked to be no different.
Craig McCracken of Lilydale started proceedings with the first of the singles games, and as he has been doing all season, played extremely well, and despite giving away two extra turns won the game 7 hoops to Sandringham’s 3 hoops.
The first of the double’s games saw Lilydale’s two top players team up in Glenn Crooke and Murray Howlett. Glenn and Murray were giving away a combined five extra turns to their Sandringham opponents. The game as expected was close all the way through with Sandringham using their extra turns to help keep them in the game. After 12 hoops the scores were 6 hoops a piece, so it was off to the 13th hoop to decide the winner. This hoop as expected was hard fought but Lilydale seized their opportunity and ran the hoop winning 7 hoops to 6 hoops.
In the next singles, Murray Howlett, although playing well, missed a couple of hoops that he normally would have run and combined with two extra turns that the Sandringham player had made this game closer than it normally would have been. Murray eventually ran out the winner 7 hoops to Sandringham’s 5 hoops.
In the next doubles, Lilydale’s Glenn Crook and Mick Crawley teamed up. Glenn and Mick have played a lot together over the last couple of years and know each other’s game inside out. This was a very even game throughout with both teams playing well. Lilydale just managed to run a couple of crucial hoops to take out the game 7 hoops to Sandringham 5 hoops.
At the break the scores were Lilydale 4 games 28 hoops to Sandringham 0 games 19 hoops.
With only 1 singles and a doubles game to play Lilydale had won the day, so it was just a matter of what the final score would be at the end.
In the singles Glenn Crook was giving away five extra turns, this is a lot, so it was going to be interesting to see how he coped with this amount of extra turns and how efficiently the Sandringham player used them. The game was close all the way through with the Sandringham player using his extra turns to keep him in the game. After 12 hoops the scores were locked at 6 hoops a piece, with the 13th hoop to decide the winner. With no more extra turns left everything had to go right for the Sandringham player, unfortunately for him, Glenn’s experience and skill showed out and he won the game 7 hoops to Sandringham 6 hoops.
In the last game of the day Craig McCracken and Mick Crawley teamed up for Lilydale. Sandringham got away to a good start and were 3 hoops up before Lilydale ran their first hoop, Lilydale fought back but could not bridge the gap with Sandringham winning the game 7 hoops to Lilydale 5 hoops.
The final scores for the day, Lilydale 5 games 40 hoops to Sandringham 1 game 32 hoops.
Even though the final scores show Lilydale had a comfortable win, most of the games were a close battle, it was just Lilydale’s ability to win the close games that made the difference.
Lilydale sits on top of the ladder with a bye for them next Thursday.
