By John Thomson
On Monday 7 April, Lilydale’s division 1 team of Craig McCracken and Murray Howlett made the journey to the Monash Croquet Club.
The first game as always is the doubles and the Lilydale team jumped out to a handy early lead and were able to hold on to this lead winning 7 hoops to Monash 4 hoops.
Murray Howlett played in the first singles game. This time the Monash player was able to get away to a good start, Murray then started to settle into the game and after twelve hoops had been played the score was six hoops each, with the 13th hoop to decide the winner, both players set up reasonably well and both players missed hoops that they should have run, but in the end it was the Monash player that ran the hoop to win 7 hoops to Lilydale 6 hoops.
Craig McCracken played in the next game. This game was close early but a couple of missed hoops by Craig let in his opponent and Monash went on to win 7 hoops to Lilydale 5 hoops.
At lunch the scores were Monash 2 games 18 hoops to Lilydale 1 game 18 hoops, with two singles games to play.
Craig McCracken played next. Unfortunately for Craig, in this game, he struggled to run hoops when he had the opportunity and the Monash player won 7 hoops to Lilydale 3 hoops.
Murray Howlett played in the last singles game. The Monash player won the first hoop but from then on Murray controlled the game and went onto have a comfortable win 7 hoops to Monash 1 hoop.
The final scores were Monash 3 games 26 hoops to Lilydale 2 games 28 hoops. It is not often that the losing side actually wins more hoops than the winning side. After this loss Lilydale have dropped to fourth on the ladder, with four weeks to go in the season they will probably have to win all of their matches to get back to the top again.
After Division 2 had their bye last Monday, they are still sitting on top of the ladder with all of the other teams still to have their byes, so the equation is simple: keep winning and you will stay on top.
This week, the Lilydale handicap team travelled to Ringwood. This week’s team was Murray Howlett, Kerri McCracken, Murray McLean and Mark Edgell.
Murray McLean played in the first singles game, the Ringwood player was playing with a one hoop disadvantage. Both players started off well but as the game progressed the Ringwood player had made up his disadvantage and then set about building a lead to win 7 hoops to Lilydale 5 hoops.
Kerri McCracken and Mark Edgell played in the first doubles game, Lilydale were starting with a one hoop disadvantage. The Ringwood pair got off to a good start and from then on Lilydale were on the back foot and could not make up any ground. Ringwood 7 hoops to Lilydale 2 hoops.
Kerri McCracken played in the next singles, Kerri was starting with a one hoop disadvantage. This game was almost a carbon copy of the previous doubles game where Ringwood was able to control the game and Lilydale not able to make up any ground. Ringwood 7 hoops to Lilydale 2 hoops.
Murray McLean and Mark Edgell teamed up in the next doubles game, the handicaps were even between both teams so neither side had any advantage. This time Lilydale were able to get off to a reasonable start and although the game was close Lilydale was able to get a small break and go onto win 7 hoops to Ringwood 5 hoops.
At the break the scores were Ringwood 3 games 26 hoops to Lilydale 1 game 16 hoops. With two games to play if Lilydale were going to win, they would need to win both games by a good margin.
Kerri McCracken played in the last singles game and Ringwood were starting with a one hoop advantage. Head to head, the game was very close but Ringwood had their one hoop advantage and in the end that was the difference in the game. Ringwood 7 hoops to Lilydale 6 hoops.
The last game was a doubles, Murray Howlett and Murray McLean teamed up for this game and Lilydale were starting with a one hoop disadvantage while Ringwood had a one hoop advantage. Lilydale were able to make up their one hoop disadvantage fairly early with the rest of the game being close except that Lilydale just could not get on even terms with Ringwood and the one hoop advantage that they had was again the difference in the end. Ringwood 7 hoops to Lilydale 6 hoops.
The final scores Ringwood 5 games 40 hoops to Lilydale 1 game 28 hoops. This loss has dropped Lilydale to third on the ladder with one week to play before the four top teams play off in a round robin to decide the winner for the season, so Lilydale need to get back onto the winners list next week.
