The first day of a Mac is usually fascinating and today had it all. A three TP match, pegged out endings – deliberate and accidental, failed hoops and short misses, there was always something interesting happening. Some matches were over in a couple of hours, others started the final game after 8 hours of play.
After day 1, the underdogs have got off to a good start. In a day where the standard of shooting was low, Rothman and Morgan were the standout shots hitting in on several occasions to beat Death and Fisher in straight games.
Avery and Burch were quick to make it 1-1 despite Jamie missing a 3 yard peg out when trying to peg out the opponent and following on and pegging himself out. This left Mark on hoop five against 2 and peg and he was eventually able to scrape over the line.
The final match featured the best US pairing on paper, Essick and Watson against Carter and Patel. It should have been a straight game win to the English, but Samir was unable to take any of his opportunities to finish with a TP in the second and then Christian failed his chances in the decider. The Americans had a bad shooting match which I doubt will happen again and will feel fortunate to have escaped with a win.
In the Aus v NZ match, the Fletchers had an easy win after some poor play from Clarke and Bryant with Jenny in particular having some easy opportunities. The best match of the day was probably Forster & McCormick v Chapman & Fordyce. There were multiple errors, but it was balanced by three triples, one from Forster and the others by Chapman. After a scrappy start to the decider, McCormick went to 4-b, Fordyce hit the lift and Chapman finished after Forster narrowly missed the lift.
The match Dumergue & Wilson v Webby & Westerby was a marathon. Game one stopped for lunch after 4 hours of play and game 2 finished after 8 hours. The decider saw the Kiwis look like winning +26TP before Aaron failed 4-b with 2 peels done. Edward went to 4-b, but Felix hit the lift and made a leave which saw the Aussies corner. The match was pegged down after 10 hours and 48 minutes.
Tomorrow will have six singles in the Eng v USA match and three doubles in Aus v NZ. After a dry day today, rain is expected tomorrow.
Chris