Blog

Mac Day 2
England started day 2 with two fairly quick wins for Samir Patel against Jeff Soo and Jamie Burch against Stephen Morgan to take a 3-2 lead in the Test.

Harry Fisher v Matthew Essick was a good quality match. Harry had the first third turn ball round of tthe event, but was TPO’ed by Matthew who took the first. Harry equalised and again had a third turn ball round in the decider, only for Matthew to hit the lift, but he misapproached hoop 1 and failed an angled jump leaving a variety of 9 yarders. Harry missed his subsequent 9 yarder for the match and Matthew hit his 9 yarder and picked up a break before a bad croquet stroke after 1-b left him a 4 yarder which he missed into Baulk giving Harry a standard tp which he duly finished for a massive win for England and a 4-2 lead.

Mark Avery v Ben Rothman went to the third and Ben had the first break to 4-b. Mark hit and replied in kind. Ben missed his lift, but Mark’s triple never really got going and he ended up 4-b and peg. Ben missed the lift and Mark finished from 4-b to extend the lead to 5-2.

On lawn 9, Zack Watson was lifting American spirits by beating James Death in the first +5. The second found Zack peg alone against James on peg and peg and the Englishman duly equalised +1 to really put the pressure on the Yanks. In the decider, James went to 4-b, Zack hit the lift and also went to 4-b. James missed the lift and Zack completed a standard tp to close the score to Eng 5, USA 3.

The remaining match between Christian Carter and Tom Balding was…..well….ummm…..not quite as high quality. Christian won the first +4 after 5 hours and 54 minutes (including lunch). Even a reporter of my experience will not make any effort to try and talk you through any part of the game. The second game was quicker, finishing at 5.54pm and resulted in a +11 win for Christian and a great day for the English as they went from 1-2 to 6-3.

In the Aus v NZ match, Malcolm and Robbie Fletcher once again made errors, but Aaron Westerby and Felix Webby were unable to capitalise and lost in straight games to give Australia a 2-1 lead in the Test.

Edward Wilson and Ian Dumergue played against Paddy Chapman and Edmund Fordyce. Paddy failed triples in the first two games, but won the first and should have lost the second. However, Ian failed penult on a break to finish and Edmund clinched the match in straight games to equalise the Test at 2-2.

Stephen Forster & Dwayne McCormick played Jenny Clarke and Greg Bryant. In the first, Stephen Forster managed to get cross-wired from both his rover pioneers with all 3 peels of his triple complete. Greg Bryant failed 4-b with the final two peels still to do and Stephen finished to go game up.

Jenny had the first break to 4-b in the second, but Stephen hit a hampered 6 yarder through 3-b and also went to 4-b. Greg hit the lift, but misapproached hoop 5 and failed an angled jump. Stephen made a good leave which Jenny hit and made a good leave for Greg. Dwayne missed and Greg played a break to the peg but was hampered after rover and had a difficult hampered shot – a sweep through the hoop, which he made look easy. His leave offered a range of 11-13 yarders for the hoop 1 ball or a defensive 20 yarder with the peg ball. Dwayne hit his 11 yarder, but misapproached h1 and joined 8 yards from partner. Jenny missed an 18 yarder, Dwayne missed his 8 yarder, Jenny missed her 7 yarder and Stephen missed a 24 yarder joining up. Jenny missed a 20 yarder and Dwayne went to the peg with an increasingly ambitious attempt at a triple, which ended up with one peel. When he reached the peg, he accidentally overhit his croquet stroke when pegging Greg out and followed through onto the peg himself to leave Stephen in a one ball game against Jenny penult v 4-b.

Jenny hit a 6 yarder to 6 yards West of the peg, rolled up to leave a 3 yard 30 degree 4-b and bounced off 3 yards E. Stephen took 3 yard straight position at penult wired from Jenny. Jenny took 8 foot 25 degree position SE at 4-b. Stephen failed pen finishing a foot ENE of pen. Jenny took 1 foot straight position at 4-b where Stephen’s shot was hampered.

Stephen took close position at pen. Jenny failed 4-b to the jaws. Stephen ran pen past rover and took 1 yard slightly angled position at rover. Jenny ran 4-b and took 4 foot 25 degree position at pen. Stephen failed rover to unrunnable. Jenny took tight wired position at pen.
Stephen played 11 yards W of rover. Jenny ran pen to 2 yards past rover and we had every chance of an impasse, but Jenny took position at rover. Stephen took his 11 yarder and missed. Jenny ran rover to 12.5 yards E of C1 and dribbled at the peg, hilling 2 feet to hit on the final roll to take the match to a third game.

The Kiwis took a multi error third game at 7.25pm +25 to lead 3-2 overnight.

Chris

Some analysis has been supplied by Phil Cordingley of England.

A note from Phil:
DGrades in Orange indicate players with a DGrade less than the next player in order. Where the difference is 100 or more the Degrade shows in Red.

Australia

Order	Player		DGrade
1	Robert Fletcher		2,760
2	Malcolm Fletcher		2,551
3	Edward Wilson		2,477
4	Dwayne McCormick		2,438
5	Stephen Forster		2,386
6	Ian Dumergue		2,355
Order	Player 1	Player 2	Avg. DGrade
1	Robert Fletcher	Malcolm Fletcher	2,656
2	Edward Wilson	Ian Dumergue	2,416
3	Dwayne McCormick	Stephen Forster	2,412

England

 

Order	Player		DGrade
1	James Death		2,537
2	Harry Fisher		2,533
3	Jamie Burch		2,562
4	Mark Avery		2,510
5	Samir Patel		2,496
6	Christian Carter		2,402
Order	Player 1	Player 2	Avg. DGrade
1	James Death	Harry Fisher	2,535
2	Samir Patel	Christian Carter	2,449
3	Mark Avery	Jamie Burch	2,536

New Zealand

 

Order	Player		DGrade
1	Paddy Chapman		2,663
2	Jenny Clarke		2,470
3	Aaron Westerby		2,461
4	Felix Webby		2,426
5	Edmund Fordyce		2,343
6	Greg Bryant		2,338
Order	Player 1	Player 2	Avg. DGrade
1	Aaron Westerby	Felix Webby	2,444
2	Jenny Clarke	Greg Bryant	2,404
3	Paddy Chapman	Edmund Fordyce	2,503

USA

 

Order	Player		DGrade
1	Matthew Essick		2,570
2	Zack Watson		2,436
3	Ben Rothman		2,441
4	Stephen Morgan		2,320
5	Thomas Balding		2,381
6	Jeff Soo		2,308
Order	Player 1	Player 2	Avg. DGrade
1	Matthew Essick	Zack Watson	2,503
2	Stephen Morgan	Ben Rothman	2,381
3	Thomas Balding	Jeff Soo	2,345

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

Yesterday was the second day of practice and the NZ team took the opportunity to drive an hour outside Melbourne to the Belmont club in Geelong who kindly hosted a Representative match against a “Victoria” team. We started in bright sunshine which changed to light and then heavy rain, so the players got to experience most forms of the weather that may play a key part of the upcoming contest. Two rounds of doubles were followed by a round of singles and NZ emerged 11-1 victors. Full scores should appear on croquetscores.com over the next 24 hours.
Many thanks to Stephen Forster and the Belmont for their generous hospitality and to the “Victorian” team for giving up their time. These matches are really popular as a wonderful opportunity for local players to compete against a full international team and provide excellent team warm-ups for the visiting country and the chance to move away from the main venue and see a bit of the country.

We’re now back at Cairnlea where the Aussies, Yanks and Kiwis are 50 minutes into their final practice session which will finish around noon to allow the courts to be set for tomorrow. Samir Patel and Christian Carter have just arrived and are heading outside on an overcast, but mild morning. We’re expecting cool weather with some rain over the first Test and then more pleasant condition for the start of the Second round.

This year we genuinely have 24 world class players and I’m really excited by the prospect of some close Tests. Day 1 will be all doubles. One of the great aspects of this event is every player will get to play all 18 of their opponents at doubles. Day 1 is usually full of errors as initial nervousness is gradually overcome. I’ll be watching to see if any doubles pairs can start strongly and dominate their matches, maybe with a couple of triple peels and I’ll be watching the 7 debutants to see how well they can settle on what can be the most pressure packed stage they’ll have played on.

The plan is that all teams will play singles on day 5, so to win early, they’ll need to be 11-4 ahead before the final day. I think there’s a real chance that every single Test may go into day 5. This is the benefit of playing at a 12 lawn club.

So, play starts at 9am tomorrow. I would expect that details of live streaming will appear on the MacRobertson Facebook webpage. Let’s hope for the full mixture of brilliance, errors, tension and good sportsmanship that this event can generate.

Chris

Good morning from a bright and sunny Cairnlea. Today is the first official practice day for the four teams, so I thought I’d try and set the scene for what promises to be one of the best MacRobertson Shields in its long history.
Firstly, a bit about the venue. Cairnlea (the Victorian Croquet Centre) has 12 lawns and a large modern clubhouse with high glass windows making for excellent viewing. Financial issues had led to the discussion of mothballing the venue and I should mention a few key volunteers who have worked tirelessly to keep it up and running. Apologies if I miss someone out, but Lester Hughes, Kevin Beard, Chris Grant, Andrew Wootton and Stephen Forster have all put in sterling work. If you are a member of a 2, 3 or 4 lawn club, you’ll understand how much work is needed on the lawns alone – imagine what it takes to keep 12 lawns looked after.

The lawns are quite variable. The front four (1-4) are usually faster than the others because they get used more. Lawn 2 has some large hills both generally and localised, but the other 3 are flatter. Lawns 5, 6 and 7 run down the left hand side and lawns 8, 9 and 10 up the right hand side. Lawns 11 and 12 are often termed Siberia as they are the furthest away on the top side and are usually the slowest. All of the lawns drain well and even when flooded can be back in action in under half an hour.

The past few weeks have seen torrential rain throughout Victoria. Cairnlea has been flooded on 5 occasions and the lawns are still soft. However, 3 good days of weather could easily see them reach 12 seconds (probably about 10 at present), so we could have very different playing conditions almost day by day. The main protection that Cairnlea has is the occasional windy day. It was noticeable in the Aussie Open that the error count increased substantially when we had higher winds.

So, what’s going to happen? The tournament starts on Saturday 12th.
Days 1-5 will have Australia v NZ and England v USA
Day 6 is a rest day
Day 7 -11 will have the winners of the above matches play the losers.
Day 12 is a rest day
Day 13-17 will have the remaining two Tests.
Each Test is best of 21 matches, each of which will be best of 3 untimed. There will be 9 doubles and 12 singles, meaning all the doubles pairs will play against each other and you’ll play 2 of the opposing team at singles, so 1+2, 3+4 and 5+6 will all play their opposites. This can make a difference when it comes to deciding the order in which you play your team. Teams are meant to be ordered by current form and there is a new rule this year that you can’t play above a fellow team member who is ranked 100 points higher than you.
Team orders for the first Tests will be given to the manager, Kevin Beard, on Friday afternoon.

Whilst we currently have a beautiful day with an expected temperature of 28 degrees, the forecast for the next few days includes plenty of rain, with temperatures dropping to 15 on some days.
Play starts at 9am Melbourne time on Saturday and will be live streamed. More details to follow.

Chris