Carrickmines , 1st-2nd September, 2012

This year’s match was held at Carrickmines (by kind permission of the Club) on 1st/2nd September, the first sunny weekend for a long time. The format consists of 15 contests (3 doubles and 12 singles – all best of 3 games).

The Irish players were Simon Williams, Ed Cunningham, Danny Johnston, Kieran Murphy, Patsy Fitzgerald and Nathaniel Healy.
They faced a mainly English opposition in David Maugham, Keith Aiton, Marcus Evans, Robin Brown, David Walters and David Foulser. It was a measure of the task facing Ireland that the average GB position in the world rankings was 49 while the average Irish position was 120.

All that seemed very distant by lunchtime on Saturday, when Ireland had won all three of the doubles contests. In the singles games after lunch, however, GB reasserted itself. Only Patsy won his rubber against David Walters, while Nathaniel’s contest against David Foulser was stopped at 1-1 (to be completed next day if required). That left a close score of 5-4 at the end of the day.

On Sunday, unfortunately, the trend continued. Only Simon won his match against Keith Aiton, while Danny, Ed and Kieran all succumbed. Once David Walters had beaten Nathaniel there was no point in completing the contest between Patsy and David Foulser, as GB as achieved the requisite 8 points.

This match is very important for the Irish players, as we rarely get a chance to play outside our own small group and we are very grateful to the Croquet Association for the opportunity to play against first class opposition.

RESULTS:

S.Williams & P.FitzGerald beat D.Maugham &D.Walters -7tp (DM), +22tp(SW), +20

D.Johnston&K. Murphy beat M.Evans&R.Brown +20,+24tp(KM).

E.Cunningham&N.Healy beat K.Aiton&D.Foulser +17,+15tp(EC).

K.Aiton beat E.Cunningham -26tp, +26tp, +12tpo

D.Maugham beat S.Williams -26tp, +26tp, +13tpo

P.FitzGerald beat D.Walters +5, +12

M.Evans beat D.Johnston +26tp, +26tp

R.Brown beat K.Murphy +17tp, -26, +13

D. Foulser beat N.Healy +17

N.Healy beat D.Foulser +6

S.Williams beat K.Aiton +25tp, +8

D.Maugham beat E.Cunningham+24tp, +22tp

M.Evans beat K.Murphy +26tp, +26tp

R.Brown beat D.Johnston +15, +24tp

D.Walters beat N.Healy +23, +10tp

P.FitzGerald beat D.Foulser +22tp

D.Foulser beat P. FitzGerald +17

GB won 8-5