Sidmouth Croquet Club sent a Golf Croquet team to play in Cornwall, writes David Butler.

The Cornish club has two teams and Sidmouth had soundly beaten Cornwall Porthpean on home ground.

Now they were to play the Cornwall Rosevear team.

Sidmouth got off to a poor start losing the first five games.

Ian Simpson then won a singles game, lifting the team’s spirits. Two doubles games followed, Sidmouth winning one and so, after three sessions, Cornwall led 6-2.

Twelve games were played in the afternoon and it became clear that the Sidmouth side were beginning to get to grips with the Cornish grass as they won six matches and drew one other which gave the final score 11.5 to Cornwall Rosevear and 8.5 to Sidmouth.

This proved to be the first game this season that Sidmouth SW team has lost.

The players had difficulty with the rather coarser grass and some were unable to hit hard enough to send the balls a good distance. The final result was also due to the fact that, on the day, the Cornish team were the better players - on their home turf.

Nobody on the Sidmouth team really excelled in this match, but four players did win two of their four games.

The final match will be played against Budleigh Salterton later in the month.