‘You win some, you lose some’, those the were the buzz words after mixed fortunes in terms of results over the past week, writes Richard Thurlow.

Last week, the club fielded some of our Association Croquet players in three of the league competitions, namely the ‘Federation’, the ‘Intermediate’ and the ‘B’.

We managed to lose all of them, some outstandingly , (the Federation captain at six games to one against, explains his loss as being the consequence of Sidmouth being too good and having to give away extra turns).

To rub salt in the wound, two of the matches were played against Exeter on consecutive days

In an even fanciful mode, the captain of the B league team explained his loss as being due to the wonderful lunch provided by the opposition.

I quote: “We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when we played Budleigh last Tuesday.

“Penny Ball, Pamela Bowra, Richard Croft and Kelvin Dent finished the morning in a commanding position with the dream doubles pairing of Penny and Pamela beating their opponents convincingly. “Then Budleigh played their trump card and provided a lunch of such magnificence that Sidmouth mallets wilted in the searing afternoon sun and the players’ killer instinct deserted them.

“Only Kelvin was able to win his second match of the day. Richard played well but avoided troubling the handicap committee. “Budleigh squeaked home by four games to three after an enjoyable match on probably the hottest day of the year.”

There was no explanation from the Intermediate team captain, (your correspondent), perhaps because he lost all his matches.

In contrast, Sidmouth Golf croquet teams, (our SW team, and SE team) won all three of their matches, SW against St Agnes, SW against Porthpean, and SE against Kingston Maurward, whose exciting match is described below.

“The usual 20 games were played and at lunch the scores were level at five games each. The lunch seemed to invigorate the Sidmouth team, (unlike against Exeter!) who in the fourth round won four of the five games played making the score 9-6.

“In the fifth round Graeme Pryor and John Maynard won their games to secure the Sidmouth victory with an 11-9 win. Paul Bradley was the most successful Sidmouth player winning three games.”

More exciting reports on our successes next week!