A Camerton and Peasedown CC team, captained by Ann Munton, travelled to Broadwas CC, near Worcester, for a match in the 5+ Level play league on Saturday, May 23.

Fortunately, most of the bank holiday traffic was travelling in the opposite direction and so the team arrived on time.

No croquet lawn is completely flat or entirely free from imperfections. The lawns at Broadwas were grassy and in good condition, however, they are not completely level.

This meant that the CPCC team had to play uphill, where the ball didn’t go as far as expected, downhill where the ball overshot the hoop and across the slope, where the ball executed a banana curve. The away team quickly adapted to the lawns but the home team were more familiar with them.

Broadwas went a couple of games ahead at the start of the day. After the first round, the wins were shared between the teams but Broadwas managed to hold on to their lead. The end result was a loss for CPCC by 7 games to 9.

Many of the games were very competitive. Of the 16 games played, many of them were very close with 8 of them finishing with a score of 7-6. Although the CPCC team lost they had an enjoyable day’s play with friendly people.

There was a more favourable result when Ann’s ‘A’ team hosted Moreton-in-Marsh CC at home on Wednesday, May 27. The previous day had been uncomfortably hot and following discussion between the team captains, the Moreton-in-Marsh team generously agreed to arrive early so that more play could be completed in the cooler part of the day.

The first two rounds of play saw four doubles matches completed. The CPCC ‘A’ team had two wins and one loss. In addition, there was a closely contested match between Munton and Trish Naish for CPCC ‘A’ and Ken Mercer and David O’Brien for Moreton-in-Marsh.

When time was called this game ended in a 4-4 draw and each team gained ½ a point. At lunchtime the CPCC ‘A’ team was ahead by 8½ to 3½.

In the increasingly uncomfortable heat of the afternoon the CPCC ‘A’ team continued to do well. The final result was a comfortable win for the CPCC ‘A’ team by 14½ to 5½.

All CPCC ‘A’ team members contributed to this win with everyone winning at least one game. Special mentions go to Jonathan Flatt who won all of his games and Phil Hendy who won all of his singles games.