PHYLLIS COURT CROQUET
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17 May - Hamburg CC visit Phyllis Court on a day enjoyed by all

A splendid day was enjoyed by hosts and visitors alike today when we entertained Hamburg Croquet Club.
The German party numbered 10 players of mixed abilities and we did out best to match them with a selection from throughout our club.
Five rounds of doubles with high/low partnerships straddled lunch and there were only a few hold-ups to proceedings.
Phyllis Court were a little too strong for Hamburg despite our best efforts in selection and we won rather more easily than would have been ideal.
Mementoes of the visit were exchanged by the team organisers Chris Roberts and Joern Vinnen.
Hamburg received a Phyllis Court Club badged banner/flag and in exchange were given and a 'ship in a bottle' (modelled on a ship in Hamburg harbour), and members can see this on display in the club lounge trophy cabinet..
PCC: Chris Roberts (-1), Roger Goldring (-1), Robin Coates (2), Frances Colman (2), Dianne Browne (4), Raghu Iyer (5), Colin Morgan (6), Tony Peperell (8), Bill PitKeathey (8), Steve Morton (10), Diana Zatouroff (11).
20 May - PCC 'A' crash to unexpected defeat - Phyllis Court 'A' 1, High Wycombe 4

Phyllis Court 'A' crashed to an unexpected 1-4 home defeat by neighbours High Wycombe today
Things started badly when even before play, they PCC 'A' captain Chris Roberts who was called away for a family matter, but with the experienced Helena Fensome coming off the bench, confidence for a second league win of the season was still high.
However, the morning session went High Wycombe's way with Richard Peperell (yes, he is a member there too and in fact is their Chairman!) and Alan Clark beating the our' Ian Norris and Helena Fensome respectively and the doubles rubber being temporarily halted at 1-1.
It then went from bad to worse for PCC 'A' when a back injury forced the withdrawal of their number one Raouf Allim, which handed High Wycombe an almost certain victory due to the hosts having to concede his matches.
At 0-2 down on the scoreboard but potentially trailing 0-4 if the defaulted matches were to count, the remaining three afternoon singles matches were all about saving face, but Norris and Fensome both lost again and only captain for the day Roger Goldring recorded a match win.
The gallant High Wycombe captain Ian Shore declined to claim Allim's defaulted matches which was a very sporting gesture and the recorded 1-4 score line was evident enough of High Wycombe's superiority on the day.
PCC 'A': Raouf Allim (-2), Roger Goldring (-1), Ian Norris (-1), Helena Fensome (1)

22 May - PCC 'C' lose - Phyllis Court 'C' 7,  Caversham 9

Phyllis Court 'C' slumped to a second leage defeat at home to Caversham this afternoon.
Bill Pitkeighly was our best performer with three wins in his four games and Ralph Chambers managed 50% but it was not enough.
PCC 'A': Ralph Chambers (7), Tony Peperell (8), Bill Pitkeighley (9), John Maguire (9)

22 May -   Helena Fensome plays in GC European Championships    - starts tomorrow, ends Sunday.

Good luck to Helena Fensome who is playing under her Finland flag at the GC European Championships from Thursday (tomorrow) to Sunday.
The four day Championships take place at Budgeigh Salterton CC, in Devon.
Hopefully there will be some video live-streaming from the venue and I will alter members if this happens.
At the least you can follow Helena's progress on www.CroquetScores.com where game results are uploaded in 'real time'.
22 May - Chris Roberts joins Raouf Allim as an AC 'Minus player'

Four Phyllis Court players, Chris Roberts, Richard Peperell, Frances Colman and Raghu Iyer, were in AC Handicap tournament action at Roehampton yesterday and today.
Roberts recorded one more win than loss and so gained ten handicap index points to become an AC 'minus player' for the first time - joining Raouf Allim who achieved the feat a few weeks earlier.
23 May -   Helena Fensome plays in GC European Championships    - Day 1 report

Helena Jannson (Fensome) got off to a good start today with two wins in her three matches (each match is the 'best of three' games).
She lost to Peter Balchin (Wales) 3-7, 6-7 but beat Felipe Mestanza (Spain) 1-7, 7-4, 7-4,  and Jan Kral (Czech Rep.) 7-1  ,4-7, 7-4.
There will be more block games tomorrow, with to top four in the block of eight to qualify for the main event knock-out.
24 May -   Helena Fensome plays in GC European Championships    - Day 2 report

Helena Jannson (Fensome) continued to be 'on song' today with two more match wins - 1 -7, 7-4, 7-4 v Felipe Messtanza (Spain) and 7-3, 7-3 v Viggo Olsen (Norway).
She also lost to the top seed in her block, Lionel Tibble so now has four match wins from her 6 ties so fay.
Jannson (Fensome) has one match left against high ranked Pete Dowd and needs to win that to be sure of qualificationfrom her block, and to avoid any play-offs
Win or lose, this as been a good show from Jannson (Fensome) who has out played her seeing to be on the brink of qualifying for the main knock-out.


22 May - Allim and Roberts play for Oxfordshire and Goldring is at the Huntsanton Open

Three Phyllis Court players are at top events this week.
Raouf Allim and Chris Roberts are representing Oxfordshire in the Inter-Counties  Festival (at Eastbourne and Southwick, near Brighton.
Meanwhile Roger Goldring will be soaking up the sun on the east coast at the Hunstanton Open.
You can follow the results in 'real time' at  www.CroquetScores.com
25 May -   Helena Fensome plays in GC European Championships    - Day 3 report

Helena Jannson (Fensome) failed by the narrowest of margins to qualify for the knock-out stage of the Championships.
She didn't add to her overnight 4 match wins tally this moring inher fail block game and that put her into a three-player play-off for the last two qualifying places from her block.
Unfortunately losses in those games saw her exit from the main event, but she had played well above her initial seeding to be in that play-off position in the first place.
So well done Helena and good luck in the Plate event which concludes tomorrow.

26 May -   Helena Fensome plays in GC European Championships    - Day 4 (last day) report

Helena Jannson (Fensome) completed her play in the GC European Championships today with a couple of wins, which is always nice to do.
Having so narrowly missed-out on qualification for the main event knock-out, a series of Plate and further placing games took place, and results form the block sage of that are yet to be reported on the Croquet Scores system,
Helena ended up in the knock-out for places 25 - 32 which was a poor reward for her earlier encouraging exploits, even although she did win that section to finish 25th overall.
26 May -   Allim & Roberts playing for Oxfordshire in GC County Championship  - Day 1 & 2 report

Raouf Allim and Chris Roberts make up a third of Oxfordshire's AC County team this year as the county experiences life in the Division 1 for the first time.
Playing at Compton CC (Eastbourne) for the first two of this four day event, Oxfordshire were pleased with a three wins/three losses tally at the half way stage.
Oxon.'s action now moves to Southwick, near Brighton for the remaining two days of the Championship.
28 May -   Allim & Roberts help Oxfordshire to 3rd place in GC County Championship  - Day 3 & 4 report

The Oxfordshire AC County team, which included Raouf Allim and Chris Roberts, were delighted with their performance in finishing in third place in the First Division of the AC County Championship tournament which ended today.
Newly promoted to the top tier, Oxfordshire's main objective was to avoid relegation, but instead they surprised everyone with their results over the four day event.
Oxfordshire's action moved to the central venue of Sussex County CC at Southwick, near Brighton, for the last two days.
What a joy it was to play on their recently re-laid and laser levelled courts that are now in super condition ready for the arrival of the GC World Championships in late July/early August.
The Allim & Roberts doubles partnership was spilt up by captain Dayal Gunasekera the second half of the tournament, but successes were still shared fairly evenly between them.
Nottinghamshire, featuring two World Champions and four other internationals, were predictably undefeated throughout and duly won the Championship to nobody's surprise.
29 May -    PCC 'A' beat Woking to reach National Inter-Club Championship quarter-finals 

PCC 'A' fought a terrific rear-guard action and come-back to defeat a Woking side, who were much stronger on paper,  4-3 in appalling weather today.
This was a fabulous result for us, for we were 1-2 down at lunchtime and needed to win three of the four afternoon singles matches to save the fixture.
The rain and cold kept most spectators (sensibly) at home, but thank you to the dozen or so who braved the conditions for different lengths of time throughout the day - and a long day it was too, with the last game finishing at 1820!

The two morning singles rubbers were settled in straight games, with one win for each team, but the doubles was along an fiercely contested affair which went to a decider, which Woking eventually won.
We were almost 50 minutes late for lunch and so didn't resume the afternoon Singles until after 1500, which was maddening.
However, we had seen of the worst of the weather and the courts had help up well despite the deluge.

Ian Norris levelled the over-all fixture score at 2-2 with a straight two games win in his singles rubber, and Phyllis Court won three of the firts games in three of the other rubbers,so it was 'game on' and 'advantage’ Phyllis Court.
The second games al went the opposite way to the first and so it all hung on the deciding third games in each match.
Roger Goldring came back from a first game loss to win his decider just before Raouf Allim, who had had a great tussle with England International Jeff Dawson, scored the winning point at hoop 13 despite conceding the first shot advantage.
With the fixture result assured, Roberts fought back well to reduce a deficit in his (now) dead rubber with Mike Town, but eventually succumbed 5-7.

Goldring was the 'player of the day' for wining both his singes rubbers, but this was one of Phyllis Court best all round team performances for some time.
Phyllis Court play the winner of Sussex County or Surbiton in the next round (quarter-final).
If the former it will be at home, if the latter its will be away.

PCC 'A' - Raouf Allim (-2), Chris Roberts (-1), Roger Goldring (-1, pictured right), Ian Norris (-1)
Woking - Jeff Dawson (-3), Mike Town (-3), Malcolm Bigg (-2), Bernard Jones (0)

Allim & Roberts lost to Dawson & Town  4-7, 7-6, 5-7
Goldring beat Jones  7-4, 7-6
Norris lost to Bigg     4-7, 6-7
Allim beat Dawson    7-3, 6-7, 7-6
Roberts lost to Town 7-2, 5-7, 5-7
Goldring beat Bigg    6-7, 7-3, 7-4
Norris beat Jones     7-4, 7-1
29 May - Browne is new name on Ladies Singles Cup

Dianne Browne won the Ladies Singles Tournament for the first time today - She is pictured here at the cup presentation with Rosie Richardson.
A disappointing field of just five female players took part this year, and the format was a double 'all play all' block (two games against each opponent).
Sally Tooher withdrew after the first round-robin of games, at which point Delia Norris headed the field good wins against Dianne Browne and favourite Helene Fensome.
Fensome had a poor morning with a a second loss, this time to Browne.
Dee McKinbbin made light of her high handicap status and can be proud to have taken Norris to the 13th hoop.
After lunch, Fensome regained some ground with wins over the remaing field and going into the last round there awls the potential of a three-way tie on games wins, meaning the net hoops count would be needed to find a winner.
Fensome and Browne both won their last games to create that tie, which was resolved the Norris on +6 hoops, Fensone +10 and the new winner Browne +15.
Rosie Richardson supplied champagne for everyone at the conclusion and presented her cup 2019 Ladies Singles winner Diaane Browne.
Congratualtions Dianne
29 May - PCC 'A' stutter but still beat Littleton

Phyllis Court will be hoping that the old adage of being 'only as good as one's last game' won't apply as they stuttered to an ultimately comfortable win the SCF Level League two days later at home to village side Littleton, from near Winchester.
Allim and Goldring paired up for the morning doubles this time in a combination that didn't gel as well as on previous occasions and they let their much lower ranked opponents draw level with them in the second game of three in their match, which was then halted, to be resumed only if the overall fixture result was dependent on it.
There was a big surprise in the first of the morning singles matches to finish when Phyllis Court's Helena Fensome fell 4-7, 6-7 to low ranked Ron Monger who played well above his grade.
Chris Roberts levelled the overall score with a 7-4, 7-5 win over Jerry Wilde with the four afternoon singles to come.
After lunch Allim beat Peter Wingent comfortably 7-2, 7-3; Goldring was challenged in his first game but ran out a 7-6, 7-2 victor; Roberts was too good for Monger 7-4, 7-0 and Fensome showed good spirit to come back after the morning's shock to defeat Wilde in three games 7-2, 6-7, 7-5.
With the overall result decided the deciding doubles game was not played and that rubber was halved, but 5.5 to 1.5 score line against one of the leagues' weaker teams leaves much room for improvement in this competition if Phyllis Court are to mount a serious challenge for the title this season.
PCC 'A': Raouf Allim (-2), Chris Roberts (-1), Roger Goldring (-1), Helena Fensome (2).