2018 AC Worlds Report – Day 4
BY CHRIS CLARKE
Today was the day that the croquet really started to heat up. We had game after game of excitement and tension. Possibly the most exciting game was played at Kelburn between Jim Nicholls and Sam Murray. Time was called with Sam on rover and peg and Jim on rover alone. Sam had a tough 4 yard rush down the East boundary with his ball for rover to Jim’s ball and opted to play his peg ball, roll partner towards rover and peg out to equalise.
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This left the game tied at rover vs rover and neither ball in front of the hoop. The game went on for over 20 minutes with multiple opportunities for both sides, possibilities of an impasse arising at every juncture. Jim eventually scored the golden hoop to qualify and eliminate Sam.
At Paraparaumu, the playoffs were in full swing. Edward Wilson quickly beat Steve Jones with a triple to claim his place in the knockout. Stephen Mulliner easily beat Vincent Commarieu to qualify. The game between Edmund Fordyce and Jose Riva was terrifically exciting. Edmund quickly reached 4-b and peg before Jose hit his last lift. He opted to stop at 1-b and attempt a sextuple. With 3 peels done, Jose ended up with a 10 yard rush to 2-b that would be fatal if missed ... he hit it perfectly in the middle, but was unable to finish, reaching the peg with 4 peels and pegging out Edmund. The pegged out ending was lengthy with multiple chances for both players. Jose scraped through into the knockout 26-24.
Dwayne McCormick looked dead and buried when Nelson Morrow was about to run rover with his other ball already pegged out, but after running the hoop, Nelson was unable to hit anything. Dwayne looked set to accept this lifeline, until he missed a roquet after rover when peg and peg. This turned out to be fatal since Nelson had a fortuitous wiring lift with a ball in B-Baulk to win 26-24 and eliminate Dwayne. He then went on to eliminate Jarrod Coutts to take a place in the knockout.
Steve Jones now needed to beat Alain Giraud 2-0 to avoid elimination. He took the first game +26 and won a closer second game +5 to eliminate Alain and reach the knockout.
Stephen Richards won a close game against Chris Shilling to qualify. This left Chris needing to beat Brian Cumming 2-0 to avoid elimination. Chris reached peg and peg before Brian had started and soon took the game. The decider went to Brian +10.
The knockout draw was conducted at Kelburn at 6:30 p.m. Highlights of tomorrow’s last 32 matches are Webby v Riva, Mulliner v Moberly, Freeth v Chapman and Clarke v Maugham.