EAST MIDLANDS CHAMPIONSHIP NOTTINGHAM By Annabel J McDiarmid
Ok, so every report from this fortnight is going to say this … ITS HOT! I’ll try not to repeat too much. For the second time I find myself writing a report and assisting the manager; although I feel Ian Vincent might not find my assistance as useful as he had hoped, bearing in mind my propensity to sit and chat (to be fair, he already knew). The East Mids is a great, highly competitive, social, 3- day knockout event with Draw and Process, and you can’t go wrong with Nottingham as a venue. Play starts on the Friday, and jugs of water have been taken to all of the lawns to ensure plenty of Hydration Breaks are possible (a good idea….for croquet). The Draw is played today, and after the first round a special commemoration for Gordon Hopewell is held - a man who brought so much to both croquet and this club. See Obituary in the last gazette. We enjoyed canapés and two of his favourite wines from The Wine Society, a French Pinot Noir and a delicious White Rioja. There were a number of sensible players who requested an hour or two delay during the hottest part of the day, two of whom were E John Davis and Beatrice McGlen. Starting their match later, John made the mistake of pegging off one of Beatrice’s balls, which delayed the game further ‘til close on 9pm (a +2 win to John). The error here being that he’d parked in the Hockey Club opposite with no late access! A search around the club to
Lawn 1 is speeding up. Hoop 3 getting tricky.
find suitable sleeping quarters ended in failure, but, manager Ian to the rescue - “I have a spare room”. Meanwhile a large number of us had piled back to ‘The Vic’. I had planned for this. I was to drive there and book an uber back home. I set up the uber app…..except…. “What the heck” it’s now asking me how I’d like to be paid! Blinkin! A cooler start to day 2, and games are being played much more quickly. The day does warm up but there’s a nice cool spot under the chestnut tree by Lawn 1 - my base, I’ve decided. Conundrum : why is it easier to hit with the 4-back ball than half the distance with the backward ball? Head stuff!!!! We all need Rich Waterman in our lives. A welcome returnee, Jeremy Dyer, has been away from croquet about 20 years. That was no problem for him as he steadily played his way through a good standard triple against Debbie Lines – some gnashing of teeth was had. Why do people always have to say “I’ve never played so well” or “that’s my first in ages”.
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