COOL (HOOP) RUNNINGS
By Andrew Grant
This is the story of four plucky individuals who travel to a land far away on a great adventure. This adventure doesn’t involve gold or dragons, or even a ring, BUT it did begin, as so many of these stories do, in an inn. Last December the lawns maintenance group were enjoying a post‐season/pre‐Christmas drink when the subject of the European Club League was brought up and somebody suggested that Woodhall Spa should enter a team. Some things are a li8le hazy but, as I recall, everyone agreed that this was a splendid idea for we were very much club players who would not otherwise have a chance to travel abroad and play compe77vely. Fast forward six weeks and I’m on holiday when I receive an email announcing that, much to our surprise, we have been allocated a place in the Latvian heat.
considering the amount of rainfall they had suffered over the run‐up to the event. Lovely modern club house with excellent facili7es and, most important of all, fantas7c members. Our hosts were charm personified and Roberts’ organisa7on was exemplary. Two days of play with every match played on 7me, on the right lawn, is a feat to be proud of. Saturday night saw a good por7on of the players at a local restaurant for a delicious meal at which we were finally able to excel, with Bob and John demonstra7ng their world class skills as raconteurs, and the team’s stamina as we were finally asked to leave so the staff could go home. So we learned a lot, as you might expect from playing against
players more than a thousand places above you in the world rankings, and had a magnificent 7me. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, but I’d go for the full week and see more of the beau7ful countryside that makes up so much of Latvia rather than just the croquet courts. And if your club is even vaguely interested in having a go I’d say do it. You won’t regret it!
And so it was that a li8le a'er 10.00pm on Thursday 22nd May I am driving a hire car through the pouring rain, heading from Riga to Ikskile and our date with des7ny. There had been a few changes along the way, the biggest of which were the loss of our captain to a health issue and the withdrawal of the Spanish team. This meant that Angie Sco8, who was travelling as wife and supporter, was suddenly co‐opted into the team, and Phyllis Court B took the place of Villa Padierna. We had also learned more of our opponents by this point and it would be fair to say that we were rank outsiders. In fact it might be fair to say that this was like our local football team taking on the Latvian and Finnish na7onal teams with Arsenal reserves filling the final slot. I will not go into details of the matches, suffice to say that they generally went as you might expect with the notable excep7on of Bob Sco8, who claimed two singles scalps, and John and Andrew claiming a win in the pairs. If you wish to see the full results then they are on Croquet Scores for all to see. As an event though, I can’t say enough good things. The venue is excellent. Three courts which played amazingly well
www.croquetengland.org.uk | 18
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