by Duncan Catterall Hosted at the Roehampton Club, the organisers were a little worried about this year’s questionable summer weather. The Roehampton GC Open, held the week before, had seen sideways rain forcing players to shelter at multiple points across the weekend. Luckily it seems, the Spanish did their best and managed to squeeze some Mediterranean sun into their hand luggage. England vs Spain Test Match 21ST ‐ 23RD JUNE 2024
Day 1 kicked off with a day of doubles matches and with the stats against them, England pulled together to take an early lead with all 3 pairs winning their first doubles match. England were 3 up but it became clear the Spaniards were just warming up, because after lunch, the visitors pulled their socks up and won 2 out of 3 doubles matches ending the day with England 4 ‐ 2 up, with all to play for across the next two days. Maybe a bit prematurely, the England team decided that after all their hard work, they needed a drink at the bar. With an internet outage at the club putting all the card readers out of action, they managed to rack up a bar tab far higher than their lead in the Test. Day 2 was all singles matches and England's preparations the night before seemed to be paying off, as they won 4 of 6 singles matches in the morning session, followed by a further 3 in the afternoon. At the end of day 2 England were ahead 11 ‐ 7 and Spain the statistical favourites had a lot of catching up to do. But not before the Test match dinner that evening, kindly hosted by Roehampton Club, who also kindly covered the evening’s drinks bill, much to the teams’ delight.
Jose Riva and Juan Ojeda play Euan Burridge and Jamie Birch in a doubles match With the sun shining, the live stream cameras powered up and lawns running incredibly quickly (13 seconds), the players were eager to get started. Captaining the team from England was JP Moberly, along with Aston Wade, Euan Burridge, Jamie Birch, Stuart Smith and Tobi Savage. Leading the Spanish team was Andres Alvarez‐Sala, accompanied by his brother Manuel Alvarez‐Sala, Juan Ojeda, Patricio Garay, Nicolas Denizot and Spanish Number 1: Jose “Pepe” Riva. This was the fourth Test match between England and Spain, each side winning the Test match while away, indicating that, if the pattern continued, Spain should win this year.
Patricio and Nicolas feeling hopeful after they drew level 1‐1 with Jamie and Euan
The England team, feeling quietly confident at the start of Day 3, stormed out the gates of the morning session to win all 3 doubles matches and seal their 3rd Test victory against Spain before the day had even ended. The Test ended with England winning 17 matches to 10. A special mention to Jose Riva for not dropping a singles game all weekend and to Juan who played the whole 3 days with a different mallet having broken his the week before! Well done to all the players for providing excellent play across the weekend.
Jamie and Pepe congratulate each other after a closely fought game with Pepe winning 7‐5, 7‐6
Continued on page 35
www.croquetengland.org.uk | 34
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease