Mon 21st May Report by Arthur
Ashby A played their first game of the season in glorious sunshine against Sheffield U3A at their ground on the outskirts of Sheffield. It is a pretty location, with the croquet lawns laid in the outfield around a cricket square. There are some gentle hills involved, and the lawns were much slower than they looked. It took the Ashby players some time to get to grips with them, especially as three lawns were in play, and Arthur suffered an early defeat to SU3A captain David Bills in the singles on a lawn where he couldn’t put a ball in front of a hoop until it was too late; this combined with excellent play by David giving him a 7-2 win.
After 3 rounds and 6 games, Ashby were 5-1 up, and we were treated to a nice buffet lunch by our hosts. The afternoon session didn’t start so well for Ashby, with both Mike and Martin losing the 4th-round singles matches, leaving the score at 6-3 to Ashby. The final round saw some close games but Ashby won 2 of them giving us an 8-4 win. After some tea and cake we thanked our hosts and set off home, having enjoyed the croquet and hospitality at the Sheffield U3A club.