Today we paid for the pleasant weather on Thursday and Friday. Rainwear was out in force, and on and off as the showers came and went.

The plate event was played with great enjoyment - or at least as much as the weather allowed, and later periods of sunshine allowed Bambi (Rosario Garcia-Zozaya) to parade her Spanish flag between the lawns. The whole group was great fun - if a little difficult to pin down in one place! The plate was won by Karen Bisley from Australia and she will now be off to Southwick to support her daughter who has a ranking place in the Australian team and takes with her a jar of Hilary's best marmalade as a prize.

There were upsets for some in the qualifying block. Chrissie Merrington had done well the previous day but only succeeded in adding one win to her total. Debbie Davidoff did a little better with 2 more wins, but not enough to catch up with Lynn Pearcy or Beverley Cardo. Paz Gonzalez de Aguilar added 4 wins to equal Beverley's 7 and beat her on points for the first place (and a jar of marmalade). Paz, Beverley and Lynn made the first three qualifying places.

Local player Liz Drury continued to play really well and had great support from club members throughout the day who cheered her on an each match. She took good wins from Maria Jose Pailos and Debbie Davidoff to end on 6/9 wins and take the final qualifying place. I think we can safely say no-one could have been more overjoyed at the achievement.

All the croquet was played in a great spirit of friendship and good humour. For the four qualifiers the harder task now begins.

John Low
Manager