Phyllis Court bow out of National Cup

PHYLLIS Court is out of the National Inter-Club Championship (tier 1) following a solid home semi-final loss to Cheshire club Bowdon last week.

The Henley club were competitive in most of the seven individual matches, but Bowdon were repeatedly clinical in closing out victories in the later stages of games and won the team match 5-1.

The opening doubles was an exciting affair with four international players on show. Phyllis Court’s Chris Roberts (Wales) and Charlie von Schmieder (Ireland) lost the opening doubles game 7-6 to Bowdon’s Angharrad Walters (Wales) and 18-year-old Jack Good (England) but came back to win the second game 7-5 before that match was suspended for lunch.

In the morning singles, Rick Lilley, the current Phyllis Court champion, continued his run of good form, to beat Bowdon captain Nigel Matthews 7-5, 7-5, but the hosts’ Ian Norris was beaten in quick time by Alison Jones.

Phyllis Court’s hopes of a win were quickly demolished after lunch when both Lilley and Norris were brushed aside in their opening games. Their second games were only slightly improved, but those matches were over quickly, going down 7-0, 7-5 and 7-3, 7-3 respectively.

Von Schmieder went down to Walters’ repeated accuracy with her ball placements and paid a heavy price for two missed hoop shots, and with that match loss went the team contest, before Good staged the most unlikely of comebacks in his second game with Roberts.

The Phyllis Court player had recovered well from a 7-4 loss in game one, to lead 6-2 in game two, largely down to a jump shot score at hoop three which went on to lodge in the jaws of hoop four.

Good tried a jump shot from 25 yards but instead he pushed Robert’s hooped ball through for the hoop score.

Roberts hung on with hope of a win over the UK number two and world number seven, but Good clawed his way back into the games and, when Roberts was short with his first approach to hoop 13, Good’s come back was complete and he won 7-6.

In other team news, Phyllis Court D suffered an upset in its push for the Southern Croquet Federation (SCF) Advantage League title, when they were held to an 8-8 draw away draw Harwell on Monday. Phyllis Court C had dispatched Harwell 15-1 only two weeks previously.

Fortunately, title rival Eynsham lost last week and so the Northern Division title is still in their own hands for Phyllis Court D.