On Friday 28th May 2021, the Broadwas team of Ian Dampney, Stuart Smith, Roger Wood and John Guy set off to travel to Kenilworth to play in the West Midlands Level Play Golf Croquet League. Not only was this the first league match of the season, it was the first match against another club for over 20 months due to the Covid restrictions in 2020.
The team had been hampered in their preparations as the awful May weather has made the Broadwas lawns waterlogged and unplayable so practice had not been possible for 18 days.
Broadwas edged ahead in the first round of singles matches, and retained a slight advantage throughout the day until the final round of doubles when the hosts managed to catch up to leave the final score tied at 9 – 9.
A quick consultation with the rules showed that the match would now be won by whichever team had scored the most hoops during the day. Lots of adding up (and 3 recounts) followed before it was agreed that the hoop score was 92 – 92, so the match was declared a draw. This was thought to be the first ever in the 23 years of this competition, but was probably a fair result.
Special mention should go to Stuart Smith who won all 4 of his singles games.
John Guy 29/5/21