DAY FOUR COMMENTARY

As forecast, the cloud that had been threatening to 
come of the 10,000ft mountains to the West had broken 
through overnight, meaning that as we awoke it was 
mild but threatening to rain.  While there was enough 
time for the lawns to be mown, it was drizzling by the 
start of play and, as forecast, this increased in 
intensity during the day.  This meant that what pace 
there was on the lawns had gone, and it was clear that 
the day would be principally be decided by who hit and 
who missed.  GB started the day 8-7; best of three 
singles, paired in team order.

Robin and I had early breaks, and I surived the lift 
for a 5th turn win over Jerry.  Robin was less 
fortunate and after he missed his lift, Danny made 
short order of his TP.  Jerry had the best of our game 
two, while Robin dominated his; both finishing +26tp.  
A quick progression to 1-1 in two matches.  

While these two matches were ploughing ahead, Tony had 
hit (after a previous error at hoop 5) and was having 
a TPO against Doug.  Ian hadn't had much play in his 
match, but Jeff (Dawson) - unhelpfully playing Jeff 
(Soo) - was on a TP to take the first +17tp.  

Stephen was looking like he was going 1 down against 
Ben, until Ben took an unwise line of play after his 3-
back pioneer had hit the peg and ended making the 
rover peel, but not 3-back.  Stephen laid for an SXP 
and, after Ben missed, completed hit, but not without 
some 'excitement'.  Attention turned back to Tony, 
who - having had 2 balls off when for 6 v 1 - had 
progressed to rover v 5 before some good play from 
Doug leveled at Rover v Rover which proved enough to 
turn it into an OTP.

So, 1-1 in 2 matches, 1 up in one and 1 down in the 
other 3.  The 1 match overnight lead wasn't looking 
too strong.

I had the best of the early play in game 3 against 
Jerry with a 5th turn ball (after trading errors on 
turns 3 and 4), but only jawsed the straight rover 
peel and failed the half-roll-jump (I was too close 
for a proper jump attempt), giving Jerry an easy 
break.  Stephen, however, completed a 5th turn tp 
against Ben for a 2-0 win, and match score of 9-7.  
Robin's first break in his game against Danny had been 
negated by Danny's hit, and after both he and I missed 
our lifts, TPs saw that lead eliminated.  9-9.

By this stage momentum had swung to the US.  Jeff 
Dawson had had a quick leveller in his match, but his 
first break leave was hit in the decider.  He also got 
a few extra shots between Jeff Soo's two breaks which 
he missed by nothing before Jeff Soo got going on a 
delayed TP.  Ian - who had capitalised on an error to 
quickly level the match - was under threat of a 
standard TP in the decider, which meant that, while 
Tony had won game 2 with another TPO, GB were looking 
for an error which never came.

11-9 to USA.  

For the record, Jeff Soo scored the winning point, 
although he hadn't realised he'd done so until being 
jumped by his team-mates.  Tony and Doug's third game 
wasn't played since no-one could summon the enthusiasm 
for a dead game in what was now heavy rain - with 
standing water forming.

The records will show this as the first Solomon Trophy 
victory for the USA.  Just over 20 years since John 
Solomon presented the trophy for the contest to help 
encourage Association Croquet take-up in the USA, he 
might claim mission accomplished, but this was always 
going to be a tight match given the closeness of 
ranking of the two teams. 

Both sides played well, and while there were a number 
of errors on both sides these were (excepting the 
occasional game which decended) few in number given 
the number of games played.  Hit rates for lifts were 
probably over 50% - I don't think anyone was keeping 
count - but that also masks a few people shooting 
really well (60% - 80%) with one or two weaker links 
in each team.

Danny Hunnycutt was superb throughout.  His shooting 
was exceptional and breakplay tidy, and he will be 
rightly proud of a 3-0 win over Stephen.  Doug 
Grimsley at number 5 was good; with solid performances 
in the doubles, and very nearly pulling off a 3-0 
26tp^3 no-croquet win over Ian in the singles.  

The Mission Hills club has been excellent throughout, 
cutting lawns and setting hoops each day and ensuring 
that whatever the players needed (including drinks, 
snacks, lunch and - apparently in honour of the 
visiting team - afternoon tea) throughout the day.  I 
won't try to name all those involved, since there were 
many and I'd forget someone.  The lawns have an 
excellent surface and are essentially flat with no 
alarming precipices near hoops.  Hoops set in sand 
have the usual problem of being impossible to set 
to 'difficult'; perhaps superhoops or similar are the 
answer here.  One insurmountable problem for this club 
though - it needs to be somewhere warmer and drier 
than the Palm Springs Desert.

- Samir Patel 

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UNREPORTED FINAL-DAY SCORES 
 
Soo beat Dawson -26tp +26tp +17tp
Le Moignan drew with Grimsley -2otp +13tpo
Bast beat Burridge +26tp -4tp +26tp