C&FCC v Littlehampton CC – 4th August 2022
On a pleasant sunny Thursday afternoon, Chichester hosted Littlehampton for a friendly match – and that is exactly how it turned out to be.
The two lawns, after weeks of hot and sunny weather and virtually no rain, proved to be very fast and in many places unpredictable, especially the South Lawn, which our opponents found very difficult to play on. We used this to our advantage.
The Chichester team comprised Sally Short, Brian Shipman, Lynne Lyle (who stepped in at the last minute as a replacement for Joyce Parkin) and me.
The afternoon started with a win for Lynne and myself on Lawn 2, but Sally and Brian lost out in a very close match which went to the Golden Hoop. Score: 1-1
Next came the four singles, comprising of 3 wins for Chichester. The fourth which was epic in length and was claimed by Littlehampton. Score: 4-2
By now some were finding the heat quite tiring, and it was suggested we played two doubles, but in the end we decided we would keep to the schedule and ended up playing the full compliment of two singles and one doubles to make 9 matches In all. This time, Chichester won 2 of the three matches taking the final match score to 6-3 to Chichester.
Overall, it was quite a comfortable win, with Chichester scoring 58 hoops to Littlehampton’s 41, but the matches were very enjoyable with three of them being decided on the Golden Hoop, and two more going to the 12th hoop.
Our opponents, Marion Sherwin, Sue Baldock, Wendy Payne and John Bailey were magnanimous in defeat. They were very complimentary of the tea we provided (thank you to Sally, Brian and Lynne for their excellent contributions here) and agreed it had been an enjoyable match. Whilst Sitting under the combination of the pavilion’s sunshade and the newly acquired gazebo was a perfect venue for consuming the fare provided.
[words by Martin Emmett]