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Croquet SouthEast GC level play league: Sussex County v Cheam

The second of Sussex County’s four GC Level Play League matches, against Cheam CC, was on a knife edge until the very last game.

The team of Brian Aikens, David Dickens, Jonathan Isaacs and Nigel Billingham travelled up to Surbiton, which is where Cheam are playing their home fixtures, and found themselves 2-1 down at the lunchtime break with Jonathan being the sole victor.

The rain, which had been forecast, miraculously held off as afternoon play began. In order to secure the match, three wins out of the four Singles matches were needed.

Brian lost comfortably to Ian Cobold, who played very accurately and, ironically, is also a member of Sussex County. This put added pressure on the three remaining Sussex County players who all had to win in order to secure victory.

David and Nigel both won their matches in two straight games which meant that the outcome of Jonathan’s match was the decider. At one game all, Jonathan and his opponent found themselves being watched courtside by both sets of their respective team members as they began their third and deciding game.

From the off, Jonathan played a solid and controlled game which included two jump shots and a monster angled hoop run on Hoop 11 to secure the game and the match for Sussex County.

Well done the team and, in particular, well done Jonathan with wins both in the morning and afternoon sessions. As Bill Shankly famously said, “Form is temporary, class is permanent”.

Brian Aikens

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