Tournament News
Day 7 Report: Friday, November 7, 2003
Today’s scores
Test Match standings
10:25 AM. Back to normal.
The weather has returned to a summer-like sunny and hot.
In the Australia v. Great Britain singles matches, three 26-0 first games have been recorded so far: Forster (AUS) over Avery (GB), Fulford (GB) over Fleming (AUS), and Chris Clarke (GB) over Bassett (AUS).
11:05 AM.
All matches except Mulliner (GB) v. Meatheringham (AUS) have started game 2. Mulliner, as he has often done at this series, hit the lift when the game was on the line, and the game is now in a three-ball ending, Mulliner having pegged off Meatheringham’s rover ball.
Fleming (AUS) hit Fulford’s (GB) 1-back leave in game 2 to finally score some points in this match. However he has failed 2-back on his peeling break, giving Fulford more or less a standard start to a sextuple peel.
11:35 AM. GB take 2-0 lead on the day.
Chris Clarke and Robert Fulford finished matches on adjacent courts at nearly the same time to give Great Britain a 2-0 lead on the day over Australia, and a 4-1 lead in the test match. Fulford completed his sextuple peel in fine style, needing to do only the rover peel straight.
NZ lead USA in two of the three doubles matches.
12:20 PM. New Zealand on the scoreboard, Brits keep winning.
New Zealand’s Greg Bryant and Peter Parkinson beat USA’s Jerry Stark and John Taves in two games to bring the test match score to 2-1 in favor of Team USA.
John Prince (NZ) has just finished a TPO of (correction) Louw’s ball. He had troubles with the penult peel, but carried on with a delayed double.
Toby Garrison needed only to make a six-hoop break to win another match for NZ, but missed a short cut rush. Luckily he ended near his partner ball, and then Fournier missed a five-yard lift shot. But Garrison again failed to finish, and Fournier took the lift at a nine-yard double (when Drake could have taken a two-yard shot) and hit. He can level the match with a double peel.
David Maugham and Stephen Mulliner have each posted straight-game wins for Great Britain. Maugham v. Martin Clarke was a high-quality match, with good break play and good shooting.
1:45 PM. NZ v. USA 2-2; AUS v. GB 2-6.
Fournier did the two peels but missed a long peg-out, sending the forward ball off the lawn. Bulloch finished to tie NZ with USA at 2-all. Prince and Wislang (NZ) are playing a cautious two-against-one strategy in game 2 against Louw and Rosenberry (USA). Yesterday’s pegged down match has resumed; Fournier went round and Bryant missed the lift.
Australia’s Stephen Forster continues his excellent MacRob debut with a win over Great Britain’s Mark Avery. This is Avery’s first loss in this Series. Burrow (GB) is working on a TPO in the third game against Hockey (AUS).
2:55 PM. Spectator’s delight.
Two matches on adjacent lawns directly in front of the clubhouse finished simultaneously with dramatic pegged-out endings. Several turns after the TPO, Burrow (GB) pegged off his rover ball to get a two-ball endgame with his ball for penult and Hockey (AUS) for 4. Then with Burrow in position at rover and Hockey on the north boundary, Hockey roqueted and played a rough-and-ready two-ball break from 4 to 4-back. The final turns featured a three-yard shot through rover by Burrow when Hockey was set at penult and therefore in good position to take advantage had Burrow missed; a seven-yard shot through rover by Hockey, and a missed 15-yarder by Burrow to give Hockey the game and match, and a badly needed win for Australia.
Just as Burrow was taking his final shot, Greg Bryant was lining up an 18-yarder at Fournier’s ball by the peg. The shot missed and Fournier pegged out to give the Americans a 3-0 score for the first round (this was the pegged down match from yesterday). Never a pretty match, this was a gutsy win for Fournier and Drake who found themselves against the wall in both games 2 and 3. The test match score now stands at 3-2 to USA, with the remaining doubles match just starting game 3.
6:00 PM. Another peg-down in NZ v. USA doubles.
The match between Prince & Wislang (NZ) and Louw & Rosenberry (USA) was pegged down due to darkness. The status of the match: game 3, U (Wislang, for penult) and K (Prince, for rover) to play, with a lift, and imperfectly cross-pegged; R (Rosenberry, for 4-back) and Y (Louw, for peg) about eight yards apart south of corner II.