Friday 24 Jun 2022 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
SCL – Handcross Victors in Sussex Derby
Round five of the Southern Counties League was a local trip to Adur. Unfortunately, captain Justin wasn’t able to make the match and so vice-captain Liam had to take on responsibilities. The team making the shortest away trip of the season was Liam Kidd, Tony Kidd, Peter Kidd, Nigel Sibbring, Maria Cocozza and Bill Mackrell. A special mention to Bill who came straight from playing for the NDL team in Oxshot.
The advantage of playing away meant that Adur were required to select their teams for the triples and they put Graham Elcome with Sandra and Grant Goodwin, whilst brothers Stuart and Liam Floyd played with Chris Hunt.
Maria, Bill and Nigel faced a very difficult game against Liam, Stuart and Chris. Despite getting off to a good start and taking an early lead, 6 points is all that the Handcross team would score and the Adur team won the match 13-6.
Meanwhile in the other triples match it was incredibly tight with each team scoring equal points end after end until the match was 7-7. Then the Handcross team managed to step their play up a gear and won 6 points in two ends to win the match 13-7.
With the score at 1-1 in games it was all to play for in the three doubles matches.
Once again Adur would select their teams first and went for a very strong pairing of Graham and Stuart, Grant and Sandra and finally Liam and Chris.
Having the option to choose who each team played captain Liam decided to give Maria and Bill the tough match against Stuart and Graham. They played some good boules scoring 3 points on the first end with some excellent pointing from both the Handcross players. However, it was always going to be a struggle and they unfortunately went on to lose the game 13-3.
Meanwhile, at the other end of Adur’s ‘beach’ piste, Nigel and Peter were not messing around against Liam and Chris, taking a convincing 10-0 lead and looking like they may fanny their opposition. At this point in the match Nigel had been playing some excellent Petanque with some fabulous points saving ends when Peter had missed shots.
With the finish line in sight for the Handcross team Adur began a valiant comeback, but it wasn’t enough and the Handcross team won the match 13-5.
The overall winner of the match was going to be decided by the winner of the last doubles match; either Grant and Sandra for Adur, or Liam and Tony for Handcross. The match was a close fought battle but as the rain came it was the Handcross team who eventually managed to come out on top and win the match 13-10.
A good night for the Handcross team winning the match 3-2 meaning they would go back to second in the league behind the formidable River Hamble team. The next match will be another difficult one against third in the league Cobbetts A at home on Monday 4th July.
(Liam)