Enough of politics as another glorious day for croquet at Writtle welcomed our friends from Maldon on the 9th June for the GC Handicap League match. Chelmsford Green team led David Dawsey (6) got off to a positive start by winning both the doubles by the narrowest of margins at the 13th hoop. David D and Ernest Bailey (11) overcoming Peter Marven (11) and Shirley Macro (11) whilst Anne Skuse (7) and Linda Murrell (11) beat former second club members at Chelmsford Lynn Hamber (12) and Diana Pettitt (12). These two hard earned wins were to prove important as the first 12 singles were shared with Chelmsford Green going into the final set of singles leading 8-6. As the really important part of proceedings (the eating of cake) was soon to be, the time keeper noticed an apparent speeding up of play! Linda and Ernie on lawn 1 both won 7-5 and David, despite giving many extra turns to his opponent managed to win 7-3. Final score Chelmsford 11 (106 hoops Maldon Lakeside 7 (100 hoops). A feature of the match was the fine play by the higher handicap players on both sides. For Chelmsford the star player was Ernie who won all his matches without, apart from his doubles win with David, being taken to the 13th hoop. To sum up: a match played in fine spirit with hardly a thought for the affairs of state. I hope to add some photos to the gallery on the website shortly. JS