Sodden lawns great for underdogs

CROQUET

Croquet players are a durable lot, but for the New Zealand team in the trans- Tasman contest at Palmerston North, the heavy rains this week have done them few favours.

Not until the equally durable browntop-fescue lawns pond with water do the Black Mallets up mallets and scuttle indoors.

That happened on Thursday, when there was a dump of 35mm of rain at the Rose Gardens in The Esplanade, leaving three singles of the first test high and dry and one of those was still to be finished today.

Auckland's Pam Fisher was 1-0 up in that and had to beat Royal Sydney's Alix Verge today, to send the first test into a countback. That's because overnight, the Aussies led 6-5 overall in the first of the three-test series.

The heavy, sodden lawns helped the supposedly underdog Australians back into it. They keep the grass longer at Australian clubs, hence slower, because of the danger of it being burnt off.

Quick lawns run at 12 to 14 seconds, which they did on Monday. But by yesterday, with groundsmen unable to mow them all week, they were back to a sluggish eight seconds.

Top Kiwi woman Jenny Clarke, 36, preferred baking sun and hard courts.

"We want conditions to be as hard as possible, the lawns quick, the hoops tight," she said. "Normally we have lawns which are very quick and then you have to be more accurate with your judgment."

That should suit the Kiwis who have higher world rankings and have won all four previous trans-Tasman contests played under the men's and women's mixed format.

Clarke, the world's No 96 but the fifth-ranked woman, is married to Englishman Chris Clarke, the world No 1, and they've lived in Christchurch for more than three years. Jenny won a Commonwealth Scholarship to Oxford University more than 10 years ago.

"I learnt to play there. I played squash with the university croquet coach and got really hooked," she said.

The privilege of being the No 1 New Zealand man was that Aaron Westerby (Hamilton) had short days compared with everyone else's, some of whom went close to the 9-hour time limits.

The world No 7 was unbeaten after three of the six days of play. The Takaro lawns were still under water and unplayable yesterday. The Rose Gardens lawns drain on to the carpark and cricket's super-sopper also helped out there. The series finishes on Monday.

1st test: Day 1 mixed doubles: NZ 2 Aust 2

Day 2 singles: NZ 3, Aust 4 (progress score)

Miranda Morgan (Aust) bt Nina Mayard-Husson (NZ) 26-9, 26-14; Paul Skinley (NZ) bt Mike Jenner (Aust) 26TP-15, 26TP-2; Pete Landrebe (Aust) bt Greg Bryant (NZ) 26STP-9, 26TPO-13; Aaron Westerby (NZ) bt Bruce Fleming (Aust) 26TP-0, 26TP-9; Stephen Forster (Aust) bt Paddy Chapman (NZ) 26-16, 24-26, 26-23; Jenny Clarke (NZ) bt Margaret Melville (Aust) 26-0, 17-26, 26-10; Claire Bassett (Aust) bt Sue Lea (NZ) 4-26, 26-3, 26-22. Unfinished: Pam Fisher (NZ) 26 Alix Verge (Aust) 14.

2nd test

Mixed doubles: NZ 2 Aust 2 _ Clarke & Bryant (NZ) bt Landrebe & Melville (Aus) 26-14, 26-5; Lea & Westerby (NZ) bt Forster & Morgan (Aus) 26-0, 26-14; Fleming & Bassett (Aus) bt Fisher & Chapman (NZ) 26 TP(F)-0, 21-26 QPO(C), 26-19 OTP(C ); Jenner & Verge (Aus) bt Mayard-Husson & Skinley (NZ) 26TP(J)-4, 21-26, 22-5.

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