Longman cup quarterfinal against East Dorset 30th July

.After a 7am start and a long journey to East Dorset CC the G&G AC team faced a very stiff test in the Longman Cup quarter-final against the runner-up in both of the last two years. In the doubles John Gosden was not on form, missing several medium-distance roquets, but Julie Tremble kept us in the game with several good hits-in and roll approaches.  We were level around 30 minutes before the end, but judicious use of their single bisque gave our opponents the victory by 4 on time.  Bernie Phillips had a very tight game and just managed to scrape a victory by 1 in the final turn after time had been called with a roll approach from 20 yards and a successful long hoop.  The fourth member of our team, Tim Dutton, lost his game meaning we were 2-1 down at lunch.  We were provided with a lovely fishcakes, chips and salad ‘light’ lunch by our hosts.  The afternoon was very hot, approaching 30 degrees, as we got underway with the four singles matches.  Tim fought hard creating chances to catch up with his opponent who had both balls on the peg for around 40 minutes before Tim finally succumbed.  Julie had an early strong lead, but her opponent used his bisques to almost catch-up, however she then forged further ahead to peg out and win.  Meanwhile Bernie could not overcome a very strong opponent, who had won the C Level AC tournament at G&G in June.  John battled away but eventually lost on time, making the final result 5-2 to East Dorset.