HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A "THREE BALL" TRIPLE PEEL?
If you had been lucky enough to be at the Bribie Island Tournament recently, you would have seen croquet played to perfection. It was a tough field of 16 players with most of the Queensland State Team players competing. In the first block of 8, John Philpott had won through undefeated, while Steve Jones, with 6 wins already, had to beat Leslie Watson in the last game of the other block to make sure he was in the final play-off against John.
Against Leslie Watson, Steve laid the supershot and hit (hard) with the 3rd ball, but stuck in the 1st hoop. Les attempted to set up for a sextuple ("Lady's Leave") but his luck was out when he inadvertently ran 1-back by about a millimetre instead of nestling in the jaws. Les tried the miracle shot on to one of the balls that were wired across hoop 1, but failed, giving Steve an easy start. Steve also set up for a sextuple with his own balls placed about 10 yards down the East boundary.
Les played the shot of the day by jumping clean over the first hoop and hitting his wired ball on the other side - a fantastic shot. Sadly, he could make only 2 hoops from this. Steve got in but could not get the balls into peeling position until after hoop 4. He then peeled 1-back strongly, sending the peelee to 2-back and his own to the pioneer at hoop 5. After 6, he peeled 2-back, rushing the escape ball to 1-back. Steve then played a great shot loading the peelee perfectly in front of 3-back and finished the game with a straight quadruple. Important strokes in this were the 3-back peel, when the peelee ended up a yard in front of 4-back, and the penult peel, when again the ball, ended up close to rover. Steve had to play a full jump after the rover peel which enabled him to peg out for his first sextuple since 1996.
And now for the final - both players were set to go, and the weather didn't look good. We spectators huddled under the awning in front of the club house so we wouldn't get wet.
It looked like Steve had first-hoop-itis, again giving John an opportunity, with which he came to grief early, enabling Steve to reach 4-back in the rain with a good diagonal spread leave. John missed the lift down the East boundary into corner 4, and Steve set out on his break. His play departed from "normal" after hoop 2, however, when he rushed his partner ball deliberately to hoop 3 and placed it ready to peel. Rushing the escape ball to 4, he ignored John's ball in corner 4, made hoop 4 but was short in his approach to hoop 5 (due to the rain). He made the hoop, running right up the court beyond hoop 6 to within 7 yards of the peelee, which he hit to the East boundary. He then played a great croquet stroke, accurately positioning the peelee in front of penult and getting a rush on the other ball near the peg. Another great peel was followed by a standard 3-ball break to rover, when disaster almost occurred when he managed to rush the peelee flush on to the leg of rover. After revolving several times and pulling out more of his hair, Steve recovered, and played an extremely delicate take-off, moving the peelee in front of rover (virtually in the jaws), and his own ball 18" behind in perfect position for a half-jump. Steve played this shot well, peeling and making the hoop in the same stroke, and was able to peg out to complete his first ever 3-ball triple in tournament play after 25 years of trying!
In all, Steve did five triple peels and a sextuple before the final, which was really topped off by the "three ball' triple peel to win the event. This was a magnificent effort, one which I have never seen performed before.
Ernie Melville, Brisbane
