Welcome to a dry but overcast Nottingham.

I have joined the commentary team today while not at work. Chris is commentating on Hayes v Higgins so join his thread to follow. I've set up on the bowling green side and am sat by lawn 7. As it is the 1v2 matches this morning, a lot are meaningless as both should qualify but is useful for bragging rights going forward

I'm going to focus on Alison Sharpe v Annabel McDiarmid

Alison went first with U to 10yds N of IV
Annabel set a 10yd W boundary tice
Alison hit partner from A baulk, took off to the tice and set a DL
Annabel is shooting from just outside corner 3 at Alisons balls

Misses to E boundary level with hoop 4

Alison tries to rush across the lawn but it hits the peg, takes off pushing K towards 6, and gets a rush on R to 1, she is 3 yds WNW of 1 and rolls up well, makes 1 and has a rush to Y. She should go round from here.

Doesn't rush to Y, just chops it N a bit and is 3balling for now

Picks up Y before 4 and now is in full control

Sets Y 5ys SW of 1back, looks like it will be an NSL

No it is an OSL, R was stopped 2yds NE of the peg after 2back, rushed partner to 3back, makes 3 back and retires to 6yds N of corner 4 leaving a 1ft rush pointing near R.

It certainly didn't point at R as Annabel played as it lay and hit U

Pokes U in lawn slightly and gets a rush on K that pointed at hoop 1 but has cut it to 6yds short of Y

Looking at the other games I can see Ailsa Lines is going round against Kathleen Colclough. Mary Rodeberg and Pat Long are trading opportunities. Nina Mayard-Husson is going round against Janine Hawker

Annabel rolled well to get a rush to 1 and loaded 2, made 1 but has stuck in 2 off Alison's backward ball.

Alison has hit R, took off to get a 7ft rush on Y pointing at U, cuts it to 5yds N of U

Gets a good rush on U and now has another break

Alison has made 3 off partner, left it there and is making 4 and 5 off the oppo balls, a delayed tp is there, R has been sent up to W of 4back for the first peel before 6

Alison jawsed the peel but got hoopbound after 6 and has missed the 1back pioneer

Annabel is now in with R and has continued with her break having started at 2

Current clips has Alison U penult and K 1back.
Annabel has R on a break currently 6 and Y 1

Paddy Chapman is taking photos during the day, if you wish to see them follow the link below

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.946146922122434.1073741831.760862987317496&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.946146922122434.1073741831.760862987317496&type=3

Annabel is now approaching 3back with the makings of a diagonal spread being set up

Annabel didn't get a forward rush after 3back, she's sent K to 3yds S of 1back and is close enough to hit U gently, puts U 18inches from the peg and is slightly hampered on the rush on partner. Brian goes out to watch and the shot is routine enough but will have to roll to the boundary.

Rolls away and puts Y off leaving a 5ft rush pointing at 1

Alison lifts her 1 back ball and is taking the long lift

Misses to corner 4

Sends R to 2 getting a good rush, but only snicks the rush. Roll up is well short and retires to partner

On the other lawns Nina still seems to be having all the play against Janine, Mary Rodeberg is having an equalising break against Ailsa and the other games are progressing

Correction, Kathleen is having the equalising break on Ailsa

Alison took a 9yd wide join on the E boundary
Annabel had another leave, Alison missed and Annabel is having another leave. Annabel is laid up in corner 1 with K on the end of B baulk and U level with 4 near the E boundary

Alison centre balls K at U

Alison has picked up a break and is now approaching 3back with a 4ball break

Alison has a chance of a straight double but refuses to put U to penult. Penult and peg with a good leave will put the pressure on Annabel

After penult Alison puts R near the peg and rushes U into contact with Y. Hilarity follows with Annabel wanting to have a look at the incourt cannon and Alison admitting she's never had one before. Plays a worm to get the rush to rover. Makes rover and is setting a spread with Y only about 6 yds W of the peg

The cross pegging is solid and Alison lays up 4yds S of peg high on the boundary with a rush in lawn

Annabel lifts her hoop 1 ball and is taking the long lift....

Misses to corner 4

Gabrielle has just wandered down to lawn 7 to chase the tea trolley

Alison finishes +17

I'm going to take a break from commentary but will return later

Having enjoyed a wonderful lunch and watch a scattering of play from various players, I'm now going to give some commentary on the crunch block B game between Sue Beattie and Nina Mayard-Husson. Sue needs to win to reach a playoff but if Nina wins then she, Annabel McDiarmid and Janine Hawker would all go safely through to the knock out with Alison Sharpe

As I join the game Sue has a three ball break and is for 5 with the 4th ball on the north boundary near 3. Sue made a couple of errors to reach this point but Nina missed the long shots offered

Sue is playing with black and blue, going round with black at the moment.

Sue is still going round, picked the 4th ball up before 6 and is now coming to 1back

As the cricket is on an Ashes summer, I thought I'd look at the results between England and Australia in the block games. Current score is 12-9 to England

Sue is a steady player around the lawn. She is having to mark 2 balls at 2back as Miranda in the doublebanked game looks like setting for a sextuple

Miranda has set her 1back leave with pink in the jaws, the wiring looks a bit straight and Sylvia took on hoop 1 bouncing off

Sue is round to 4back with a spread

Miranda snicks pink, plays a great Irish peel with peelee bouncing off 2back and is off and running

Nina has hit in but I don't know which shot she took and now has a 3 ball break

Nina has picked up the 4th ball but is being held up by Miranda

Miranda's turn is now a little ragged and she abandons the sextuple in exchange for a tighter break

Sue has all the balls but under approaches 5

Strokes it through

Nina has now run 2back and has a very loose 3back pioneer

Miranda has stopped at 4 back with only 1 peel done

Having made 3back Nina has thrown an OSL together rolling her balls off in corner 4 and just north

Sue took the short lift with her hoop 1 ball and missed between red and yellow

Nina chipped blue in slightly while picking up the break but is now for 3 with blue a couple of yards outside corner 4, black 3yds west of 1 and has rushed red from near black to 4yds past 3, plays a good approach and runs a slightly angled hoop

Fails to make 4 from blue near the corner and joined with partner near the west boundary. Sue hits her 15 yarder at partner playing with her hoop 1 ball

The breeze is picking up and the thermometer is falling at the moment

Sue is now at 2 with all the balls for a standard tp.

No peel at 3 but partner has been left near 4back

Having changed my commentary position to in the lee of the hedge I'm now feeling warmer and happier to keep going.

Sue has made 5 but the 6 pioneer is at the hoop so this is probably a break to the peg

Sue is up to 2back, no peels attempted

She is making 3back with partner at 4back. Straight triple???

My feeling is still no

She approaches 4back from 3yds straight, no peel, makes the hoop from 3ft

Looking at the pavilion there are about 15 people watching including Annabel who is looking more worried the further Sue gets. Annabel goes into a 3way playoff for 2 spaces with Nina and Sue if Sue wins

Sue got to the peg with a loose vertical spread and layed up in corner 2.

Nina lifted Yellow from near rover and hit partner near penult rushing it past the peg. Took off to black and blue and missed

Sue rushed partner to 4back, makes 4back and rushes direct to penult. The other balls are just out of corner 2 and 4yds south of rover

In the other blocks

A Jenny is through, if Ailsa Lines beat Virginia Arney then Ailsa Rosemary Landrebe and Kathleen Colclough are through. If Ailsa loses then there will be playoffs
C Gabrielle and Sarah are through.Beatrice McGlen(5wins) is playing Elaine Coverdale(4) and Alison Robinson(4) and Anna Miller (3) are playing.
D Miranda and Rachel are through. Rosemary Newsham (4) is playing Caroline Denny (2), Louise Bradforth(3) is playing Anne Quinn(3) and Wendy Dickson (3) is playing Kathy Grant (4)

Sue made penult, has left partner there taking off to red that is south of rover, doesn't get a rush to the hoop so a backward takeoff is needed

Makes rover and just needs to pegout to force the playoff. She had a rush pointing west after rover and sshe is taking off direct to partner rather than going via yellow near corner 2. Good move as hoop 2 is definitely in play from yellow to blue.

Good take off and Sue finishes +14 to force a playoff tomorrow

That's all from me,I'm getting ready to enjoy Belgian beers and chocolate kindly sponsored by Caroline Denny and the Belgian Croquet federation and some pizza