Good morning from Hurlingham.
It was sunshine in Cambridgeshire when I left this morning, but here it is cloudy.
I dare say the sun will burn through soon enough.

Today we have the Semi-Finals;
Reg Bamford v Harry Fisher on lawn 2;
Jose Riva v James Death on lawn 3.
Best-of-5.

This is the first match between Bamford and Fisher.
They have played four individual games, Bamford winning all (3sxp and a qp).

Riva and Death have played 2 matches, Death winning at the 2015 Opens, Riva gaining revenge at the 2018 Worlds.
They have played 6 other games, all won by Riva.
The memorable one was in the Opens Z here in 2017. Death laid for a decuple, only for Riva to hit the long roquet.

These matches will be normal advanced, not super.
In case you are unaware, the MacRobertson Shield will be in Melbourne this November.
As superAdvanced is yet to catch on overseas, this will be played under normal advanced rules.
So to reacquaint our team with the normal leaves and tactics, this event (and others) will be played under normal rules unless both agree.
Death and Fisher will be following team orders, so normal it is.

All four players are here, but none has started warming up - at least not on the lawn!

Quiz question for you: who are the eleven players to have knocked Bamford out of the Opens (some more than once)?

Asking one or two here revealed alarming ignorance. You may have difficulty with two overseas players from the '90s. No cheating now!

The mangler has at last chivvied the players onto the lawn. Surely the match should start at 10am, not the warm-up.

Lawns. Not double-banked today!

Bamford's TPO yesterday was his first since 2013.

thanks to James Hopgood and Paddy Chapman for emails yesterday.
Please do email with any comments, questions, or corrections, I'll try to keep an eye on my messages.

T1 Death supershot 3y SW peg
T2 Riva Red 3y E of peg.
T3 Death dribbles near peg (no attempt at roquet)

T4 Riva misses 15-yarder.

T1 Fisher supershot 4y SSW of peg.
T2 Bamford Red to W bdry, just S of peg-high.
T3 Fisher Blue misses Red to 8y S of Red.
T4 Bamford Yellow from B-baulk, hits Red.

T5 Death has 4-ball break.

T5 Death has put down 4-ball break. Fell off the lawn going to Riva's Ball on the N bdry. Black clip is on 3.

T6 Riva ends up with cut rush of partner to 1, 4y short. Take-off approach. 4' angled hoop. Makes it. Has break.

T4 Bamford has break.

Chris O'Byrne asks what is the most 4th turn finishes in a tournament?
Two so far here.

Nick Parish emails, re my comment that having best-of-3 quarters, also double-banked, may have raised eyebrows.
He rightly points out that the mangler only had 5 lawns available yesterday, with the cricket pitch required for a weeknd match.
Also, there were 2 unfinished round-of-16 games. Though the mangler might have cracked the whip on Thursday evening...

The Yellow ball continues to make progress in both matches.
Bamford will be making just 6 hoops; Riva, more than 6.

Death and Fisher won the toss.

Riva has left Blue just South of the west wire of hoop 2 (ie MSL ball).
I'd have thought later in the day he may have tried to POP Death to 3 & 3, but maybe first thing a solid break to 4-back is called for.

Bamford has made his 1-back leave: Blue and Black cross-wired at 1, Red near 3rd corner, Yellow 2y ish SW of Red.

T5 Fisher misses the long shot (known as the tea-lady).

.Riva leaves the Black ball just NE of hoop 4. Red on E bdry,just S of peg-high. Red has 1y rush on Yellow to 1.

T7 Death lifts Black to B-baulk, misses Red to 4th corner.

T6 Bamford Red croquets Black 2y SW of 3, rushes Yellow to 1-back. He appears to consider the death-roll peel, but decides to take-off to Blue at 1.

T8 Riva Red is thru 1 without a rush.

T8 after 1, Riva croquets Yellow 4y S of 3 going to Black.
No Hogan roll, just take off to Blue at 2.
Fails hoop 2. I suspect that was a Spanish swear-word.
One error each already.

T9 Umpire is on to watch Death's 10' shot at ball in hoop. Blue hits Red, rushing it near enough to 1.

T6 Bamford Red has peeled Yellow thru 1-back. (after 2, I presume)

T9 Death makes 1, misses return roquet.

Death offers this advice to all players: "Don't clip your foot on the final backswing.2

About a 9-yarder Death reckons. Longer than it should have been, but short enough to hit, usually.

T10 Riva Red at Yellow (20 yarder) misses.

T11 Death Black at Blue (16y) misses.

Bamford appears to have done the 2-back peel before 4.

T12 Riva Yellow at Red (8 or 9y). Hits.

Lawn 3: Red is 3y S of 3rd corner. Black is in or near 1st corner. Blue is 10y W of Red.
T12 Riva Yellow takes off from Red to Blue. Croquets Blue just S of hoop 1. Roll out of 1st corner sends Black 4y SW of 2. Yellow goes 4' SW of Red.

Clips: Riva Red 2, Yellow 4-back; Death Blue 2, Black 3.

T6 Bamford is trying 3-back peel before 6. Gets it.

T13 Death shoots Blue at Red / Yellow (2-ball gap between them) Misses to the outside..
Riva should get standard TP from here.

Bamford's 2-back pioneer is at 4-back, naturally.

T14 Riva Red peels Yellow thru 4-back after 3.

Bamford has jawsed the 4-back peel before 2-back.
3-back pioneer also at 4-back.

T14 Riva is attempting the penult peel before 5. Peel fails but stays near the hoop.

T14 Riva gets the penutl peel after 6.

T6 Bamford Red peels Yellow thru penult before 4-back.

T14 Riva Red peels Yellow thru rover before 2-back.

T6 Bamford has all the balls for a straight rover peel.

Both these turns will win, but who will finish first?

Bamford wins game 1 +26sxp

Riva wins game 1 +23tp

G2T1 Bamford Black to 10y N of IV
T2 Fisher Red 1' N of IV
T3 Bamford Blue from B-baulk. Misses to W of 4th corner.
T4 Fisher Yellow misses Blue.

G2T1 Riva Black supershot.
T2 Death Yellow hits Black.

T2 Death Yellow takes off to 1, makes hoop by 2y, misses Black.
T3 Riva Blue at Yellow from B-baulk (8y). Rushes it into 2nd corner.

The Black ball is halfway between 1 and 2.
T3 Riva Blue rolls out of II, a good 2y shy of Black. Overcuts the rush. 8y take-off. Pretty good - 4' hoop?
Runs 1 by a yard. Misses 7-yarder.

Jenny Clarke was kind enough to offer me a drink, but the bar doesn't open till noon.

T4 Death Red has 11-yarder at Yellow. Moves along b-baulk to include Black in the background.
This is vindicated when Red hits Black.

T5 Bamford Blue is rolling up to 1 from 5 yards. makes hoop, but only just. Ref is on. No problem. Some work required to establish break.

T4 Death Red rushes Blue 4y shy of 1. Copes. His hoop 2 pioneer is 7y SW of hoop, but has ball at 3 already. Good take off. Smashes thru 2 off the bdry and over the wire fence.

T5 Bamford still hasn't had a pioneer as such, but he is picking it up. Thru 3 now.

T4 Death Red has 4-ball break. Yellow and Blue clips are on 2.

Finally Reg has a pioneer near the hoop (5). I suspect he'll have time to organise a 1-back leave.

Happy to report that the clouds are now fluffy with lots of blue sky in between.
Both breaks still progressing. 1-back leave coming up on lawn 2, not on lawn 3.

Death leaves the Blue ball just SW of hoop 2.

T5 Bamford Blue has made 6 hoops. Red and Yellow cross-wired at 1, Black in 3rd corner, Blue 2y in-lawn from Black.

T6 |Fisher Red misses Black. He would have us believe it was close.

T4 Death has made 9. Black is just NE of hoop 4, Yellow has rush on Red pointing SW. I hope he remembers he's for hoop 2!

T7 This time Bamford does fancy the death roll peel going to 1. Peel goes thru by a yard, Black looks OK.

T5 Riva lifts Blue to 3rd corner. Misses Yellow to just W of 4th corner.

T6 Death Yellow rushes Red SW, croquets it to 4y past 3, rushes Black to Blue, Blue nicely to 2

T7 Bamford lining up a long (4y?) straight peel of 2-back after 2. The peel succeeds.

T6 Death has the balls for a standard TP.

Bamford has reduced his sextuple to a standard quadruple.

And now to a delayed triple.

Death has the ref on. He wants to approach 6 off Blue, but Blue is just N of hoop. Can he put Yellow S of Blue in posi to run hoop? Apparently not, but he copes anyway.

Death's penult peel sails thru nicely after 6.

Bamford's 6 pioneer isn't North enough to allow a short peel of 4-back, but the long peel has gone thru.

Bamford Willocks his 2-back pioneer. (that's rushing it, rather than croqueting it. Guy Willock, not sure I've spelt that right.)

I believe Death didn't get posi for an early rover peel attempt, so straight rover peel required.

(I tried to popularise "strop" fpr STraight ROver Peel, but it didn't take.)

Bamford lining up death roll of penult before 2-back.
The 2-back pioneer is at 2-back
The 3-back pioneer is at 3-back.
That's the luxury of doing the peels early.
Peel goes thru, a yard or 2 beyond rover.

Death wins game 2 +25tp

Riva 1-1 Death

Lunch on lawn 3.

Bamford peels rover before 3-back. This is a sextuple!

Sensibly Riva and Death have leant their mallets against hoops on lawn 3.
This is to pre-empt the situation I've had more than once when mangling.
"Go and play on an empty lawn." And they pick a lawn that's in the middle of a match!

Bamford wins game 2 +26sxp

Bamford leads Fisher 2-0

Also lunch on lawn 2.

There are some Open virgins this year. Perhaps debutants is a better word.
Lorna Dewar, Rick Harding, and surprisingly Annabel McDiarmid.
And probably someone I've forgotten, sorry.

What's happening in the Plate?
Nelson Morrow, who played the cunning Plate Only card, has reached the final of the Process.
This included a fortunate +1 against Thomas Coles.
Unfortunately Nelson cannot play tomorrow, so I guess that's a walk-over for Nick Parish.
Mentioning Tom Coles, I reminisced with him about a shot he played at a Chairman's at Budleigh in the '90s.
He played a croquet stroke out of 3rd corner, gaining a rush on a ball in 2nd corner!

Statto's clearly folllowing closely.

Andrew,
I think Annabel is mistaken about this being her Opens debut.
She played in 1992 - losing to Jeff Dawson
http://www.croquetrecords.com/records/opens/open1992.htm
Chris

You see, you can't trust players.
In another piece of forgetfulness, re my quiz on players who've knocked Reg out of the Opens, Chris Clarke forgot... himself!

Joel Taylor's a bit of a Z specialist at this event. He's 5/5 so far.
Had to endure another metric rant from him this morning.
In case you don't know y = yards, ' = feet, " = inches.

Having fuelled up at the Spoon this morning, I'm not lunching. Everyone else is, I'm all alone in the Mangler's tent.
Even Mike Town is off, cheerily telling me "You're in charge."
So i'll be telling the Semi-Finalists I've extended both matches to best-of-7. :-)
Actually, best-of-7 is a cunning clue to one of the trickier names in my Reg's losses question.
How many did you get, Statto?

G3T1 Death Blue 2y NW of 5.
T2 Riva Red at Blue from 1st corner. Misses to 8y NE of peg.
T3 Death Black at Red from B-baulk. Misses to 4th corner.

Exciting 3-ball ending on lawn 4. Vincent 4-back and peg v Ormerod 4-back.

T4 Riva Yellow at Blue // Red from near 1st corner. Misses to 4y S of 3rd corner.

T5 Death Blue at Black (16y). Hits.

G3T1 Fisher Black 2y SSW of peg.
T2 Bamford Red to E bdry, just S of peg-high.
T3 Fisher Blue at Red from B-baulk. Hits!

T5 Death Blue has 3-ball break. Black still 3y W of 4th corner.

T5 Death underapproaches 2. Angled hoop (30 degrees). Clubs thru.

After 2, Death Blue hits Yellow hard but not straight - Yellow ends up just E of 1st corner.
He rolls Yellow to 4 going to Black. Anxious look but Blue stays on lawn. Should be round now.

T3 Fisher's first croquet stroke of the match must have been pretty good. He now has 3-ball break.

T5 Death has run 3 by an inch or two. [A few cm, Joel] Ref is on. 4y shot. No problem - rushes it near 4th corner.

In the Plate, Vincent beats Ormerod +4.

Fisher's 3-ball break still going strong. He's reached 1-back.

Death's 4-ball break has reached 3-back.

Death has made 9, diagonal spread with Red at the peg.

Fisher has made 9,
Three ducks leave, ie all balls in an area SW of hoop 2, without leaving any targets.
A "You miss, I finish" sort of leave.

T6 Riva lifts Yellow to A-baulk. "Short" shot at Black or Blue...

... Riva misses.

To be honest, I cannot see any balls on lawn 2. I'm near the second corner of lawn 3, and the terracing means I can't see any ball within 5y of the W bdry of lawn 2.

T4 Bamford Yellow is shooting from B-baulk...

Bamford Yellow hits Red.

T7 Death has a 5-yard roll-up to 1, copes. Making 2 off partner. Good rush here will give chance of standard TP.

Death's standard TP proceeding nicely.

Death has ref on to check whether he's peeled rover before 3-back. He has.

Bamford has made 6 hoops. Cross-wire at 1, set up in 3rd corner.

Death wins game 3 +26tp

Death leads Riva 2-1

No POPs from Bamford.

G4T1 Riva Red 3y NW of 5.
T2 Death Blue 4y SE of peg.

T5 Fisher Black at Red. Misses.

T3 Riva Yellow at Blue from A-baulk. Misses to 6y S of 3.
T4 Death Black at Yellow from B-baulk...

T4 Death hits half-ball.

If you're looking at results on croquetscores, it shows Reg and James as through. There is no way to tell it they're playing best-of-5.

T6 Bamford's rush to 1-back not good enough to allow the early peel attempt.

T4 Death has 4-ball break.

T6 Bamford Red peels Yellow thru 1-back after 2. Well thru, 2y N of 2-back.

Death is playing this break with better control - tight pioneers etc.

T6 Bamford Red peels Yellow thru 2-back before 4.

T4 Death has made 9, diagonal spread, Red at the peg.
T5 Riva lifts Red to B-baulk, shoots at Blue...

T5 ... Riva misses to just W of 4th corner.

T6 Bamford peels 3-back before 6. As in game 1, his 2-back pioneer will be at 4-back.

T6 Death Blue makes 1 off Yellow with a rush to Red. Rushes 4y W of Red. Good croquet stroke and he can rush Red nr 3.
Yellow is nearer to 4th corner than hoop 4, but I'd have thought that a good enough pioneer.

T6 Death tries 7' peel after 3. Bounces off, not rush-peelable.

T6 Bamford jawses 4-back peel before 2-back. This time his 3-back pioneer is vaguely near 3-back.

T6 Bamford's rush to 2-back not the best. Runs the hoop, but takes some wire and roquets Blue in the hoop-stroke.
Blue is on S bdry behind 2-back, Black is 3y N of 3-back, Yellow is in the middle of 4-back.

Bamford takes off from Blue to Yellow. 10' short Umpire is on, rush-peels Yellow by 3 or 4y.

For the first time today, Bamford's sextuple is in danger of not finishing.

Death's TP similarly delayed. He tried rushing peelee after 6, but only now does he get the first peel, before 2-back.

After 3-back, Bamford Red rushes Black 2y W of Blue. Rushes Blue off N bdry behind Yellow.

From the sound of it, Death had to club thru an angled 2-back.

Bamford Red plays a little roll, rushes Yellow SE of 4-back. Stops Yellow toward penult. Runs 4-back off boundary.
Reg now needs a straight double peel, without Blue being in useful position.

Sorry, Black not Blue is out of play. In fact 5y SE of hoop 1.

Bamford Red croquets Blue 1y S of penult. Presumably not due South!
Rushes Yellow to 4' in front. Irish peel. Yellow sails thru to 1y W of rover. Red rattles in jaws but he's OK. Runs hoop, cuts Blue near Black.

Death got his penult peel before 4-back. Straight rover peel to negotiate.

Bamford has a deep ball and a side ball. Little rush to 2' in front of rover.

Death has ref on again. Black was peeled cleanly, Blue has a v short angled hoop. Clean shot.

Bamford peels Yellow thru rover by 7 or 8'. Red is 6" in front. Plays jump shot to deep ball.

Death wins game 4 +26tp

Death wins match 3-1

Bamford wins game 3 +17sxp

Bamford wins match 3-0

Harry Fisher thus fails to join the club of 11 players who have knocked Bamford out of the Opens.
They are:
Robert Fulford (5 times)
Stephen Mulliner (twice)
James Death (twice)
Chris Clarke
David Maugham
Rutger Beijderwellen
Samir Patel
Pete Trimmer
Jonathan Powe
Richard Baker (NZ)
and Jacques Fournier (USA).

Fournier featured in the only best-of-7 final in the Opens, 1998 v Robert Fulford. Fulford won 4-0.

I've checked with the Mangler, it's best-of-5 tomorrow!

!0am start tomorrow. If I'm not here I'm sure someone else will commentate!

Bye for now, Andrew