A strong Irish team travelled to the Devonshire coast to compete in the 2025 AC Home Internationals held at Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club. Arriving on Friday evening, the lawns were in great condition and promised a good challenge for the weekend even allowing for rain predicted for the following morning.
Day 1:
With the sun shining, the Irish team drew England in Round 1 and knew a stiff test awaited as their team was a strong as ever. Things began optimistically, with Jane Morrison picking up the first game against young up-and-comer Jack Good early doors and Andy Johnston picking up a game with standard TP against perennial opponent David Maugham when he looked in danger of going behind early. Simon Williams followed suit with a neat TP against Gabrielle Higgins in the opening game. Form player Aston Wade of England got the better of his opening exchange with Sandy Greig to take the first game for England, and ultimately took the second in quick succession to score the first match points for either side. Andrew then quickly levelled things up for Ireland, with a +26tp result in game 2 vs David Maugham. Irish captain Danny Johnston was having a decent start too, battling through some early rustiness to take advantage of some uncharacteristic errors from his opponent, the 2016 World Champion Stephen Mulliner, and take game 1 with triple.
After a steady glooming of the skies above, the heavens finally opened and chased already slightly soggy players from the courts to their lunch. The heavy rain persisted and flooded all bar one of the assigned courts, meaning some headaches for manager Angharrad Walters and some rapid lawn reassignment. After much manual puddle redistribution with brushes and Jack Good’s Bowdry work, the skies cleared and lawns became playable again. Danny’s match moved from Lawn 1 to Lawn 2 and, from the pegged down position, he was happily able to finish a match winning TP (having hit in and taken off the joined up oppo balls some 4 hours earlier as the rain started) to make it 2-1 to Ireland. Simon then delivered the telling match point, defeating Gabrielle Higgins in the 3rd game to secure a 3-2 overall match victory for the Irish.
The Irish team then rapidly moved on to their next test versus Wales, attempting to claw back some of the time lost to the inclement weather by playing into the evening with the sun beginning to emerge from behind the clouds and the promise of paella supper in the clubhouse as a reward. Andy was obviously most eager for his dinner, dispatching the manager +26tp, +26tp in short order to gain Ireland’s first point of the match. Simon looked to following suit, only for his striker’s ball to dive away at the last moment on a rover peel to allow his opponent Rick Harding back into Game 2 and to ultimately level the match at a game apiece. Sandy shook off the morning’s disappointment to quickly take game 1 against Home Internationals veteran Chris Williams before retiring for the evening. Danny began a battle with Ian Burridge and looked in reasonable shape to finish a TP with a delayed double until his escape ball drifted directly behind penult. He managed to recover sufficiently to get the rover peel done but suffered the same fate as Simon, running the strikers ball out of position and having to retire from corner 2. Ian set a leave with Danny’s peg ball in the 4 yards south of penult, which Danny shot at aggressive with his rover ball from corner 2, hitting and finishing the game and retiring for supper. Jane and her opponent Dayal were still duking it out in game 1 of their tie as the light began to fade, when it was decided that pegging down for the next day would be a more humane course of action.
As previously mentioned, the club had arranged an excellent paella to be catered on site and the Irish left that evening with well-fed and in a good position to finish off the test against Wale the following morning.
Day 2:
The sun shone in earnest on Sunday morning and with no threat of rain everything was set for an exciting end to Ireland’s match with Wales and the concluding test versus Scotland that would likely decide the outcome of the tournament. The Scots had earlier beaten Wales 3-1 with one match unfinished and had brought a team with strong depth compared to some previous years. Ireland began the day with Sandy finishing off Chris Williams +26 to bring the match to a 2-0 scoreline, allowing some breathing room for Danny and Simon who duly finished off their matches to win the test 4-0 with Dayal and Jane’s match being halted with Dayal a game up.
The match versus Scotland commenced immediately, with three of the Irish players under some time pressure to make it back to Bristol airport for their flight having lost time to the weather on the Saturday. Things didn’t start as positively for the Irish, with Andy succumbing to a -26tp, -26tp result against the Scottish No. 1 Duncan Reeve and showing that things can be cruel at the top level. 1-nil to the Scots. Things went from bad to worse, with Sandy dropping game 1 to the rapidly improving Lorna Dewer who was looking imperious. Simon began to turn the tide, benefiting from his opponent Andrew Symons giving him an opening in game 1 which he duly seized. Danny then followed suit, hitting in to regain the innings in game 1 of his match with Scottish No. 2 Alastair Burn Murdoch which was rapidly slipping away. Jane meanwhile was playing against David Warhurst down on Lawn 1 and not having things all her own way.
At this point the manager began to frantically work through the permutations of the possible outcomes in the Ireland vs Scotland match, with England vs Wales very evenly poised at that point. An England win would put them squarely in the frame having beaten Scotland 3-1 with Gabrielle Higgins and Andrew Symons match being paused at 1-1. A win for Scotland over Ireland also put them in contention as there would then be three teams on 2 wins each, and a matches-won countback would begin, followed by a games-won tally if that proved indecisive.
By far the simplest solution it was agreed was for Ireland to beat Scotland. Danny grabbed the first Irish point, finishing game 2 with a neat TP whilst playing around a failed SXP attempt in the third game of the Mulliner-Burridge match. Ian failed to capitalise on his opponent’s misfortune, with Stephen eventually winning and putting England in the driving seat in that test. However, Chris Williams pulled off an unexpected come-from-behind victory over Aston Wade and Rick Harding defeated Gabrielle Higgins to make the final result 3-2 to England: with Mulliner’s win proving more decisive than expected, how would that effect the standings come the end of the day?
Sandy eventually fell in game 2 to Lorna, leaving Scotland 2-1 up in the test. Simon almost immediately levelled the test in the same lawn, leaving Jane to battle it out with David on Lawn 1 to try and seal an Irish victory. Meanwhile, the manager, no doubt conscious of possible permutations, ordered Gabrielle and Andrew Symons unfinished match to be completed resulting in a rapid victory to the former and a scoreline of 4-1 to the English. This left England poised on 2 Tests won, 9 matches won, and 21 games won. Jane was looking down and out in game 2 but heroically wrestled the momentum back to take game 2 and force a deciding 3rd in the gloaming of Devonshire evening. The details of the match were relayed to Irish supporters at home and abroad via WhatsApp updates from Sandy, the only remaining Irish player after Andy, Danny and Simon had to hare off to make their flights home. As the third game started, herself and David traded opportunities with the match waiting for someone to seize the initiative. Ultimately it was David who managed to make the first breakthrough, bringing a ball to 4-back. Jane had a chance of a break shortly after, but a failed hoop 3 in the fading light allowed David to take control and eventually take the match and the Test for Scotland. With Jane’s previous match vs Dayal remaining the only pertinent unfinished tie in the event, Ireland had fallen cruelly short of the win with 2 Tests won, 9 matches won, and 20 games won, a single game short of England’s tally.
From an Irish perspective, there can be no regrets having played very well throughout and outperformed our world ranking positions consistently across the event. Everyone played their part in what was a very well-fought and enjoyable event. Special praise must go to Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club for their excellent hospitality and to the manager Angharrad Walters who calmly dealt with the significant rain delay getting the event back on schedule seamlessly. We look forward to welcoming this excellent series to Ireland again in the very near future!
Danny Johnston.