Despite the valiant efforts of a selfless few, the drought has rendered the Albert Road lawn close to unplayable in the last few weeks.
And we thought we had problems! The Caversham team which played in the SCF Short Croquet League match at Hamptworth on Wednesday came across something far worse.
“The lawns were dreadful,” said Carol Jamieson. “They were very dry with a few small tufts of grass, small daisies and lovely little wild yellow flowers.
“All this intermingled with deer or rabbit droppings!”
Poor Carol lost all four of her matches. But was she downhearted? Not a bit of it. “A very pleasant day, with good hospitality,” was her verdict.
The state of the Wiltshire club’s lawns wasn’t the only tail of woe for Caversham. John Wakeford — a last-minute replacement for the unavailable Chris Pegrum — managed to break his mallet, No, not by hitting an opponent, since you ask!
But John did achieve one win, as did Brian Jamieson, while Charles Briggs was our best player with two victories.
Caversham’s 12-4 defeat means that we finished third in the Short League… out of three.