Commentary of quarter-final Friday 8 February
By David Maugham
10:24 09/02/2008Morning all, I'm (David M) taking over the commentary for the Mulliner/Westerby game now. Network issues and battery life notwithstanding...
I'm not sure how much Ian told you about this but what I've seen, Stephen didn't get his delayed TP out, and put partner to 2-b. He failed it and Aaron hit from 3-b to the pivot 7 yards away, turning down a similar length shot with an additional ball in the hoop to hi with his lift shot.
He's now having a 4bb with R, just putting K out as a fairly poor early 2-b pioneer out after 5.
He's made 6 and is putting Y about 4 yards of 1-b and has rushed U to a foot in front.
He's made 1-b and put U out to about a yard NW of 3-b, and rushed Y to near I
Y has gone to 2 feet from the peg and R has rushed K to 5 feet N of the hoop
Which he's run to the boundary, getting a rush back to the peg.
The balls are all nicely placed for his spread now
He made 3-b without a forward rush, but has played a good croquet stroke to get U nicely placed near the WB an a rush on K to the wired spot by the peg
Pretty much a perfect spread. RY maybe a touch far South (about level with 5) and Stephen may take the short shot.
Yep, he's lifted U (the 4-b ball) and is taking the short one from the end of a-baulk
He's hit R (the in-lawn ball)
He got a rush on Y into the midde and has put it to Penult, but has rushed poorly to 4-b, ending up about 3 yards to the side.
He's approached OK, though and has about a 1 yard fairly straight hoop that he can run to the boundary.
A few press ups before the hoop, as he like to do, and he smoothly runs it by a couple of yards.
He hit the ~4 yarder at partner and put it about 5 yards N and slightly E of Rover.
He's made penult with no trouble, and has a forward rush.
Stephen rushed Y to R on the EB, and rushed R back to a yard or so N of the peg and has put it 3 yards S of rover getting a rush on partner to the hoop.
The rush goes well, and he's now made the hoop and has a rush on R to Y again. K is a couple of feet S of rover.
Hmm.. interesting. He's just tapped R and poked it out to the peg, getting a rush to the WB level with 6.
A classic B-spread, in the making. He's just calling a referee on for his last stroke, which is tapping his ball a couple of inches, whilst hampered by partner.
Aaron lifted Y with no hesitation, and is taking the short shot at U&K.
Centre ball
Aaron's poked K out to three yards from 2, getting a rush to partner at the peg.
He rushed a little far to the hoop, but approached it well. Ooops. he's failed it. he didn't do that against me...
Stephen has missed with K from near 2 at partner near the peg.
Aaron made 1 and now has partner at 3 and a cut rush to 2.
Unfortunately he's hit it centre ball, so he's got a 4 yard sidey backward take off.
It looks like he's played it pretty well, and has a 1 yard slightly angled hoop.
But he's sammed it into a wire and stopped in the middle.
Stephen has shot U at K, missing by about a foot, so has both balls on the EB about 2 yards apart, level with 4.
Aaron is running 2 with Y, and now has a 13 yarder at partner near 3
He's hit it, to wild applause from the partisan crowd...
I'm about to run out of power now, so there may be a short break, while we organise another computer, but I'll keep going until it dies...
Anyhow, back to the game. Aaron has taken off to Stephen's balls, and rushed back to 3.
He's stopped K back up the lawn about 10 yards, and has run the hoop and hit R
R goes to 5 and Y has a cut rush on K to U on the EB. He's played it well, and is only a yard or so from the other ball.
OK, lost power for a while, but we now have an extension cable over here, so there shouldn't be any more breaks, provided the wireless network holds up.
In the meantime, Aaron managed to put his 2 back pioneer off the lawn whilst approaching it, giving Stephen a trivial finishing turn with his 2-b ball.
Stephen is giving these hoops some full respect, pressing up for both his last two 6 inch hoops.
He's now approaching 4-b from about a foot off Y, with U 3 yards S of the hoop. R is a yard in front of penult.
Y goes to 2 feet in front of rover, and Stephen uses U to get a nice short rush on R.
He catches a bit of wire going through penult, but nothing serious.
R is put 2 yards behind rover and U is now a yard from the peg.
No difficulty making rover, a simple rush on Y to U and Stephen goes 1-0 up.
+10 (or 26-16, depending on preference.)
Lunch break, by the looks of it.
Umm.. maybe not, they've just restarted, after the hoops were looked at by the referees.
Stephen put out U as a standad ball 8 yards up the EB, Aaron put R just out of IV, Stephen missed down the side boundary.
Aaron took the 13 yarder at K but missed on the left so Stephen could rush it up to partner.
He's rushed to 1 and put partner behind the hoop.
He's slightly angled, and is calling on a referee for no obvious reason.
Unsurprisingly, he's run it with no trouble, and made the roquet.
He's rolled down to II, and hit R.
A fairly poor effort at approaching the hoop from the corner put R only a yard from the EB, but K is 3 yards short of position at the hoop.
He's just gone back a yard to guard the corner. Aaron is shooting R at Y down the boundary.
He's hit, rushing Y to 5 yards out of IV on the S boundary.
The take-off to U&K is about a yard short of K, so he taps it.
and rolls it to 2 getting a 2 foot straight rush to 1
which goes about 3 yards SE of the hoop.
He approaches to a couple of feet straight, putting U 4 yards past the hoop.
and runs the hoop by 5 yards
He roquets U, and rolls it to 3, going to the ball at 2.
The striker's ball is good, but U is 4 yards short of hoop 3.
Aaron's made the hoop with no trouble and got a rush back to the S boundary, and is trying to roll K to 4 getting behind Y.
Not a bad efort, he can certainly cut it up the lawn, and he has got it to about level with 6.
Now he's got to get behind U which is only a couple of yards from 6.
A two yard straightish rush is taken to 5 feet E of the hoop. The approach is going to be a take-off.
He gets a 18 inch 30 degree hoop which he runs easily
Rushes U to the boundary, and pokes it up the lawn 10 yards getting a rush on Y
Takes Y down the boundary, puts it to 5 and gets a simple rush to 4.
He's made 4 with a rush pointing E, and can put it to 6 getting a rush on U.
Now a nice simple 4bb to play...
He's rushed Y to 3" in front of 5, but no problems with the approach
Y becomes the early 2-b pioneer.
K was about a foot N of 6, so Aaron's rushed U to near 3, before putting it to 6.
He's made 6, and got both balls over near 1-b, so maybe considering an N/MSL.
Having made 1-b he's left K near the boundary level with 6.
Approaching from an easy position, Aaron has got R to about 4" away from the hoop at about 45 degrees.
Nw he's doing his standard standing around thinking pose. Occasionally running his fingers through his hair...
He's looking at running away to IV. Yep, that's his choice.
Stephen's lifted U, which was at 3-b and hit his 6 yarder at Y, rushing it to K.
Ummm... not a good stroke from Stephen, his rush is well short, pointing at corner IV.
He's taken it there, intending to use R
A cut rush is taken to 4 yards from the hoop, and he's overhit the approach.
Ooohh... no it's stopped in time, and he has a straight 6" hoop.
A good roll puts R to 3 getting close to Y at 2.
He's made 2 and rushes Y to the SB behind 4. A little short getting his rush on K, he just knocks it up the boundary a couple of yards and takes off to R.
A nice short roquet on R and he has an easy approach.
Short hoop, easily made.
He doesn't get a forward rush, so he hits his short roquet, and takes off to K.
Clips K down to IV, and plays an OK roll to get it to 5 going to the ball by 4.
Gets a short hoop, but makes it look difficult.
He's over hit the yellow, definately not short of the hoop.
But he's close enough to K, to make the short roquet.
He's just underhit the approach, so a little short.
But made it easily. Hit's his short roquet, and takes off to R near 3.
Gets a rush on it and can get a nice short rush on Y back to 6, getting a good pioneer to 1-b.
According to reports, we have just short of 200 spectators here.
Stephen's made 6 and got yellow on top of 2-b, maybe touching.
He's got another short hoop at 1-b but feels the need for a few press-ups.
Made it easily and put out a good 3-b pioneer.
Now has to dal with this Y on the wire of 2-b.
He's approached the hoop OK from 3" away, but has only just squeezed through the hoop.
Y & K are both at the peg now, so a spread coming up, I expect.
He's made 3-b with a rush.
R is a bit short, probably 6 yards from the boundary.
but Y is good, and everything is in a nice line. U&K probably about level with hoop 5.
Aaron has decided not to take the short shot this time and is going down the EB with R. Missing into the corner.
K rushes U into the lawn, and is a little short putting it to 3, but gets an OK rush to 2.
Makes 2, but without a rush back down the lawn. Plays a good croquet stroke from behind 6 to get a rush on partner and Y a couple of yards past 4.
He makes 3, but gets little or no wire, and doesn't get a forward rush.
The take off to IV leaves him with about a 4 yarder, which he deals with comfortably.
R goes about a yard past 5, and he's just rushed Y into the jaws.
Fortunately he's in the back of the hoop, so he can poke it to one side and run the hoop past it.
He's left Y near 4-b, so I guess he fancies his chances of the delayed TP.
U gets rushed down the lawn, and stopped back, but it's gone about 3 yards to the side of 4-b.
Makes 5, but the rush is pointing east, and he's cut it to about peg high on the boundary.
A pretty good croquet stroke puts R a foot to the side of 1-b, but he's not played the cut he wanted and has a 2 yard peel.
It doesn't touch the sides, and almost goes off!
Rushes to and approaches 6.
Makes it with lots of wire, but hits his 4 yarder anyway, rushing it to near Y.
Rushes U over, but puts it very deep at 2-b. It's about 3 yards past the hoop.
He makes 1-b with a rush back to the end of b-baulk
R goes most of the way to 3-b, and Y is rushed to between the peg and hoop 5.
He's taken off to get a couple of yard rush to 2-b, doesn't cut it very well and has to take off from a couple of yards to the side.
Ooh, he's short!
Maybe there's a hill there, since that's the same side that Aaron went down.
He's gone in II.
Aaron's rushed U with R to near Y.
Hmmm.. he's rushed Y to a couple of yards SE of 2-b, lets see if he can get it up this hill...
Yep, no trouble this time.
He's made the hoop and rushed Y into the middle of the lawn, and just taken off to get a rush to 3-b.
Didn't rush very well to 3-b and needed a 2 yard sidey take-off to approach it with.
Made it with no wire, and ended up with a rush into IV. So he's now got the oppo balls in II and IV and partner about 3 yards from the peg. I dunno wht sort of leave he'll be putting together.
Well, U has gone to a foot to the side of hoop 1, and Y has been rushed to 5 yards out of II on the EB.
Rolled a bit closer to III and gave himself a rush to the ball in II.
Stephen's put U into corner IV.
I appear to have made a slight error earlier, K was about a yard out of the corner on the WB.
Aaron has rushed into the corner, and stopped partner about 4 or 5 yards into the lawn, getting a rush on K to 1.
He's clubbed it a bit, and nearly gone off the SB.
But a good approach has given him a to foot hoop.
Ran it, but didn't get a forward rush.
Tapped his roquet, and had a pretty good effort at the roll. K is about 3 yards towards II from hoop 3, and Y wasn't quite split enough to get the rush.
He's approaching the hoop from about 5 yards to the side, and has done very well. Another 2 foot straight hoop, with a ball waiting for him near the boundary.
Smashed through, and has a rush he can take to IV.
Hmm... he's just tapped it, and gone for playing the croquet stroke.
A bit short on both balls. R is 4 yards N of 4 and Y has to approach 3 from 2-3 yards.
Dealt with it again, but once again fails to get a forward rush.
Aaron's wandered down to IV to have a look at the stroke out of the corner, and has chosen to take off to U.
Stephen's wandered on, I'm not sure why. Now he's wandered off again. Must have thought there was some irregularity, but Aaron's still in play, so he must have been mistaken.
Despite the interference, Aaron has played the take off perfectly.
The roll, however, leaves a little to be desired. U is good at 5 but Y has a 3 yard half ball cut to rush to 4.
Clips it. He's approaching from about 4 yards straight.
Interesting. He didn't put R deep, and is now running a 4 foot straight hoop with the escape ball 6 yards from the boundary.
Or, in actual fact, failing the hoop...
He bounced straight back, and Stephen's wild leg movement wasn't enough to bring his ball onto line when he shot from hoop 5.
Aaron has played R, rushing Y up the lawn.
Hmm.. he's rushing K to 4-b, having put Y into the jaws of penult.
and he's keeping going, putting K to rover as well. I'm surprised about this, with U on penult.
He's roquets Y in the jaws and just played a little roll to put them both through.
He's put Y near the peg and just ran rover getting a rush back north.
Well, it looks like he's going for a reverse spread, having not touched U in the turn.
K is a little short of the wired spot, but Aaron's still laying up with a rush on the WB at the hampered spot
Stephen has lifted K from by the peg and is taking the shot up the boundary from I.
He's missed, ending up in the corner.
Waxy wants to know why Digger can't use upper case...
I'm pretty confident that's not how you spell cicada either...
OK, Aaron's back from his "comfort break" and has rushed to about 2 feet from U.
Made 4 and rushed to the boundary by R. Very precision...
Rushed to 5 and made it, but not with a rush to U. He's poked it to the east a bit and taken off behind U.
He's just failed 6 from about a foot straight in front...
Just for Lemon: Green just hit White out of the hoop and is about to take off to Pink near the EB trying to get a rush to penult.
He's overhit it a bit, and has a rush to Brown in II.
You can do your own colour correction from now on, I'll do the rest in primaries...
He's managed to get R on the line between K and the hoop, but he's played a good rush to miss it and will be approaching from a couple of yards from the side.
He's approached, and has run the hoop with enough control to get a rush back to R.
He's not played it too well, but has taken off pretty well, to get a rush to the SB.
He's put R an inch from the peg, just to make life interesting.
Made rover with another press up, and rushed back up the lawn a few yards.
Right, some network problems, so a quick round-up: R was pegged out, U didn't roll very well to I with K so Aaron shot and missed. Stephen Joined up in III, Aaron cornered, Stephen joined up in I and Aaron cornered in IV.
Stephen has approached and run 2-b without any sort of rush.
He's now rolling up to try and get a wired area near hoop 2, wired by 4.
He's got it apparently.
He's left a reverse rush though.
Aaron puts Y in I.
Stephen's now looking at the spot on the WB wired by hoop 1.
I think he's rushed pretty much onto the blade of grass.
Aaron's gone back into IV, giving Stephen the option of the stop shot approach.
Stephen's tried to rush to the hoop but wan't especially close, so he's rolled partner to near the SB and is playing the approach from the corner.
He's played it well.
He tried to run 3-b down to Y but got lots of wire and only got halfway down the lawn.
So he's retired to IV, not much of a guard, so Aaron's shooting.
Misses by an inch or so.
Stephen puts Y to rover, and has rushed a couple of yards too far for 4-b.
He's looking at laying up in the corner now
But he's decided to play his backward take-off, and needs a referee to watch the croqueted ball.
It's about a two yard hoop, so he's looking at the wired spot near the corner again.
No, he's changed his mind again, and is running the hoop now.
Very smooth. And has a rush back down the lawn.
The rush didn't go very near Y, and since it's quite near rover, Stephen has opted to be 14 yards apart on the EB, with U in corner IV.
Aaron's not shooting as well as he did against me (whinge) and misses his 13 yarder at the ball in the corner.
Stephen has chopped Y out to behind rover ging up to K.
He's rolled K off the lawn goin up to III. Aaron's shooting.
He's missed again.
Stephen's left Y near the corner, but hasn't rushed particularly near penult, and so has rolled both off near I.
Giving Aaron a lift!
The breeze is picking up a bit now. And Aaron has rushed to 3 yards to the side of 6.
Ran it, but missed his 7 yard return, ending up in the middle of the WB.
Stephen retires to III.
Aaron finally hits one, at U in I. Then manages to take off into hoop 1...
He shoots at K and misses
Stephen's got Y in III and has taken off to I. Let's see if he can avoid giving the lift this time...
Well, no lift, but it must have been fairly close, as Aaron hit the peg whilst shooting, bouncing off to level with hoop 1 on the WB.
Stephen rushes to penult, but is a bit short with his approach. about 4-5 feet at a slight angle.
Smoothed it through, even getting a forward rush.
which he's taken to rover.
managed to get about a 20 degree hoop, so a few press ups are needed, but smooths it through again.
Gets a rush back to the peg, and finishes +7 (26-19).
So that's 2-0 to Stephen so far.
15:32 09/02/2008
Start of the third. Looks similar to the last one. Stephen has gone in with Y to a standard spot 7 yards N of IV, and Aaron has gone just out of II.
This time Stehen hit down the EB.
He's taking off to K, leaving Y about level with hoop 4.
Stephen has rolled K about 13 yards out of the corner, and joined up with partner not leavin a rush.
Aaron has taken the shot at Y from a-baulk, and hit it.
He's got a rush to hoop 1 off R, ignoring K for the moment.
Made 1 and rushed R to the middle of the WB, in order to put it to 3, going to K.
Played it reasonably well. The hoop 3 pioneer isn't great, but he's got his rush.
He made 2, but had to roll to Y putting K to 4, so he didn't get a rush to R
A good take off has given Aaron the rush though.
He's made 3, and has very little work to do to get this 4bb under control.
Making 4 gives Aaron full control.
He's made 5 and 6, has Y at 2-b and R at 1-b. He's rolling partner over to near 1-b though, so maybe another attempt at an NSL.
Nope, it's gone to 4 yards from the peg.
Aaron's made 1-b without control and rushed back to the NB.
but played a good big croquet stroke to get R to within a yard of 3-b.
He didn't get a rush on partner and has taken off leaving it between 1 & 2.
Made sure he gave himself enough space at 2-b this time and smashed through a 2 foot hoop to the boundary.
He didn't get a rush back, and played an average roll to get Y by the peg but didn't get a rush on partner.
He's looking at playing the pass split to get partner east of the peg.
He's played it pretty well.
No forward rush again, making 3-b and he's overhit the striker's ball in the croquet stroke and has a 3 yarder back.
but he's played it well enough and only has to move it a foot or so into the wired spot.
All the crowd has now moved across and Aaron gets rapturous applause for his break with a leave.
Stephen's taking the long shot with R, and has just tickled K, only just getting it off the lawn. Gives it a bit of fist too.
Tonks the croquet stroke putting the ball a couple of yards past 2, and gets a rush to the end of a-baulk.
Approached it well, though from 8 yards, getting a 1 foot slightly angled hoop.
Made it with a forward rush, so the deep hoop 2 pioneer shouldn't be a problem.
He rushes across after 2, to about 3 yards behind 3.
He's looking at 4-b, he want's this TPO, lines up the take off, but no U is just going to hoop 4.
Looks like a dour 4 ball break.
Yep, 4 & 5 made with no trouble. Perfect pioneers ahead. Maybe Chris's win has inspired him...
The 2-b pioneer went about 2 yards too far, so he's put out another one, this one better.
Partner's at 3-b at the moment, but U is going over from 2-b now.
Looks like a spread coming up.
Oops, Stephen just rushed Y into 3-b, so he can't put it to the peg. He's stopped it to the EB instead.
He's made 3-b without a rush, but manages to put U deep enough that he feels he can have a go at putting K into the wired spot from a yard or so.
He's not managed it though, and has just slapped back to partner, about 3 yards apart, with Y's rush pointing S.
Aaron's taking the double from B-baulk. The same one he hit against me yesterday.
So he's missed it, of course.
He managed to not quite get in the corner though.
Stephen's rushed to about 3 yards out of the corner on the SB, and has taken off to get a playable cut rush to U.
Looked like he got a funny bounce and the rush has gone straight. So he's rolling from the end of B-baulk.
Looks like a good efort. Fairly straight, but about 2 yards long. And he's played it well too.
Not the best approach he's played, but should be adequate. May not get his rush after the hoop though (to R near IV).
I'm apparently wanted by the WCF, so I'm going to hand over to Jenny now.
Bit of a long rush, pointing to about mid south boundary, smooths it past the peg and hoop4, but comes up a couple of yards short.
Lovely takeoff from a couple of yards to get a rush. Much pointing.
Nice rush, black is well off the south boundary so he's in good nick.
Got the peelee in position...
Looks like a poor effort - in the front of the hoop, not really in the jaws.
Hard to see him even being able to rush peel it.
Ugly - doesn't get a rush down the lawn, and has just played a big croquet stroke from midlawn to get a deep hoop5 pioneer and no rush to 4.
Taking off to 4 from 3 yards south. Got a 3.5 foot hoop.
Worth a couple of press-ups. Reckon we'll get a fist after this hoop.
Gently runs the hoop to get a slightly hampered shot on black. Not in the way enough to warrant the company of a ref, and he hits it.
From about corner 4 sends black a copule of yards past hoop6 getting a decent rush to 5 which he rushes into the side of the hoop.
No rush out of there.
Big roll from south of 5. He's hammered it! "The fact that it's not out is the only good thing about it" (Michael Wright).
Got a 5 yarder from near EB with the hoop in play - gets an umpire... hits. Can't see any peels happening now as his 1-back pioneer has gone miles north.
Yup - partner across to 1back, got a bit of a cut to 6 and there's some more pointing.
Chris still grinning while watching Stephen run hoop 6 - can't see that grin fading for a fair old while.
2-back the key hoop on this lawn, and he's going to be putting out his pioneer from corner 2 while going to a widish, but ok, pioneer.
Whoosh! - nice blue, and about a 3 yarder on partner - lovely rush and it's back under control.
Swaps pivot and gets a nice 3-back pioneer.
Now approaching 4back, we won't be seeing any peels, but he now has two balls tightly around penult.
Two of our spectators reckon Aaron will hit his last lift. We'll see in a couple of minutes.
Right - after a whole day and a bit of supporting Dave - here he is, giving my spelling some lip. I'll go back to my diet coke and let him commentate on the exciting finale this afternoon
Stephen's got the balls nicely for his spread. U is fairly shallow, maybe a yard E of the line of 1 & 2, and K is placed well at the peg.
Hmmm... he's been a bit firm with his roll down the boundary, and R looks like it's not hampered from K.
He's not placed Y very well, either. I think U may have a double.
Aaron's not taking it though, he's lifted K and is taking the short shot.
He's missed it, so Stephen just has to play a three hoop break to get into his second Worlds final and first since 1997.
He's got about a 2 yard straight rush to 4-b on U, and he's played it about perfectly.
Now the 1 foot straight hoop needs a press up.
Smoothed through, and has a rush to the penult pioneer.
Rover pioneer is about 2 feet in front.
He's made penult and a got a rush to the EB
Y goes to the peg, and R rushes K to behind rover
6 inch slightly angled rover goes through smoothly
and a 1 yard pegout puts Stephen in the final
So at 17:05 the days play in the main event is finished.
I'm sure someone will pick up when we start the final at 9:00 tomorrow morning.
See you then