Top seeds Magdalen march past mediocre Corpus
Magdalen (1).........................20
Corpus Christi (3).................5
The defending champions of College Croquet, Magdalen 1, strolled comfortably through their first round match against Corpus Christi’s third string. Confidently living up to the hype of a predicted first-place finish by The Oxford Student, Magdalen played some well-executed shots throughout the match to register a 20-5 victory. The Corpus team started the first leg brightly.
Robert Stephen, the Corpus captain, played several excellent shots, and scored a hoop before the Magdalen pair of Anton Evseev (captain) and Freddie Munday could get into the game. It took a stroke of luck for hosts to get going: a shot by the their captain missed the ball he was aiming for and went straight through a hoop to hit another ball. He capitalized on his good fortune well, making the first four hoops on the same turn.
However, this was the longest break of the whole match, as a period of broken play and missed hoops followed. The Corpus pair continued to play well, but made few hoops and fell behind rather quickly. Magdalen were in control most of the time and finished 10-3 ahead. The seven-point margin meant that Corpus could hope to cause an upset. However, Magdalen continued their Cuppers dominance and were again in control from the start of the second leg.
In fact Magdalen took such stern control of this game that they looked like emulating the form that won them the competition last year. Being top seed, there is a considerable amount of expectation placed on this side. They have won the previous two Cuppers crowns, and judging by this performance, few would bet against them retaining their title. This season, however, they will be without star player Jonathan Kirby, who has been ranked tenth in the world.
Despite his absence, Magdalen demonstrated the superiority that led them to two successive Cuppers glories before now. Furthermore, Magdalen can boast Chris Flint and Alex Gray (a former Varsity croquet star). Here, Flint demonstrated his ability to judge distances and to shoot from long range, making one hoop after another with skilful team-mate Adam Nelson. On the other side, the Corpus pair of Nick Bamford and Paddy Finch-Noyes struggled to get into the game.
The visitors did manage to score two hoops, but it was too little too late. The game was played in a friendly spirit, with players offering advice to the opposition (which was not always followed). The outcome not being in doubt, the two teams agreed to finish early as rain came down late in the match.
11th May 2006