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Tests | Great Britain | Australia | United States | New Zealand | Won | |
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Tests | Matches | |||||
Great Britain | 1st | 14-7 | 12-9 | 11-10 | 3 | 37 |
Australia | 4th | 0 | 22 | |||
United States | 14-7 | 3rd | 1 | 28 | ||
New Zealand | 13-8 | 16-5 | 2nd | 2 | 39 |
Each Match is two-out-three games.
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Team Players
Captains are pictured first, then players in alphabetic order. Click on any picture to enlarge it.
Australia |
Great Britain |
New Zealand |
United States |
Player Rankings
Rankings are as of August 4th, after all the warm-up games were played.
Rk Player Co Grd Gms Wins Index % tp tpo otp sxp 3 Robert Fulford GB 2736 81 60 2657 74 46 4 0 10 4 Paddy Chapman NZ 2730 133 112 2766 84 82 4 4 3 5 David Maugham GB 2725 133 97 2764 73 68 3 2 7 6 Robert Fletcher AU 2673 177 136 2727 77 91 6 3 2 7 Ian Lines GB 2657 118 93 2527 79 50 1 0 0 9 Stephen Mulliner GB 2628 171 128 2654 75 75 11 2 7 12 R Beijderwellen GB 2584 89 56 2599 63 35 1 0 4 13 Danny Huneycutt US 2583 85 59 2533 69 45 1 0 0 14 Ben Rothman US 2569 130 100 2539 77 65 1 0 2 16 Aaron Westerby NZ 2562 86 60 2576 70 28 2 0 0 17 Ian Dumergue AU 2556 45 32 2585 71 25 1 1 0 21 Stephen Forster AU 2520 76 54 2566 71 30 2 1 0 24 Keith Aiton GB 2498 84 50 2540 60 39 4 4 0 25 Doug Grimsley US 2477 58 38 2375 66 18 0 1 0 27 Greg Bryant NZ 2470 44 29 2470 66 14 1 1 1 29 Martin Clarke AU 2464 117 89 2472 76 40 5 0 0 30 Paul Skinley NZ 2463 108 77 2482 71 34 1 1 0 33 Rich Lamm US 2444 87 60 2416 69 30 4 0 0 42 Jim Bast US 2386 82 48 2404 59 26 1 0 0 46 Michael Wright NZ 2366 73 38 2314 52 13 2 1 0 48 Peter Landrebe AU 2362 132 86 2247 65 34 4 3 0 58 Jeff Soo US 2337 59 37 2279 63 17 1 0 0 67 Jenny Clarke NZ 2312 77 47 2298 61 14 0 0 0 70 Kevin Beard AU 2303 171 115 2280 67 35 1 0 0
Country Analysis
31 August 2010
by Chris Clarke on Nottingham List
Now I'm back in NZ, I thought I'd write an overview of the 2010 Mac. It was one of the most interesting Macs that I can remember. Nothing ever went quite the way people expected. Even when the teams form was "known" after two weeks and everyone expected a close USA v NZ match, we had the most one-sided match of the event.
First of all, I must say that all the venues did a great job of preparation and were unlucky to have such bad weather to make all the playing conditions easier than desired. Whilst I think "travelling" Series are better than "One Venue" Series, having all the teams together for the final week was great.
When GB nearly lost the Mac in 2000, there were many questions asked as to why, but the fact that we had beaten Australia 20-1 and USA 19-2 meant that this was just a momentary blip of NZ playing well and GB underperforming. The 2010 Mac was no such thing. With wins of 12-9, 11-10 and 14-7, GB can consider themselves fortunate to have retained the Shield. In fact, NZ won more matches than GB. Whilst GB clearly underperformed, there is also strong evidence that the other countries have become stronger. This is very positive for the sport.
Looking at the teams in reverse order.
Australia were a better team than 4th place suggests. All of their players had strong performances in patches. However, I felt that they were the weakest team tactically and this was important.
Robert Fletcher showed that playing at number 1 in your first Mac is a big challenge. Whilst he looked like a quality player throughout, patches of weaker than normal shooting led to him losing repeatedly in the last 2 Tests.
Stephen Forster is a player that I enjoy watching. He is fluent and plays in a controlled manner. He probably needs to improve his TP completion rate to justify a position in the top 2 of a team.
Ian Dumergue looked pretty shaky when I saw him on day 1, but by the Surbiton Test, looked like a solid confident player.
Martin Clarke was probably the player who played worse than I had anticipated. However, unlike most Macs, no player was bad and Martins +26tp +17tp win against Jeff Soo showed that he was in decent form.
Pete Landrebe and Kevin Beard both played averagely.
The USA played very much in line with my expectations.
Huneycutt started strongly and tailed off whilst Rothman did the reverse. I don't recommend TPOing either of these two players (or Grimsley for that matter). I should congratulate Huneycutt on becoming only the second American to win all 5 matches in a Mac Test by winning all his matches v Aus (Jerry Stark was the first in 2000 v Aus).
Bast was pretty good in patches, but needs to become a more consistent shot.
Lamm was really good at 6 yarders and a good peeler.
Soo was probably the weakest and looked nervy. However, he won 6 matches which was a fine effort from someone clearly not in top form.
New Zealand were very good. From my perspective, one of the big differences was how much better they were tactically than ever before. Their leaves were better, their pegged out endings were miles better and their choice of openings was better.
Chapman is a complete player. His understanding of popping and peeling turns is excellent. I would have liked to see him use a greater variety of openings and also to have used more defensive leaves after 3rd turn balls round, but that is minor criticism.
Westerby had some fantastic periods of shooting, but as usual struggled with the odd hoop.
Bryant was very good. Every aspect of his game was improved, but he sometimes takes too aggressive a line of play and is too unwilling to allow his opponent to miss.
It was great to see Skinley close to his best again. He is still an elegant player and croquet means more to him than anyone else I know.
[Jenny] Clarke struggled for the first two Tests and then (with Bryant) became the first Kiwi ever to win all 5 matches in a Mac Test.
Wright did really well to win 5 singles. He needs to improve his control and was often running his hoops from further than ideal.
GB clearly underperformed. Some of the team have a desire to always play as if they were playing singles. This did not make for good doubles performances. Perhaps the alarm bells should have started ringing when they lost to the "Rest" in their warm-up match.
Fulford was never quite on top form. However, his choice of openings and leaves was fantastic and he achieved the key thing in croquet, the combination of maximising your own performance whilst allowing your opponent to minimise theirs.
Maugham was unlucky. Whilst his form was bad in parts, every time he looked like he was about to play well, his opponent pulled out a good turn. His choice of leaves was also generally stronger than most players.
Beijderwellen has one of the best techniques that I have ever seen. Sometimes I wonder how he ever misses. Perhaps this is the reason that the remainder of his game has yet to fully develop. If he can add a greater understanding of openings, leaves and pegged out endings whilst improving his croquet strokes, he will be unbeatable.
Mulliner was his usual self. It is impossible to tell how he will play on any day. He can be dreadful one day and then perfect the next. His 5-1 singles record was slightly flattering and I didn't think there was a great deal to choose between Maugham and himself. His sextuple peel in his last game was a good turn.
Aiton struggled. Whether it was his inability to shoot or to run hoops, there was usually something not quite right. It is a huge credit to him that his croquet strokes are good enough for him to fall back on most of the time. I thought he played too many aggressive openings for his current standard of play and was delighted to see him try and keep the game tight in what turned out to be the critical match in the Test v NZ.
Lines was pretty impressive in an unimpressive kind of way. He knows his limits and plays to them. He shot solidly and played breaks solidly and only wavered when under the most extreme pressure v Wright on day 10. He played defensive openings and often reaped the reward. When you are the GB number 6, being average is usually good enough.
And so, GB won, but the sport won more. We now have a vibrant competition with exciting talented younger players like Chapman and Fletcher and plenty more Antipodean youngsters in the pipeline. The next event will be held in Jan/Feb 2014 in New Zealand. Surely GB can't keep getting away with picking the old fogies? Will Australia be 50% Fletchers? Only time will tell.
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