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Thanx ladies for the entertaining comments 😂

This is so useful to me as a new player. Watching the skills and getting a handle on strategy has got to improve my game?!

Nice work, everyone :)

Thanks team for posting these videos. While its amazing to watch the millimeter perfect games of the Fletchers thats not the reality for us club players who miss easy roquets, fall short on our rolls & blob hoops. Its great to see how the incoming player deals with a messy court & gets a new break going. This is real croquet and a great learning tool for us mortals!

How did I end up here?!

Having the roving cameraman takes this video to a new level. Well done, and the commentary was excellent too for those of us who play the game, but more explanation may be required for those that do not. However, I thought this the best croquet video I have ever seen. Superb.

Thanks for posting some croquet to watch in the depths of the British winter. One comment on the mini map which I find a bit distracting and sometimes obscures the action.

I’m very very New to Croquet here in Western Australia. I know absolutely zero about the game and am interested in learning. Nifty.

Just Found the second part of this game. Took me a while as nothing is marked.

Brilliant coverage, I have just found you channel, so catching up, keep up the good work, I'm a noobie to Golf Croquet practising out here in Mandura WA

'Promosm'

Interesting sport, I didn't know people swung it between their legs like that

Great Croquet, and fine video-photography, but the continuous inane, irrelevant chat makes it virtually unwatchable.

Aargh, Is it just me or is everyone else gnashing their teeth too, (after watching for an hour), that we can’t see how this ended? Why did the clip end there?ANNOYING!

Yes it is nice to see top players making mistakes. Especially for us who make them all the time!

the coverage is way better than has been previous to this. will doubtless improve as camera crew become more familiar with structure of the game... and stay with match winning breaks as they develop rather than chopping from game to game!

Well done. Some amazing shots there.

Nice play Reg 👍

Ahh. Yeah . So that's how it's done!

This deserves a comment!

Reg's finishing turn continues to be a little untidy - he isn't taking his time as he usually does, but the repair work required is instructive. It's been another long day but great to watch - very well filmed and commentated on. Many thanks.

We are now in Game 4 and Reg plays a carefully controlled 9 hoops with his usual meticulously constructed diagonal spread. All now depends on whether Matt hits in from A baulk... He doesn't, but Reg's subsequent break becomes surprisingly untidy; lots of remedial croquet shots required and his triple will have to be delayed.

Another careful delayed triple from Reg, with Simon Jenkins and Eugene in the commentary box and the score in games is now 2:1. After just a few minutes, back with Peter and Gareth, play resumes with a supershot from Matt and a maximum distance E boundary shot from Reg, which Matt narrowly misses. Reg hits it on the nose from B baulk and will probably be on his way round to 4B again.

Reg set a standard diagonal spread leave and Matt missed the lift shot from A baulk, leaving Reg to go round steadily, after a 10 minute delay at H1 while two referees mark his ball which has just crept through the hoop! His standard triple has morphed into a delayed one because of poor positioning at H3/4B. Matt is quoted as saying that the lawn is playing like glass around the hoops.

Matt goes to set up his usual MSL after 9 hoops, but once again his placement of the H4 ball goes amiss so he converts it to an OSL and leaves his balls in C4. Reg is all over it with a successful lift shot from A baulk. Eugene Chang has joined as a guest commentator and is speculating as to whether Reg might be considering a TPO this time.

great matches but they have the ball colours wrong in the Bamford - Wilson scoreboard

So, the score is one game all, it is early afternoon already and there are just 5 video clips left to watch. Presumably play is going to speed up considerably! Matt makes a good start in this respect. Pete Trimmer now guest commentating.

Reg looks set to win this 3 ball finish but has trouble with his backward ball at H3, giving Matt one more long shot at Peg...

Matt's triple wasn't entirely straightforward and leaves Reg with a single shot to get back on terms; this game isn't over!

Matt settles into his break in Game 2 and eschews his usual MSL, preferrring an NSL this time. Reg misses the lift shot and Matt is looking a bit more relaxed and chirpy with his potential standard triple all set up. Ben Rothman is good value as a commentator.

Surprising misjudgements in their approach shots means that neither player establishes a break in Game 2 until right at the end of this clip when Matt scores a tricky H1. Ed Wilson has joined the commentary team and has some interesting insights, having played Reg yesterday. Gareth Denyer gives way to Ben Rothman in the final couple of minutes.

After two hours of unexpected incident from both players, Reg steadies the ship and launches a standard triple with plenty of talking points for Chris to pick over, including getting a ball stuck in a hoop

Reg gets in and lays up in C2, wired by H2 from Red, but the double he leaves is just a temptation to Matt to jump the hoop! This is anything but conventional... Chris still in the commentary box and having great fun analysing all the options. After lots of inter-reaction Matt gives himself every chance of a finishing turn, if H3 will let him.

Reg settles and establishes his first 9 hoops with his usual diagonal spread, but Matt then hits in and goes round with his attractive jaunty style, setting a slightly haphazard MSL. Chris Clarke, in the commentary box, has some interesting observations on elite tactics.

Play gets started 15 minutes in, the lawn is already running very fast and both players get caught out with their hoop approaches. A fair bit of inter-reaction even at this very early stage. Bodes well for an interesting match!

This is the last of the day's semi-final clips, and a masterclass in how to play precision croquet at the end of a long day - a very slow, careful and deliberate delayed triple, with marvellous accuracy on this ultra-fast lawn. Matt Essick is commentating; interesting and informative throughout, and very generous about his opponent-to-be in tomorrow's final. Great work!

Now well over 8 hours into this marathon 5 game match - fascinating but exhausting! Reg sets a very careful diagonal spread after this 5th turn break. Ed shoots at the peg ball but misses. There's only 11 minutes left in this clip. Is there another, I wonder?

The lawn is running faster and faster and isn't kind to Reg. Ed finishes off neatly, pulling level in games after a total of about 7 hours so far. Into a final decider, after a 10 minute rest! Reg quickly establishes a careful 5th turn break

Reg appeared to have a gimme start but failed to get going. However Ed considerably more edgy now and decided against pursuing his triple, electing to go to the peg and giving Reg one more shot.

This is a delight - a lovely languid first 9 hoops from Ed, with excellent intuitive camera-work and nice relaxed and informative commentary. Reg missed the lift shot down the E boundary and I was expecting a trouble-free triple and a two-games-all score but 'there's many a slip...' and two more videos to come!

Fascinating match-winning finish to Game 4 on Lawn 3 which meant that we completely missed the equally nail-biting end of Game 3! Roll on Game 4 between Reg and Ed, after the players have had a break, which takes up 20 minutes of the clip. At least we won't be hopping to and fro between lawns...

Opens with Matt establishing a nice tightly controlled shot 4 break in Game 4 and Robert then missing the lift shot. Over on Lawn 4 Reg sets a careful diagonal spread; Ed takes the 'long shot' and hits in, needing a straight double finish with a very tricky long peg out. Will he save the match and progress to Game 4? Meantime Matt also faces up to a straight double to win the match.

Starts with Ed's setting his diagonal spread in Game 3, which Reg misses from A baulk, giving Ed a chance to keep the match alive, while Matt seems to have given up on his delayed TPP but polishes off the game - the on-screen score panel for Lawn 3 is woefully neglected and misleading. Ed's triple fails and Reg gets going again. Clip ends with Game 4 starting on Lawn 3, unconventional opening.

Still playing the later stages of Game 3 on Lawn 3, with Robert attempting a comeback but having problems. Meanwhile Ed and Reg have started their Game 3 on Lawn 4, again with plenty of incident. Neither match is anywhere near finished, even after 2.5 hours, and outcomes by no means certain.

Starts with Robert failing at quite an angled H1 (having hit his own supershot at the end of Video 4) giving Matt an easy Shot 4 start in Game 3. It looks as though he will go round uneventfully to the transition (a 2/4 leave as usual), so commentators' attention transfers to Reg and his standard textbook TPP, which is going nicely. Back to Robert who lifts the H4 ball and then misses the hit in from B baulk, but Matt fails at H3 so game is still on! Much more interactivity than expected because lawns are so fast, and hoop approaches difficult.

SF Game 2 polished off very quickly by Matt, levelling the score 1:1 against Robert, so the commentators' attention goes back to Reg playing a careful textbook-quality shot 5 break to 4B in his Game 2 against Ed. Clearly this game will carry over into Video 5. Brief look at the Matt/Robert Game 3 interesting supershot opening right at the end.

Still covering Games 1 in both semifinals, and both finish safely about 14-16 minutes in. Then there's a 10 minute hiatus, but Matt and Robert's Game 2 starts unexpectedly and catches the commentators napping! Both games involve a 3BB start but the outcomes are very different in each case. Clip ends with Robert shooting at Matt's three ducks leave. Little coverage of Reg's response to a nice fluent start from Ed.

Found it on a search of You-Tube! Brings up lots from "Croquet Victoria" but not filed in date/numerical order which is a bit irritating. Anyway Sat 22nd Video 02 covers Reg's first 4B leave and Ed missing the lift shot, and then moves across to watch the other semi-final with Matt making the most of Robert's unexpected failure at H2 during his planned TPP, and whipping round to an NSL. But Robert hits in from B baulk and the TP is back on, while Reg appears to be cruising through his in the background.

This dates from Saturday 22nd February and cuts to and fro between the first games in the SF - Reg Bamford v Ed Wilson and Matthew Essick v Robert Fletcher. Neither finishes in this 40 minute clip, and I can't see Video 02 listed, which is a pity.

that was an amazing and beautiful show of skill. thanks for posting