The New Zealand team consisting of captain Felix Webby (Taranaki), Duncan Dixon (Canterbury), Edmund Fordyce (Canterbury) and Josh Freeth (Canterbury) have qualified top of Block B to advance to the semi-finals. In doing they’ve taken another step towards retaining the Openshaw Trophy.
Day 1 saw New Zealand open their campaign against Trans-Tasman rivals, Australia. With the two doubles matches played first, Fordyce and Freeth quickly found their form with a convincing 7-2, 7-4 win. Dixon and Webby started slowly winning the first 7-6 before losing the second game 4-7. However, they too found their form in the third game with a convincing 7-1 win to seal the match 2-1 and give New Zealand a 2-0 lead in the Test Match.
The first two singles matches saw Freeth win his match 2-1 and Dixon go down to Australian number 1 and world number 4, Robert Fletcher 0-2 in a match that was tighter than the scoreline suggests. Fordyce and Webby then both completed 2-0 match wins to secure an opening round Test win 5-1.
Following Dixon’s second game loss to Fletcher, the New Zealand team then went on a 27 game winning streak.
The winning streak included a 6-0 win of the Irish in the second Test with the New Zealand team winning every match 2-0.
The streak continued into the morning of day 3 against England with Fordyce and Freeth winning their doubles match 7-4, 7-4. Dixon and Webby had a hard fought 7-5 win in their first game before sealing the match with a commanding 7-1 win in game two.
In the singles, Fordyce quickly jumped out to a 5-0 lead in his first game against Stephen Mulliner. Although Mulliner fought back, Fordyce secured the first game 7-3 and repeated that scoreline in the second to give New Zealand a 3-0 lead in the Test Match.
Webby then secured the test match and first place in their block with a 7-4, 7-3 win in his match.
England broke the winning streak in the last match of the Test when Tobi Savage beat Freeth 5-7, 7-5, 7-4 to avoid the whitewash.
New Zealand play USA today and tomorrow in one semi-final. The other semi-final has last tournament’s runners-up Egypt pitted against England.
Follow the results here: https://croquetscores.com/2020/gc/world-teams-championship-4
The final will be streamed live on Sky Sport Next on Saturday and Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bIRhw08e3A&fbclid=IwAR0LnCMcXfsm5334YSKtlGkvrSA1L1EBFo6mnlgpg36V9XcNXg0wYH0WYTE
