2020 Golf Croquet World Teams Block Update

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