Wellingtonians Paul Skinley and Aiken Hakes turned a two-and-a-half hour wait into a positive on the way to securing second place in the doubles section of the North Island Croquet Championships yesterday.
With World No1 Chris Clarke of Christchurch and his partner and world No50 Michael Wright of Wellington having recorded their fifth consecutive win from as many games by lunch time yesterday to secure the title all the focus for the remainder of the day was on who would secure second place at the Marewa Club in Napier. Hakes and Skinley had to wait for a round to finish to see if a playoff was required for the runner-up spot.
"We didn't mind the wait ... we just relaxed, did a bit of umpiring and ate plenty of food," Skinley said after their 26-3 win against Hawke's Bay's Tony Stephens of the Te Mata Club and Waikato's John Christie.
Skinley produced a triple peel in the victory.
"I was pretty happy with that. I've won the title five or six times with different partners over the years but I'm happy with second this time as I've only been playing with Aiken for a year now," Skinley said.