Anendra Singh
New Zealand A croquet skipper John Versey (left) has come back from Australia licking his wounds and man enough to admit his mallet swingers need to work on a few moves.
However, what the Marewa Croquet Club member, who returned from Melbourne on Monday night, believes the Kiwis do not
need to modify is their placid manner of celebrating success.
"What is interesting is that we tend to be quite reserved when we celebrate - we sort of take it on the chin," the 46-year-old Porritt School teacher says when comparing their ritual with the cock-a-hoop Australians who had group hugs, high fives and all that carry on in Melbourne after trouncing Versey's eight-member team 21-11 at the weekend.
"It will put me off (that sort of celebration) but it is one of the different and obvious ways in which they do things."
Versey, who landed his first captaincy stint in national colours, says the Kiwis needed to work on their combinations in the doubles section, with more competitions before international tournaments becoming a necessity.
"I was reasonably pleased with my performance but the loss in the last singles match was disappointing as I had the opportunity to clinch it but didn't capitalise," he says after losing 26-10 to Alan Sands in the round three singles and succumbing in the doubles 26-13 with Franklin-Manukau's Jenny Begg to Aussie pair Chris Prater and Kevin Beard.
However, Versey thoroughly enjoyed his stint at the helm, his leadership skills coming to the fore on the last day when the Kiwis were 16-6 down.
"We had a team talk on Sunday because I knew some of them weren't feeling great. I told them we'd come a long way for the experience. That day we came out best best, winning five more games."
He says the Australians were always going to be tougher with all their players ranked between 50 to 64 in the world, compared with the Kiwis who had one ranked in the 50 and the remaining seven above 100.
Versey praised Canterbury Paddy Chapman, 17, who won all three of his singles and one of his two doubles, completing an impressive tally of four triple peels in the process.
