Category: News

Croquet but not as we know it.

Unfortunately, we were drawn to play West Chiltington at their home lawns. As has previously been mentioned on these pages, the lawns are the outfield of the village cricket pitch are rather bumpy, dry and have the sort of hills and vales that our Lawn 2 would look on with envy.

Having said that our hosts were very welcoming and a good afternoon was had by all. The initial doubles were split with a win to each side, but the singles proved more difficult with only Iain prevailing in an epic struggle. This left us having to win all three of the remaining matches, but only the doubles team of Andrew J and Wendy were successful. Overall 6 – 3 to the lawns of West Chiltington.

The tea and cakes, and sausage rolls and quiche were excellent by the way.

Andrew L

Another lovely day, although breezier on the South Coast than Surrey!

Phil Tremble, Peter Adams, Brian Bartholomew and Hilary Bird, geared up for an apparently close run match, in terms of handicaps. That didn’t take account of the lawns! Obviously lumpy as we walked across towards the clubhouse, visually they looked ok. To be fair it was an unlevel playing field for us all. However, it was tricky.

We solidly lost the first round of two doubles. In the second, four singles, Brian and Hilary pulled it back to 4-2, so we entered round 3 needing to win all three games. Sadly this was not to be….. We finished up 3-6 down, but were compensated by delicious cake and savouries provided by our opponents.

Special mention has to go to Brian – just 5 weeks post life threatening surgery, he was keen to get back to croquet, and survived to tell the tale, putting in an admirable performance.

Good effort all round.

It promised to be warm today and the weather didn’t disappoint. 8 hopefuls, handicaps 3 to 10 gathered to do battle for the honour of winning PJ’s Pot and places in the Area Finals of this National Competition.

The players were divided into 2 blocks, in traditional tournament format. All play all within the block; the top 2 would meet the top 2 in the other block, to play semifinals and a final, and a play off for 3rd and 4th position. This meant that Lynn Edge and Andrew Lockwood would play Dominic Webb and Andrew Jackson in the afternoon knock out.

Andrew L had a fantastic match against Dominic, starting at -3:0, but managed to win 7-6. He went on to play Andrew J with an even more challenging starting score, -4:0. Again he won – what a great competitor with such a persistent and calm temperament.

The bottom 2 in each block would play for the plate, “sponsored” in this case by Ferrero Rocher (actually not, that was the prize!). Sisters Frankie Lea and Philly Hook played one plate semi, while Paul Stroud played Vernon Salt in the other.

Meanwhile, Paul Stroud won the plate and the chocs!

It was certainly a very hot day for everyone and one can only commend all the competitors for keeping going.

Andrea presented the prizes and advised that the 2 Andrew’s would both definitely qualify for the Area Finals. It is possible that some of the other competitors may also be invited to play, depending on overall numbers.

She thanked both Hilary Bird for managing the tournament and Peter Adams for being the ROT.

All in all it was a most enjoyable day.

The GGCC team travelled to Phyllis Court to play in the second round of the Inter-Club competition, the Murphy Shield.

The day started with the two pairs of higher handicapped players playing singles. The two best-of- three matches gave a win each to GGCC and Phyllis Court. John Gosden (GGCC) was beaten by Andy Jones (PC) while Andrea Huxley (GGCC) managed to win against Mike Fensome (PC)

Meanwhile on lawn one the titanic struggle in the doubles gave the initial win to GGCC with Douglas Shand and Julie Tremble. However in game two Roger Goldring and Helena Jansson fought back. It was decided to pause there and only play the third doubles if it were needed to settle the winner. So going into lunch it was all square.

After lunch play resumed. Andrea and John were to play singles against Andy and Mike. The results again gave each side a win. John beat Mike Fensome in two games and Andrea managed to scrape a 7-6 win over Andy Jones before being comprehensively defeated in the next two games.

Two more singles were on lawn one where Julie was unfortunately beaten by Helena but Douglas won his match against Roger. Score 3 wins to each side and the deciding doubles had to be played.

The doubles was a tight game with the score swinging from one side to the other. Inevitably it went to hoop 13! Again it was not straightforward with much positioning and clever clearances. But even games at hoop 13 must end and Douglas managed the winning hoop giving Guildford and Godalming the match, 4-3.

Many thanks to Frances Colman and Chris Roberts for refereeing and to all the players who survived a long match in the June heat. Many thanks also to Phyllis Court for their generous hospitality. Well done GGCC – on to round three.

Andrea Huxley, team organiser.

We arrived to set-up the Association Croquet 7+tournament just before 9 o’clock in pouring rain. Fortunately it eased-off, and by 9:30 it was dry and the sun was starting to come out. Ten players assembled with handicaps ranging from 7 to 12, representing six different clubs. The manager, Tim Dutton, had threatened to play four rounds of shortened games, which was unlikely to see a finish before 8pm. This gave Bernie Phillips a problem as he was travelling to Wales that evening! Tim decided to change the tournament format to three knock-out rounds with a progressive Swiss for him and Bernie and those knocked out of the main event. Adam Newbold, Robin Morrison, Sean Doherty and Peter Adams won their first round matches and progressed to the semi-finals. Fortified by an excellent lunch provided by Jan Honeysett the tournament continued in bright sunshine.

There were several very close games. In the first round Bernie beat Tim by 2, making those two hoops after time was called. In round 2 Tim lost by 1; Karen Newbold beat Bernie by 1; and Julie Tremble beat Simon Ling by 1. In that game, in the turn where time was called Simon took his ball round all the way from hoop 6 to peg it out, leveling the scores. Julie hit in from over 5 yards and took off from near hoop 3 to rover leaving a 3 yard angled hoop, which she managed to run to secure the victory.

In the final, Adam set off like a train and completed an all-round break with one ball with the other ball on hoop 6. Sean managed to get in and took his first ball round to four-back but stooped there to avoid giving contact, but eschewing the chance to go to the peg and peg out Adam’s forward ball. Adam took his lift shot and made the 10 yard roquet. With Sean’s two balls near hoop 2, Adam was able to take his backward ball from hoop 6 to the peg but missed a relatively short peg-out, ending up pegging out only one ball, giving Sean another chance. That only delayed the inevitable by one turn with Adam pegging out his second ball from 14 yards. As well as winning the day, Adam had a well-deserved handicap reduction to 6, which will give others a chance to win next year!

Tim presenting Adam with the spoils

We arrived at Woking for our first round Longman Cup match to find the lawns being mown.  The opposing captain had been very unhappy with the condition of the lawns when he arrived at 7am, so their grounds team had been preparing the lawns by scarifying and mowing ever since.  Their efforts were successful as they lawns played pretty well. The white lines were painted to enable everything to get going just after 10 o’clock; that did mean that the balls picked up white paint when crossing the boundary for a little while!

Richard P received 9 bisques from his opponent and used them all up early-on to build a substantial lead, before hanging on to win by 4 on time.  His match was livened by his opponent on more than one occasion mis-hitting, leaving a large gouge in the lawn and Richard correctly claiming a fault.  John G and Peter A had difficulty hitting-in to start with and fell several hoops behind, before judicious use of their first bisque enabled Peter to make a 6-hoop break.  Thereafter John and Peter remained largely in control to win by 8.  Ian F after a slow start got going and won comfortably, to make us three nil up at lunch.  Could we maintain the pace in the afternoon after a two-course lunch, comprising macaroni cheese with cheesecake for dessert?

Ian didn’t play as well as in the morning and lost comfortably.  Peter had a reasonably close game but eventually lost by 5.   John was 15-2 down with his opponent making one or two hoops a turn before he finally hit in and took his first ball most of the way round.  After a couple more turns trying to set up a rush to the first hoop, John got a three-ball break underway but decided it was too risky to attempt a long angled four-back hoop and retreated to guard the boundary.  Nevertheless, his opponent took on the 7-yard roquet and hit.  He then remained in control, leaving John widely separated at the end of each turn, while making one or two hoops a turn again.  John never took croquet again, leaving the fate of the match resting on Richard’s shoulders.  Fortunately, Richard had got well ahead again using his bisques, resulting in a demoralised his opponent.  Just before time was called Richard pegged out for the first time in a competitive AC game i.e. one recorded on his handicap card.  All of the team contributed to our 4-3 victory, but particular congratulations go to Richard for winning both of his games.  On now to the second round; where we play the holders, East Dorset, who defeated us in the quarter-final last year, but on this occasion we do not have to travel.

John Gosden

Our first match of the season was played at home, versus Woking B, on Monday 2nd June.

For Maxine Bushell it was a first, playing in a CSE match, and she played well winning her singles game convincingly. Janet Curtecka justified her reduced handicap since last season (I’m sure she’s had some coaching !). Peter Adams and Hilary Bird made up the rest of the team.

We got off to a pretty good start winning both doubles in round 1. In the second round of singles we only dropped one game. Peter lived up to his nickname (Peter 7-6 Adams) keeping us on tenterhooks to the very last minute! And so we went into the final round of two singles and one doubles already assured of a win overall. Winning 2 of the 3 games meant a finishing score of 7-2 to GGCC.

A good start to the season!

This year the sun shone brightly for our National Croquet week open day on the 18th May and a good time was had by all.  This has been our most successful Open day yet with 22 people joining us of whom 4 have requested beginners training sessions and 2 have joined the club. 

Many thanks to all the members who made everyone feel welcome, explaining the rules and sharing their love of croquet.

The doubles Dish, more informally known as the Bird Bath, is the trophy presented to the winner of a handicap doubles competition held at GGCC on Saturday 24th May. There were 32 contestants with handicaps ranging from -3 to 12. As GGCC are taking part in a trial to use Target Scores we used that form of handicap scoring for the tournament. It was a system new to most players but caused no problems.

The morning games were played in four blocks with each pair playing the others in their block. It was pleasing that all the pairs won at least one of their games but by lunch time it was clear who were the eight pairs going through to the main knockout while unluckier couples would go to the plate knockout. A buffet lunch prepared by Julie Tremble with help from Chris Davis was very much appreciated and gave all the players time to rest and reflect and gave the manager time to do the maths to place players in their appropriate places for the afternoon battle.

In the Plate knockout the winners of the trophy last year Marilyn and Alex Wood (Colchester) had a better afternoon and beat Phil Tremble and Martin Birch (GGCC) 8:7 in the final game. Meanwhile in the main knockout the top two seeded pairs made it through to a final game. Jason Carley ( Watford) playing off -3 and Ian Davidson (Barnet) playing off 7 were up against Bridget Goodman, 1 and Jane Powell, 4 ( both from Ealing). It was a close match with some fine play on both sides but the Ealing duo came through to win the trophy 7 hoops to 3.

A successful tournament played in fine weather and good spirits! Many thanks to all the players from GGCC who both played in the tournament and helped with its organisation – not to mention the clearing up!

Andrea Huxley, Manager

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