Category: News

In warm but wet circumstances, Team B got revenge on behalf of GGCC by beating Woking in the SECF GC Handicap league.

Hilary Bird, John Bryson, John Gosden and Ian Taylor, were 4-2 up after Round 2, needing 1 more win to secure the match. Happily, Round 3 gave us 2 more wins, resulting in an overall win for the team. Ian was man of the match, winning his doubles and both his singles.

June 1st saw GC Handicap Team A at home to Woking. We gave away quite a few extra strokes and lost narrowly 4-5, the result depending on the last game out on court.

Despite the loss, we had an enjoyable time with the Woking members and treated them to tea and cakes afterwards, There has to be some consolation

There was a full house for the doubles handicap tournament on Saturday 28^th May. It was a lovely sunny day and the lawns were fast. Competition was fierce and the added ‘extra turns’ made for some tight games.

At the end of the morning blocks there were two couples with three wins each, Andrew and Fiona Fall (Compton), from the yellow block and John Bryson and Iain Richardson (GGCC) from the Black. In the red block there were three pairs on two wins each. Steve and Debra Hayns (Ryde) and Jason Carley (Watford) and Des Taylor (Newport) went through to the knockout stage on net points. All 5 couples from GGCC made it through to the afternoon knockout phase.

At the semi-final stage Steve and Debra had a close match against Jan Honeysett and Ian Taylor (GGCC) beating them 7-6. The other semi-final was between Andrew and Fiona against Sarah Patton and Mike Huxley (GGCC) with the Falls winning through 7-4. 

The final was a close and exciting event. Both teams competed for every ball and every hoop! Debra Hayns kept her team in the game with a tremendous jump shot at hoop 11 and unsurprisingly the game went to the golden hoop. The result, 7-6, a well-deserved win for the couple from Ryde.

The manager, Andrea Huxley, presented the winners with the Doubles Dish – known as the Bird Bath – to Steve and Debra and also bottles of wine for each of the finals couples. The whole group thanked the catering team for providing an excellent lunch and keeping everyone fed and watered for the whole day!

A GGCC AC Team had success in the first round of the National Longman Trophy beating the Bristol team 5:2 on Friday 13 May. This annual tournament in which 28 clubs from around the country compete on a knockout basis with the final held at Surbiton on 1st and 2nd October. The AC Handicap tournament is for teams of four with a gross handicap of not less than 24 for players with a handicap of at least 3.5, and our team comprised Andrew Fewster, Ian Fugeman, John Gosden and Robert Bateson.

A full report can be found on the Croquet Association website. A strong field served up some high quality croquet. 17 triple peels were completed over the weekend, David Maugham achieving his 2000^th TP on the first day. After two hard days of competition, four players tied on 5 wins out of 7.

No clear winner could be identified, so it was down to the manager to devise a tie-breaker. The four involved, Nigel Polhill, David Maugham, Stephen Mulliner and Jamie Burch, played the best two-ball breaks they could summon up at the end of two days of intense competition. In the end, it was the manager himself who pipped the others by one hoop.

A super competition and we hope to see an equally talented field back next year.

Many GGCC members will have played at Surbiton and experienced the lunches, which are always a welcome feature. GGCC were back at Surbiton on 5th May to play the preliminary round of the Murphy Shield competition. For those unfamiliar with that, it’s a GC competition between teams of 4 – a double and two singles matches in the morning and four singles in the afternoon. The combined handicap of the four players in each team must be not less than 12 and no player may have a handicap less than 2. So the optimum mixture of handicaps is 2, 3, 3, 4 or 3, 3, 3, 3.

As it happened, Surbiton had 2, 3, 3, 4 and GGCC had 2, 3, 3, 5 – so pretty well balanced. Surbiton took an early 2-1 lead, winning the doubles and one single. Then – lunch. And after that there was no stopping GGCC. We won all four singles matches in the afternoon by two games to nil, leaving the final score as GGCC 5 Surbiton 2.

Thanks to Surbiton for their hospitality and the friendly spirit in which the match was played (and of course for the lunch). We are now through to the last 16, where we will face Compton at home.

Team: Jan Honeysett, Peter Adams, Julie Tremble, Mike Huxley

There will not be an organiser for the next evening roll up, but don’t let that stop you from playing and organising yourselves!

We are holding an open Advanced AC tournament on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th May. This means there will be NO CLUB PLAY over the weekend, but spectators are welcome.

Monday 16th May we are holding a clubhouse tidy-up day from 10am. This may better suit members who are happier wielding a tea towel than a strimmer, but wish to help with the running of the club!