Category: News

Towards the end of August and in early September we played our last two games in the Federation AC U-league.

The first was against Surbiton away on 27th August. All games were played off Base 6 with all players from both teams receiving bisques except our Max Byfield and Ian Fugeman. Both Peter Adams and Max had comfortable wins in the morning singles whilst Ian and Richard Perkins struggled against two players who regularly play doubles together very effectively using alternate strokes. After an excellent lunch provided by Surbiton, Max again pegged out, Peter lost in the final moments by one hoop, Richard had a comfortable win and Ian achieved a close win.  Overall G&G prevailed by 5 games to 2. Fast lawns and occasional heavy rain added to the challenge.

The second match was against Hampstead Heath at home on 6th September. Despite being September the match `took place in pretty good weather, although not reliable enough to have lunch outside.  The two morning singles matches proved comfortable wins for Michael Clarke and Ian Fugeman’s opponent.  The doubles match (John Gosden and Julie Tremble) was much closer.  Our opponents had built a lead of several hoops but Julie clawed our way back into the match in the last hour, steadily making a hoop or two when in play.  This left us one behind with John in play as time was called.  He managed to make the two hoops necessary to take the lead before sending each ball to near  a different corner.  With the opponent unsuccessful with his last long shot, this gave G&G a 2-1 lead at lunch. 

Maggie and David Boyd provided a magnificent lunch, with David providing a croquet-themed chicken and ham pie and Maggie a lovely dessert and cake for tea.

Thus fortified G&G stormed to victory with Ian, Michael and Julie recording fairly comfortable victories and John the only loss.  The end result was 5-2 to G&G.

Thus G&G won all four of their games in the U-league, for probably the first time in recorded history; well our memories anyway! However, this wasn’t enough for us to win the league as Sussex County (who we didn’t play) also won all of their four matches. They were declared the winners of the U-league with 75% of games won, as opposed to G&G’s 68% of games won.

In the B-league for handicaps 10 and above, which we entered for the first time this year, we were also undefeated. We accumulated 7 points from 1 win and 2 draws. We played all three of our matches in July and had to wait for the other teams to play all of their matches before we could know the final outcome. Our points total was matched by Reigate Priory with 2 wins and 1 loss and we also both had the same percentage wins of 56%. G&G were declared the 2025 winners of the B-league, since we had beaten Reigate in our head-to-head.

Well done to all 11 of our members who represented the club in our league matches this year.

John Gosden & Ian Fugeman

The team of Douglas Shand, Julie Tremble, John Gosden and Andrew Lockwood were due to play Sussex CC, the holders of the Murphy Shield, in the semi-final. The tie was played at GGCC so we hoped that home advantage would come into play. The first round comprised a doubles and two singles with each match being played as the best of three games. The doubles was between Douglas (1) and Julie (2) against Ben Harwood (1) and David King (3). The first game appeared straightforward with GGCC winning 7-3. The second game less so! A few blobs of the hoop and missed clearances took the game to hoop 13 and Sussex won the important hoop. One game all. Game three saw Douglas and Julie back on track, 7-3 to GGCC gave the first match to us.

The singles matches also went to three games each. John lost his first game 7-3 to Francis Ainley (3) but then won the next two games 7-6, 7-3. Andrew was paired against Paul Green (3) and beat him 7-5 in the first game. The second game was lost 4-7. Game three went to the wire and Andrew was unfortunate to lose on the golden hoop. At lunchtime the score was 2-1 to GGCC.

The weather forecast had been dire – with rain and wind expected. As it happened the weather was kinder but still on the cool side so lunch for the team was a welcome break with hot baked potatoes and fillings provided by Hilary. Many thanks to her for such a warming repast!

In the afternoon all players played singles and it was definitely running in our favour. Douglas beat Ben 7-4, 7-5. Julie beat David 7-4, 7-1 and Andrew beat Francis 7-4, 7-2. The only score missing was John v Paul. They each won a game and at the point with time going on it was decided that the last match would be declared a draw as it had no effect on the outcome. The final score being 5-1 to GGCC.

Congratulations to our winning team – very well played.

Watch this space for the report on the final. GGCC will play Watford CC at Roehampton on Sunday 28th. We wish them all the best for a successful match.

Andrea Huxley, manager/referee

Sunday 3rd August saw 16 players gathered to play in the C level GC tournament. We had three players from GGCC in the group, Dominic Webb, Andrew Jackson and Lynn Edge. Other players came from nearby clubs such as Woking and Surbiton while our furthest travelled visitor came fro Belsay Hall near Newcastle ( though he did admit to staying for a few days with his daughter who live in Guildford!)

The format for the morning was that players were in four seeded groups of four players with each playing the other three. At lunch time the top two from each group were to go into the main knockout while the lower two played in the plate knockout. Dominic and Andrew both qualified for the main knock out while Lynn just missed out and played in the plate.

After a great lunch prepared by Andrew and Wendy Lockwood the players were off again. All games were fiercely contested so that none of the players left having won no games at all.

In the Plate competition Peter Martell (Cheltenham) played against Jill Shaw (Camerton and Peasedown) with Peter winning 7-3.

Dominic Webb (GGCC) played against Steve Morton (Phyllis Court) place with Dominic winning 7-5 to take third place.

The final was between Andrew Maclay (High Wycombe) and Carol Huntington (Phyllis Court) It was a closely fought game with many changes in fortune as it progressed. As many of the other games had finished by the time the final was played there was a good audience to watch – including Andrew’s mother who lives locally and had never seen a croquet game before! However there was no fairy tale ending for Andrew. Carol persevered and with some amazing long hoops managed to win over the opposition taking the game 7-5 to win the MaD cup.

Many thanks to all the competitions and to the members of GGCC ‘background staff’ who prepared the lawns, fed and watered the competitors, acted as referees and scorers and most importantly, cleared up afterwards. We couldn’t do it without you!

Andrea Huxley, manager

After a long delay GGCC were able to play their quarter final match against Hamptworth CC on 25th July. It was a home game so the team were at the club bright and early to offer coffee and biscuits to the travelling team members. To start the tie Douglas Shand and Julie Tremble played doubles against Richard Smith and Hugh Risebrow and had a comfortable win 7-4, 7-3. The first singles games were played by John Gosden against Bill Hammond with John winning 7-0, 7-5. While Andrew Lockwood had to play the full three games against his opponent, but he came out the winner against `Michael Eke 7-3, 5-7, 7-5. Three games to GGCC.

After lunch all players were to play singles. Douglas beat Richard 7-4, 7-5 and Julie beat Hugh 7-5, 7-4. Both John and Andrew had mixed fortunes. Each won one game and lost one. John v Michael ended 5-7, 7-6 and Andrew against Bill finished 6-7, 7-3. At that point our visitors decided that with GGCC winning 5 games to zero there was little point in playing the last two games.

So a resounding win for GGCC 5-0! Congratulations to the team on a great performance. We are now drawn to play against Sussex CC on Monday 1 September in the semi-final of the competition. It is again a home match so spectators / supporters would be welcome to come along to watch! Good luck team.

Andrea Huxley, manager/referee

The GGCC team had played two out of its four CSE restricted league matches in July with great success!

The format for these matches is to play one doubles GC match between the two lower handicapped players while the other players play singles. The second round is for all four players to play their opposite number in singles matches. All are played as the best of three games.

The first match was at home against Merton CC on 14 July. Richard Perkins and Iain Richardson played doubles and won their tie 7-5, 7-5. Vernon Salt and Andrew Jackson played singles and again each match was won 7-5, 7-5. GGCC were three games up at lunchtime. In the afternoon four singles matches were played. Richard had a close match with Fiona Walker, from Merton, and lost out 6-7, 6-7. Our other players were more fortunate. Ian won 7-3, 7-5; Vernon won 7-6, 7-5 and Andrew brought the match to a close with a win 7-1, 7-6 against Sarah Woropay. An amazing 6-1 win to GGCC. Well done team.

Later that same week the team were playing agin. This time against Ealing CC. Jan Honeysett and Vernon Salt were our lower handicapped pair up against Margaret Page and Tony Elliott in the doubles beating them 7-6, 7-4. Hilary Bird lost to Richard Barkey 3-7, 4-7 while Martin Birch struggled with a three game win over Gwynneth Hopper 7-5, 4-7, 7-1. After lunch all players played singles – again the best of three games for each match. Jan beat Tony 7-2, 4-7, 7-5 while Vernon beat Margaret 3-7, 7-6, 7-6. Martin beat Richard in two games winning 7-5, 7-4 and Hilary had to play the full three to overcome Gwynneth 7-3, 2-7, 7-6. Another 6-1 win for GGCC. Congratulations team, well played!

The team has two more R league matches to play. They play at Surbiton on Monday 11 August and at Cheam CC on 5 September. Here’s hoping their run of success continues – we wish them well for those matches.

Andrea Huxley, manager

Six of our AC players entered the All England handicap, which was played in two groups of three. The first between Bernie Phillips, Phil Davies and Steve Stuart-Matthews was played on Monday 7th August. Bernie comfortably beat Steve but then had a tremendous tussle against Phil, who took a substantial lead reaching peg and rover. Bernie slowly clawed his way back into the game and pegged out as time was called. In the final match Steve prevailed against Phil.

The other group, comprising Peter Adams, John Gosden and Richard Perkins, played the three games on separate days around a week later. John and Peter had a very close low-scoring game, which John won by two. Richard won the other two games.

Good luck to Bernie and Richard our two qualifiers for the Area Final at Surbiton on 9/10th August.

Last Monday we played our annual AC friendly against Watford as the first fixture on their annual weeklong tour.  Unfortunately one of their players had to drop out at short notice, but we were able to draft in Tim Dutton at the last minute to make up the usual five players per side.  In the end, because Peter Adams and Bernie Phillips were finding it difficult to schedule time to play their Pat’s Plate game, Bernie made up the numbers for Watford instead of Tim, so that one of the afternoon games could serve a dual purpose. 

The morning games were shared with John Gosden and Julie Tremble comfortably winning the doubles and Peter doing the same in his match, making good use of his seven and a half bisques.  The other two matches were very close with Richard and Tim both losing on time, by respectively one and two. 

Fortified by an excellent lunch provided by Andrew and Wendy Lockwood, Watford nearly swept the board in the afternoon, with the only home victory coming courtesy of Julie who won a closely contested game by three on time.  Even discounting the two games won by Bernie, the loaned player, Watford still won 4-3 overall.  Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable day of friendly competition. 

We welcomed Lodsworth for our 4th and final match in the CSE league. Over the years we have played Lodsworth many times – they were keen to point out that last year we won, and so they were out for revenge (in the friendliest way!).

Phil Tremble, Maxine Bushell, Richard Perkins and Brian Bartholomew were the team, with Hilary Bird as reserve. Our handicaps ranged from 3 to 16, theirs from 2 to 8, so we knew it would be a challenging match.

After the doubles round we were one all. After the singles round we were 2-4 down. For round 3 Richard had to go, so Hilary stepped in. We had to win all three games to secure an overall win. Having won 2 of the 3 games in round 3, all hinged on the final game. Sadly victory eluded us and the final score was 5-4 to Lodsworth.

It was a good humoured afternoon and most enjoyable.

And so our season ended with one win, three losses, although 2 of those were 5-4, so we didn’t do too badly! Thank you Team B members.

In torrential rain (very welcome after weeks of heat waves and drought) we set out for Eastbourne, nervous about the playing conditions that would greet us.

After flash floods and roads blocked by fallen trees we arrived to find it warm and pretty dry. Apart from about half an hour when we sought refuge from the rain in the clubhouse it was dry and even sunny at times. The lawns had benefited from the rain and played well and not ridiculously fast, as had been our recent experience at home and elsewhere.

Our doubles round saw Peter paired with Janet, and Hilary paired with Brian. We emerged with one win and one loss, but both games going to 7-6.

Into round 2, we played our singles against our ranked opponents and the net overall result was 3 all – all to play for in round 3.

Unfortunately with a starting score of -4, Peter had an uphill struggle ahead of him. Janet bravely opted to play singles on the basis that if she wants to improve her game and handicap, she needs to play more singles. Fortune favours the brave.

Sadly, despite valiant efforts all round, we were unable to win the necessary 2 games to secure victory, and so the final result was Compton 5, G and G 4.

It was however a very pleasant match, made even more so by the close run finish.

A little late in reporting…..apologies. Our team travelled to Ealing to take part in this rather under subscribed CSE competition.

The lawns were not in good shape, and neither was our performance in the morning. We lost all 3 matches of a doubles and 2 singles against High Wycombe, the favourites to win, Reigate Priory and Ealing.

Somewhat downhearted and in 4th out of 4 position , we approached the afternoon set of matches, against High Wycombe, to battle for 3rd or 4th position.

A readjustment of the pairings , so Julie and Hilary played doubles, Peter and Richard singles, gave an unexpected result. GGCC overwhelmed High Wycombe to win all three games, coming 3rd overall. A result! We travelled home our dignity restored!