Category: News

What a great day!

The weather was superb, only matched by the quality of the competitors . Several people, on viewing the blocks, commented that they had the hardest block – only they were in different blocks! There were no easy games.

16 couples took part, in only the second time the event has taken place. The general conviviality and pleasantness of the day made it feel festivalesque. That’s not to say that people didn’t want to win, rather they thoroughly enjoyed a good day of proper competition.

At the end of the morning the top 2 pairs from each block went through to the main knock-out in the afternoon. In two of the blocks this came down to a difference on net hoops, which just goes to show that every hoop counts!

Ultimately, the top seeds, Julie and Phil Tremble, won the final, pitched against the bottom seeds Jan Honeysett and Richard Perkins, in a nail biting finish. Well done to both pairs.

In the Plate, Andrea Huxley and Louise Taylor found their form , post-lunch. They were rewarded with an edible prize.

A really splendid day all told. Hopefully next year we may have a “real” (non alcoholic) trophy.

On a sunny and very hot day play started promptly against Royal Tunbridge Wells in which 3 of their team were low HC players. The morning games were very close; Ian Fugeman and Martin Seidel won their doubles by 2 and Bernie Phillips his singles by 3 (both on time), while Tim Dutton lost his singles by 2.

In the afternoon singles games both Martin and Bernie pegged out with impressive cores whilst Ian and Tim battled against their low handicap opponents with Ian winning by two points and Tim loosing by one (both again on time).

Neither doubles teams chose to adopt the new Alternate Stroke option. The new Base 6 rule made a difference to the tactics in the doubles and in one of Bernie’s matches, with both players now receiving bisques, his opponent received 10 bisques instead of the customary 5 but this was balanced by Bernie receiving 5.

Overall a good win for G&G 5 games to 2.

Guildford & Godalming beat Hurlingham 5-1  15^th July, 2024 

Guildford & Godalming (G&G) travelled to the Hurlingham Club armed with full wet weather gear given a forecast for incessant rain from 1pm. It was dry but overcast as the teams commenced the morning doubles and two singles. G&G’s Douglas and Peter achieved efficient wins against Hurlingham’s Mark and Jane finishing at 1pm when the promised rain started. The doubles match was fiercely contested, the scoreline of 7-1 to G&Gs Bernie and Julie masked a very competitive first game with multiple long clearances and patient build-ups from both teams. Hurlingham’s Ludolph and Martin started the second game with great conviction racing to a 4-1 lead before being pegged back but ultimately they triumphed 7-6 just as the rain started, leaving the match finely poised at one game apiece. As the other matches had finished it was agreed to break for lunch and then play the four afternoon singles matches. If the match was tied after those, the final game of the doubles match would be the decider and so G&G took a 2-0 lead into the afternoon.

After a splendid lunch provided by our generous hosts we returned to the lawns for the singles. Julie and Bernie won their singles matches in two games securing the 4 points necessary for an overall match win. The two remaining singles matches went to three games resulting in one win for G&G and one win for Hurlingham. With an unassailable scoreline of 5-1, the doubles match was not concluded and the teams sought shelter and a rejuvenating afternoon tea. Thank you to both teams for an enjoyable day’s croquet and to the Hurlingham team for their wonderful hospitality.

The teams were Guildford & Godalming: Bernie Phillips, Julie Tremble, Douglas Shand, and Peter Adams. Hurlingham: Ludolph Van Hasselt, Martin Read, Jane O’Neillbnand Mark Wellby.

Julie Tremble                                                                                                                                     

The match was the usual format of a doubles and two singles in he morning and four singles in the afternoon. In the doubles Martin and Steve pulled one ahead early on and then parked the bus to win one on time. The critics said we were playing too defensively but supporters said we ground out a necessary win. In the singles Julie and Andrew both shot into early leads but the opposition pulled back with late winning runs. All very tight – Guildford and Godalming were trailing by one at half time with all to play for. In the second half Julie played well dominating the game keeping most of the possession scoring a convincing winner to give the team hope. Our three other games went close. But Stephen was beaten by a wonder strike (a ball peeled and pegged out), Hilary was beaten by just one last minute shot in heavy rain and Andrew lost narrowly on time. Final score Guildford 2 Caterham 5. We played well but let’s hope England have a better result against Spain tomorrow! Report from Steve Stuart-Matthews.

Despite the forecast of light rain, Team A ventured to Southwick fully prepared to brave the adverse weather conditions to play our GC Advantage Handicap League match comprising 2 x doubles games, followed by 4 x singles and finally 1 x doubles and 2 x singles.

We arrived at lunchtime and after fueling our bodies, we optimised our doubles pairings to minimise Sussex County’s advantage.  We started cautiously with the first two doubles matches cancelling each other out, so 1 game each going into the first break.

After the short break, we achieved a clean sweep in the following singles matches which meant by the end of this second session, we had an unassailable lead. 

Having the match in the mallet bag we were all able to relax and enjoy the delights of our host’s hospitality (victoria sponge and lemon drizzle) before finishing off our opponents with a further rinsing in the last set of matches.

All in all an outstanding performance by Team A who convincingly overcame their initial trepidation of the Advantage starting scores. 

I’d like to thank my other team members (Douglas,  Andrew L, & John Bryson) for a very pleasant and memorable day out.

Bernie (the reluctant skipper).

It was one of the hottest days of the year (30 C), a beautiful day for croquet and the GC team from Cheam of John Horne (C), Ray Ore, Colin Helps and Ian Rees arrived well prepared for our R league match. The contest comprised the best of three games with 1 doubles and 2 singles in the morning followed by 4 singles in the afternoon, with each game having a time limit of one hour.

Our GGCC team comprised Bernie (‘the reluctant skipper’), Douglas, Peter and Hilary. Hilary made her feelings clear that she was only selected to meet the handicap criteria , referring to herself as the team ‘patsy’ and setting clear expectations about her (lack of) chances of success against her opposition who were 3 levels better than her on the GC handicapping system.

Whilst Douglas and I were winning our doubles match (7-6, 7-4) against John and Ray, Peter and Hilary took on Colin and Ian respectively. Peter suffered a time warp when playing a very slow Colin ‘the caterpillar’ with 2 of his 3 games running to the hour limit. Despite some respite in the second game, Peter could not overcome Colin’s warp factor and lost out 4-5, 7-4, 5-6. This game took over three hours to play and Peter may well have been thinking of his stomach as the rest of us had already finished our lunches by the time they came off the lawn.

Meanwhile, Hilary did not let her patsy status deter her from a convincing victory over Ian (7-5, 7-3) and giving GGCC a 2-1 lead going into the long awaited afternoon session.

Perhaps, Colin, now a sated hungry caterpillar, having eaten through some leaves and other foodstuffs at lunch was not such a slow caterpillar in the afternoon; he beat Hilary 7-4, 7-2.

Both Douglas’s and my games ran to 3 sets with Douglas being able to overcome a fightback from Ray to win (7-4, 5-7, 7-4). Unfortunately, even though I started well against John, I was unable to maintain my form and lost out (7-3, 3-7, 4-7)

Being last to finish I was relieved to find that Peter had romped the GGCC team over the line with a convincing victory over Ian (7-3, 7-4) making the final tally GGCC 4 Cheam 3.

Id like to thank all of the GGCC team for they brilliant contributions and I may consider being the reluctant skipper once again.

Bernie Phillips – 26 June 2024

It was a long journey down to Bristol on 21st June for our second round Longman Cup match in the national AC handicap competition, although with Martin Seidel on his motorbike the journey was reduced to less than two hours.  John  Gosden and Richard Perkins with a combined handicap of 20 (4 & 16) played the doubles against the Bristol pair, who also had a combined handicap of 20 (6 & 14).  The Bristol pair elected to play alternate strokes while we stuck to each playing our own ball.  This is the first year where this option has been widely permitted; previously the two teams had to agree on which option to adopt for both teams and stick to playing their own ball if they couldn’t agree.  Early on John was able to take his ball round to 4-back in a couple of turns.  In the remaining 2½ hours Richard and the Bristol pair made steady progress one hoop at a time, but Bristol never managed to recover this initial deficit and we were convincing winners +10 on time.  The two singles matches were much tighter with Martin Seidel prevailing +1 and Bernie Phillips +2, both on time. 

In the afternoon with the confidence from his victory in the morning Martin was first to finish, winning comfortably (+12), closely followed by John (+21).  The other two singles matches both went to time.  Bernie took an early lead of 16 points but his opponent slowly clawed his way back but as time was called was still two hoops behind.  In a hard-fought, low-scoring game Richard built a reasonable lead while his opponent was struggling to get both balls off the first hoop.  In the last hour she made steady progress to nearly catch up but in the end Richard won by 3. 

The final result was 7-0 to Guildford & Godalming.  Well done to all the team!  Now on to the quarter final.

On Friday 21 June Team B, consisting of David Boyd, Graham Lamacraft, Martin Birch and Roseann Sullivan played West Worthing at home.  It was a clear warm day, and the lawns were running fast.

West Worthing won both the first doubles matches.  In both cases the scores were very close.

The singles matches were also dominated by West Worthing. Graham won his match, and Martin and Roseann’s matches both timed out, with WW in the lead in both cases.

At this point it was time to enjoy the delicious whiskey cake baked by Maggie Boyd, from a family recipe.

The last set of matches saw mixed results.  Graham again won his single, however West Worthing won the other 2 matches.

By this time it was after 5:30PM, and all agreed it was an enjoyable afternoon.

On the evening of 12 June, the club was the venue of a corporate event held by Charle Russell Speechlys LLP. The night was clear, and the lawns looking great. Besides the drink and food provided by Charles Russell Speechlys, there was a short introduction to croquet as well as a mini tournament held. A good time was had by all.

It was a typical day for the summer of 2024 with some sunshine, some very threatening dark clouds, a rather chilly wind but it hotted up at times. Three intrepid croqueteers from GGCC – John Gosden, Peter Adams and Andrew Lockwood – made it to Woking Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for their B tournament for handicaps 3 and over. The sixteen entrants were broken into four groups of four to all play all in the morning on their four lawns – well two lawns and two lawn tennis courts which had their inconsistencies. John won all three of his morning group matches, with two going to the golden hoop. Peter and Andrew won two out of three and so all three progressed to the main knockout in the afternoon. John beat Andrew in his first tight match of the afternoon and then went on to beat Peter in the second round in another 7-6 thriller. Andrew went on to finish eighth, Peter played incredibly well to finish third. John was now in the final against the hard hitting Konstantin Yudintsev and it proved to be a compelling and hard fought final with John finally coming out the winner on another golden hoop!

Many congratulations to John on his win which qualifies him for his CQE GC Silver Merit badge and for the National B Level final later in the year.