Irrigation installation is under way

This could not have happened without the financial support received from club members, friends and the CA.  Special thanks goes to Andrew Jackson, and Julie Tremble for obtaining the relevant permissions, researching and sourcing the system and equipment, as well as project management.

And of course many thanks to the number of club members who have volunteered their time and effort to help install the system, in less then ideal weather conditions.        The current date for completion is 21st April.

Installing water pipes
Club members installing irrigation pipework

AGM date

Our AGM will be held on Sunday 26th March at 4pm, via Zoom. Please make a note of this in your diaries, as we need to have a quorum to agree the accounts, reports and resolutions.

If you are unfamiliar with Zoom don’t worry – we will give you guidance/instructions to make it easy to join in.

More information to follow…..

Award Presentation

On Sunday 13th November, the presentation of awards for the summer competitions were held. Prizes and trophies were distributed by Mike Huxley. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon and the approximately 25 attendees were treated to home made cakes. All in all, a good afternoon.

The roll of honour for this year is as follows:

  • Handicap Knockout: Phil Davies
  • Pat’s Plate: John Gosden
  • Singles Knockout (EARS Trophy): Julie Tremble
  • Doubles Knockout (JAWS Trophy): Julie and Phil Tremble
  • Handicap Summer League (Amanda Bentley Trophy): Bernie Phillips
  • Summer Level Play League: Stephen Stuart-Matthews
  • Applewood Bowl: Peter Gill
  • Charity One Ball: Stephen Stuart-Matthews
  • PJ’s Pot Vernon Salt

Fantastic quiz night!

A very overdue thank you to Julie Tremble and Jan Honeysett for organising such a successful and enjoyable quiz night on 15th October.

The magnificent profit of nearly £1500, will be a very useful addition to our irrigation project fund.

Thanks to all members who attended, brought friends and relations, and contributed items for the raffle.

GGCC Golf Croquet A-level: CARA Cup

Owing to a few late withdrawals the field for GGCC’s Final tournament of the year was reduced to 12.  Lawn conditions were challenging after the prolonged drought, though there were signs of recovery.  Lawn speed estimated to be around 12 Plummers.  Players’ handicaps were hcp 0 (1), hcp 1 (2) hcp 2 (5) and hcp 3(4).  The format was all-play-all, meaning a relaxed 6 games on the first day and 5 on the second.

Fun fact #1:     All 12 players had surnames with initials between B (Bagni) and J (Johnson) What’s the chance of that happening?

Day 1 was played in perfect weather conditions.  Dry all day and neither too hot nor too breezy.  Play was brisk and results were clear cut

Fun fact #2:     In the 18 games played before lunch, there were NO 7-6 results and only 2 scores of 7-5.  Another one for the statisticians?

The afternoon session saw some closer games and a few front runners appearing:

Thomas Halliday (6 wins out of 6), John Gosden (5/6) and Chris Jackson (5/6) led the field overnight.

Day 2 dawned with clouds and a threat of possible storms.  Luckily, only one materialised, though it was enough to send players running for cover for five minutes.  It seemed that Thomas Halliday was going to walk away with the trophy until he had a reversal of fortune in round 8, being comprehensively beaten by Phil Davies.  John Gosden, meanwhile, won his seventh game on the trot leaving himself and Thomas tied on 7 wins out of 8.  Each of them won their next two games and set up a thrilling finish.  With one game to play, John and Thomas had identical records:  9 wins out of 10 and net hoops +27.  

John had to better Thomas’ result because John’s only loss had been to Thomas in Round 1.  

The stage was set.  Thomas playing Chris Jackson and John playing Helena Jansson.  It was nail biting stuff all the way.  At one point, Thomas was 4-6 down to Chris and John was in a tough battle against a very determined Helena.  Thomas then rallied and won 7-6.  At that point, John was trailing Helena by 3-5.  The only way he could win the tournament was by taking the last four hoops, and this proved to be one step too far.  It was an absorbing end to what I believe was a successful tournament, enjoyed by the competitors.

  1. Thomas Halliday 10 wins/11
  2. John Gosden 9/11
  3. Ross Bagni 7/11 and net hoops +18
  4. Chris Jackson 7/11 and net hoops +8       

Mike Huxley

Manager

SECF U League vs Reigate Priory

It was another nail-biting finish for the GGCC AC team comprising John Gosden, Andrew Fewster, Peter Adams and Julie Tremble in our last SECF U-league match of the season. In the morning John & Julie won the doubles but we lost the two singles matches making us 1-2 down at lunch. In the afternoon Julie completed her game by pegging out and Peter was comfortably ahead in his match. John was also ahead with both balls on rover but his opponent was steadily catching up. Unfortunately his opponent managed to make 3 hoops in the last 5 minutes to pip him by one on time, resulting in a 3-4 match loss for GGCC.

GC Team B win their final game!

The lawns were still like concrete, despite the odd shower, as we welcomed West Worthing for our last game in the SECF handicap league.

Our team, Peter Adams, Ian ”one-I” Taylor, John Bryson and Lynn Edge, had some convincing wins during the course of a very hot morning, culminating in an overall win of 5.5 to 3.5.

Everyone then retreated to the ever decreasing shade for a well deserved picnic lunch.

With 3 wins out of 4 this year, Team B have performed well, although are unlikely to win the league this time (we must give other clubs a chance!) .

WCF Tier 3

Guildford and Godalming Croquet Club, hosted the much anticipated World Croquet Federation’s Golf Croquet World Team Championship Tier 3 2020  (that is correct, 2 years late due to covid).

The tournament was scheduled for 21-23 July 2022 with teams from Czech Republic, Iran, Mexico, and Portugal.  Shortly before the tournament was to start it became apparent visas for the Iran team would not arrive in time and only one person qualified for the team would be able to come. It was agreed Omied Hallam would captain the unofficial Iranian team, dubbed “Iran Plus”, and the remainder of the team would be drawn from GGCC members, John Gosden, Jan Honeysett, Andrea Huxley, Andrew Lockwood, Bernie Phillips, Stephen Stuart-Matthews, and Julie Tremble.

The Iranian Plus team did GGCC proud, drawing with Mexico.  The official outcome was Mexico gold, Portugal silver and Czech Republic bronze.

At the end of the tournament, the players voiced their appreciation to the club for the welcome, and hosting of the event.  It was deemed a success, enjoyed by players, volunteers and spectators alike, which would not have happened without the huge effort put in by GGCC volunteers.

Opening Ceremony

AC – Watford Annual Tour – 29th July

For the second year GGCC hosted a team of 5 players from the Watford club as part of their annual tour. The challenging conditions of ultra-fast lawns resulted in the 9 games having very low scores with often the identity of the player leading changing in the closing moments of a game. The notable exception was Robert who pegged out in the morning and also won his afternoon game. One game failed to finish so with both teams each having 4 wins the fixture was declared a draw.  GGCC was represented by Hilary, Peter A, Andrew F, Ian F and Robert B.

AC SECF U League vs Purley Bury

An AC Team comprising Stephen Stuart-Matthews, John Gosden, Andrew Fewster and Ian Fugeman played away against Purley Bury in the SECF U League on 28th July and achieved a close and successful result by winning 4:3.  The dry weather had created challenging lawns which often took both our and the home team players by surprise. An enjoyable day with an excellent lunch and hospitality.