The SECF level play league match played at Southwick on 7th July proved to be a one sided encounter. This was not surprising considering the handicap difference between the two teams totalled 47, the largest I can remember in many years of playing in this competition.
We must give credit to the visitors for being prepared to travel down with a team who each had a handicap of 10, to take on our minus players. In my email exchanges with their organiser I was told that they weren’t going to be a low handicap team but I wasn’t expecting quite such a difference!!
To avoid any individual embarrassment I won’t detail the scores in this report but will just give the overall picture.
Sussex A won the match 7-0 scoring 90 hoops to Medway’s 29 which included them winning a consolation game in one of the best of three singles.
The Medway team enjoyed their day out and appreciated our excellent lawns.
Richard Brooks (Sussex A captain)
Sussex County A entertained Merton at Southwick on 4th July in this SECF level play league match.
We started as favourites with our teams handicap totalling -5 compared to the opposition’s total of +7.
Our visitors had a good journey down from London and we were able to get the match underway a few minutes before the scheduled start time of 10.30.
By 11.30 we had completed the morning games with Sussex holding a 3-0 lead having won the each of the best of threes in two games.
Everyone decided that it was too early for lunch so after a short drinks break we played one game in each of the afternoons four singles. We were leading 1-0 in all of these singles when took lunch but Merton could have still have turned the match around if they won all of the possible remaining eight games!
It wasn’t to be for the visitors as soon after the resumption we had won three of them each by 2-0. Merton did get a consolation by winning the last to finish by 2-1.
So well done to my team for getting this 6-1 victory.
On a personal level I was pleased to reduce my handicap from -1 to -2 a position I’ve not held since April 2020 or three handicap cards back in my case!
Richard Brooks (Sussex A captain)
In the SECF R League, 2021 Champions SCCC got off to a good start with a 6-1 win away at Woking on Tuesday 21st June. A good morning session saw Tony Jolly (2) and David King (3) win their doubles match against Bernard Jones (2) and Max Byfield (4) by 2-0. In the singles, there were 2-0 wins for both Graham Tucker (6) against Maggie Boyd (10), and Linda Gavigan (6) against Richard Blythen (6). In the afternoon singles, Tony beat Bernard 2-0, Graham beat Richard 2-1, and Linda beat Maggie 2-0, while David lost 1-2 to Max. Graham’s two wins brought his handicap down to 5.
Matches are Level Play, best of three games. Total team handicaps must equal at least 16, with the two lowest handicaps on each team playing in the doubles. In the afternoon singles, matches are played between players in their handicap order.
David King
There was a small contingent of four players from SCCC at the Veterans' AC Tournament at Budleigh Salterton this year. Only Deborah and David stayed the week and they won the Gilbert Spoons doubles event. Congratulations to them.
The competition was in three divisions separated by handicap range.
The winner of Block A was Morgan Case; the winner of Block B was Vincent L’Estrange and the winner of Block. C was David Dickins. This was a first for Vincent and David.
Congratulations to all three and thanks to Fiona Phillips for managing the event.
| Block A | MC | RB | LF | CM | RW | TJ | DK | AS | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan Case | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | |
| Richard Brooks | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 6 | |
| Liz Farrow | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 | |
| Chrissie Merrington | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 8 | |
| Robin Wootton | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 2 | |
| Tony Jolly | 7 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 5 | |
| David King | 1 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 7 | |
| Andrew Stewart | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Block B | GT | GT | RF | LA | FA | VL | RE | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gavin Taylor | 3 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 | |
| Graham Tucker | 7 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | |
| Rosemary Faulkner | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 7 | |
| Les Ardley | 2 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 6 | |
| Francis Ainley | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 2 | |
| Vincent L'Estrange | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 1 | |
| Richard Ellis | 7 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Block C | CA | PB | CD | DD | TE | DC | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christine Ardley | 5 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 4 | |
| Paul Brown | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | |
| Carol Driver | 7 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 2 | |
| David Dickins | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 | |
| Trish Ellis | 6 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 6 | |
| David Comber | 3 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 |
AS originally published this article incorrectly stated this was a first win for Morgan Case in this event. In fact Morgan has won it several times in the past. Apologies to him for this error.
The MidSummer Short Croquet competition is cancelled due to lack of entries.
| A | RB&DK | FL&CM | AH< | BA&IS | TJ&FP | CK&AS | GT&RW | SN&BH | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Brooks & David King | 7 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Frances Low & Christine Merrington | 3 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 7 | ||
| Andrea Huxley & Louise Taylor | 7 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Brian Aikens & Ivan Segal | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 1 | ||
| Tony Jolly & Fiona Phillips | 7 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Cathy Kirkby & Andrew Stewart | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Gavin Taylor & Robin Wootton | 6 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 8 | ||
| Sue Nicholas & Beryl Hughes | 4 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 |
| B & C | AB&TJ | A&NG | SC&PM | DS&JR | A&FF | SF&FA | LG&RF | R&TE | GT&FB | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anne Bolland & Tony James | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 | |||||
| Anne & Noel Gill | 4 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | |||||
| Sue Caulfield & Pat Mechen | 5 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 2 | |||||
| Douglas Shand & J.Richardson | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 1 | |||||
| Andrew & Fiona Fall | 7 | 4 | 7 | 2 | |||||||
| Simon Fenn-Tye & Francis Ainley | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | |||||
| Linda Gavigan & Rosemary Faulkner | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | |||||||
| Richard & Trish Ellis | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 2 | |||||
| Graham Tucker & Fran Box | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
Sussex County visited Parkstone on Wednesday to play this match having only just been able to field a team due to holiday commitments and one player being prevented by Covid.
Having posted an appeal on both of the clubs low handicap WhatsApp groups we were very grateful when Ben volunteered to be our fourth player. With Ben’s recent inactivity due to his workload the rules stated that fifty points had to be deducted from his ranking total. This meant our player order was:-
1 Richard -1
2 Liz -1 Capt.
3 Roger 0
4 Ben 2
East Dorset were able to field a much stronger team on paper:-
1 Jonathan Powe -4
2 Steve Leonard -3
3 David Kendrick -2
4 Keith Southern 1 Capt.
For those unfamiliar with the format the top two on each side play a doubles then a singles against their opposite number. The third and fourth each play two singles crossing over the opponents for the second round.
Each round consists of a best of three games.
Although East Dorset’s doubles pairing had a considerable handicap advantage, the Sussex pair had more experience having played more than double the total number of GC ranking games and they were able to put this to good use.
After a tight first game which Sussex won 7-6, I think we took command of the second at the fifth hoop which Richard scored with a good jump shot over both opponent balls to lead 4-1. East Dorset fought hard to recover but we held on to win 7-4.
We went into the lunch break with a 2-1 lead in the match, Roger having won his match 7-2, 7-6 but unfortunately Ben losing 4-7, 3-7.
The afternoon session began with us needing two wins
After a good start Richard lost his singles 7-3, 6-7, 3-7.
Liz had a very good win against her -3 opponent 7-6, 3-7, 7-4.
Roger lost his singles 7-3, 4-7, 5-7.
Ben was our saviour winning 7-6, 3-7, 7-4.
This was an unexpected win for us and we owe thanks to Roger for his commitment in travelling down and playing with his knee causing him a lot of discomfort. Also thanks to Ben for coming in at short notice and with little recent playing experience getting a vital win!
Well done everybody
Richard Brooks
100 CLUB WINNERS
Summer Draw
1st Prize £100 No. 32 ……Jim Mortell
2nd Prize £75 No. 8…….Paul Brown
3rd Prize £50 No. 57…..Nick Hamilton
Wednesday June 8th;
Wednesday June 15th;
Wednesday June 29th.
I need someone to manage the roll up on Wednesday 29th when I shall be away.
There will be no evening Roll Up on Wednesday 22nd June.
There will be no evening Roll Up on Tuesdays in June.
WE WILL REVERT TO TUESDAY EVENINGS ON 5th JULY
Graham Tucker