On Friday the Sussex County A team secured a close win against Tunbridge Wells and so we have won the league title for the second year running.
Ian Cobbold had to win the final match to confirm our victory and this went all the way to the thirteenth hoop in the third game of his best of three match.
Having won our previous matches against Surbiton 5-2 , Woking 4 - 3, and Compton 7-0 we are now in a position where we cannot be caught.
Thanks to all my team members Richard Brooks, Liz Farrow, Chris Coull, Ian Cobbold, and Jonathan Isaacs for another successful season.
Roger
Please put the following dates in your diaries!
October 18th GC level play singles
November 1st GC level play doubles
November 22nd GC level play singles
More details nearer the dates.
All the above should be entered on-line on the Club's website.
Roger Sutton
The Sussex County GC team under a new captain this year (Richard Brooks), who had been invited by his predecessor Bill Arliss to take over the roll, were very pleased to bounce straight back into division 1 after last year's disappointment of relegation. Bill had decided to retire from the role after many years of service to the County side and I would like to personally thank him for inviting me to join the team over a decade ago.
Having checked on players likely availability I decided that my policy this year would be to give as many as possible the opportunity to represent the County. Therefore I selected the full complement of 8, using 5 each day. Only two players, Liz Farrow and myself played both days. On Saturday we were joined by Roger Sutton, Ian Cobbold and Chris Heath. Sunday’s team included Mark Hamilton, Ben Harwood and Chrissie Merrington.
Having adopted this selection policy I must admit that I found it quite challenging to produce a playing schedule that fulfilled the requirements of the competition and gave everyone as equal a number of games as possible. However I was able to send everyone a copy of the playing schedule in advance of the event, albeit only a couple of days before! Now the details
On the first day the captain was able to lead from the front with with 4 good wins out 5 and Liz followed suit with 4 out of 5. The others managed 3, 2 & 1 game wins between which was enough to place us in third overnight, with 3 match wins. At this point I should explain to those who aren’t familiar with the scoring method used for the Counties, that each match between teams comprises of 1 doubles and 2 singles games. As ties are not permitted the result will always be a win or loss by 3-0 or 2-1.
On the second day the captain had lost his mojo losing his 3 games, 2 of them at the 13th hoop. Liz maintained her consistency winning 2 out of 3. Now we must congratulate our other three players Mark, and newbies to the County side, Ben and Chrissie who got us over the winning line. They all put their hearts and souls into it showing great determination, winning some tense games sometimes at the 13th hoop. I think they might have felt they had a point to prove in justifying there selection, which they achieved admirably. In fact Ben and Mark finished the day unbeaten on 4 and 3 game wins respectively.
Our team finished clear winners with 7 out of 10 match wins one ahead of both Essex and Buckinghamshire in joint second place. There is a method of determining the places of those on an equal number of match wins which I won’t attempt to explain and bore you with here, as it didn’t concern us!
Finally l congratulate all of my team members but warn them, as those of us who have been there before know, it is gets much tougher in the first division. We will be pleased to welcome the services of Peter Dowd next year who has recently moved to Eastbourne and has indicated that he will be eligible and would like to join our squad. Peter is a top 30 GC player with a higher ranking than any of our current side so competition for places will get tougher!
Trophy presentation at Compton Croquet Club (photo: Chris Roberts)
The original competition in August was cancelled due to expected heavy winds and rain.
A New date! You are invited to play in an AC 14pt level or handicap singles competition on 4th September 2019 SCCC members £10, non-members £15 |
If you entered the August competition and have told me you wish to enter this new date, there is no need to do anything; I will have transferred your entry details.
Otherwise, you can enter on-line on the SCCC website.
You can check whether you have already entered here.
Sussex Members: why not forsake the usual AC roll-up on this day, give a tenner to the club and play in this competition instead??? |
All AC handicaps accepted. Do come along and have an enjoyable day.
John Low
opentournaments@sussexcountycroquetclub.org.uk
Sorry but due to the very poor weather forecast for Wednesday,
this competition is cancelled.
We are hoping to run it on another date shortly and I will let you all know that that is decided.
This is the new August!
John
Such an event as this can hardly go unrecorded on this website so if anyone has any pictures from the week they wish to publish to record the event, do please send them to the Webmaster.
Eventually I will move this pictures to an album under the photo section of the website, but for the present they are easier to see as a whole in an article.
Two photos sent in by Ray Hall.
Opening Ceremony (photo: Ray Hall)
(photo: Ray Hall)
Thanks to Chris Bailey for sending in these next shots.
(Southwick Buzz. photo: Chris Bailey)
Macey White (photo: Chris Bailey)
Stephen Mulliner (photo: Chris Bailey)
Toby Savage (photo: Chris Bailey)
(photo: Chris Bailey)
Fathi Farouk (photo: Chris Bailey)
Charlie von Schmieder (photo: Chris Bailey)
Phil Harrison has kindly sent in a clip of Mohamed Karem in the final; his red clears Ben Rothman’s blue, hits black and ends in the hoop!!
Video not playing: click here
Finally a selection of photos taken by Gerry Gavigan during the Final.
Mohamed Karem strikes red. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
Ben Rothman taking aim. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
Close-up of Mahamed Karem's grip. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
Euan Burridge, winner of the Plate. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
Shield winner Duncan Dixon. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
Bowl winner George Coulter. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
Losing Finalist Mohamed Karem. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
GC World Champion 2019 Ben Rothman. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
All trophy winners. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
The Champion. (photo: Gerry Gavigan)
CONGRATULATIONS
to Liz Farrow
and Richard Brooks who have both qualified for the GC Worlds 2019 tournament starting Saturday at Southwick, Compton, West Worthing and Tunbridge Wells.
You can come and support them at Southwick when they play: Liz is competing at Southwick on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday morning; Richard is competing at Southwick on Sunday and Tuesday.
If you want to cheer them at the other three venues, all of which they will visit during the five block days, see the schedule here.
We wish them both all the success in the world.
Wednesday and Thursday saw two busy days on the lawns at Southwick with all the Annual Tournament events on both days and the GC roll-up on Thursday adding another 40 or so players on the lawns.
The weather was lovely and players agreed the lawns were in excellent condition "a joy to play on!"
Two blocks played for the Jellicorse Cup. A bye in one block meant some waiting for the other block but a mini-contest of 9pt games occupied the time, the winner gaining a bottle of wine.
In the end a single game final only was played between the block winners Charlie von Schmieder and Morgan Case. The smart money was on Charlie to win but aggressive play from Morgann carried the day. Congratulations to him for winning the competition.
A Level Block A | RB | RC | DG | JI | CM | CvS | KW | Wins | Net Hoops |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Richard Brooks | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 10 | |
RobertT Clark | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 11 | |
Daphne Gaitley | 3 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | -2 | |
Jonathan Isaacs | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 2 | -4 | |
Christine Merrington | 6 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 1 | -7 | |
Charlie von Schmieder | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 14 | |
Keith Webb | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -22 |
A Level Block B | DB | TB | TJ | SL | RS | MC | Wins | Net Hoops |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Don Beck | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 6 | |
Tony Butcher | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | -18 | |
Tony Jolly | 6 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | -2 | |
Stephen Leonard | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 3 | -2 | |
Roger Sutton | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 5 | |
Morgan Case | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 11 |
Final: Morgan Case 7, Charlie von Schmieder 5
Eight players contested the GC competition at B level. Two players, Michelle Leonard and Graham Tucker won 5 out of 7 games but Michelle just had the edge in net hoops scored (11-9) so she was declared the winner.
B Level Block | BC | LG | JG | DK | ML | LM | AS | GT | Wins | Net Hoops |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bruce Carr | 7 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 2 | -12 | |
Linda Gavigan | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | -21 | |
John Gosden | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 2 | |
David King | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | |
Michelle Leonard | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 11 | |
Laki Marangos | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | |
Andrew Stewart | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | |
Graham Tucker | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
A small but high-quality field competed for the Abbey Challenge Cup this year. The competition was organised as a single block with players having the option to play best of three matches if they liked. Spaces in the day were also filled by a one-ball competition; Paul Castell won the Manager's bottle of wine.
The cup winner was Joel Taylor who won all his of his matches. Congratulations to him.
A Level | PC | CC | GD | GF | OH | CO | JT | Wins | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Paul Castell | 25 | 1 | 23 | 26tp | 26 | 15 | 2 | 6 | |
Chris Coull | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26tpo | 26tp | 0 | 5 | 2 | |
Gareth Denyer | 26 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 26 | 19 | 2 | 5 | |
Graeme Fisher | 26 | 3 | 26 | 14 | 19 | 4 | 2 | 4 | |
Omied Hallam | 24 | 18 | 26 | 26 | 26, 26tp | 26, 0, 9 | 5 | 3 | |
Chris O'Byrne | 9 | 0 | 23 | 26stp | 1, 0 | 6 | 1 | 7 | |
Joel Taylor | 26 | 26tp | 26tp | 26 | 15, 26tp, 26tp | 26tp | 7 | 1 |
Another small entry but a well-fought competition. Phil Dunk was on good form and it quickly became clear he was the man to beat. No-one did and only Chris Rolph came close, in what was an enjoyable final match.
B Level | PD | LF | RH | CH | DH | CR | Wins | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phil Dunk | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 5 | 1 | |
Liz Farrow | 6 | 26 | 26 | 24 | 26 | 4 | 2 | |
Ray Hall | 3 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 15 | 0 | 6 | |
Clive Hayton | 9 | 9 | 26 | 26 | 21 | 2 | 4 | |
David Houston | 9 | 18 | 26 | 10 | 11 | 1 | 5 | |
Christopher Rolph | 21 | 17 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 3 | 3 |
14 point AC one day tournament comes to Southwick
Wednesday 14th August 2019
This is the second one day AC tournament and a chance to play on our lawns
Which are in superb condition ‘The best set of lawns I’ve ever played on’ is a quote from Reg Bamford at the recent Open championships
This tournament is open to all AC players of any handicap level.
(Premium or standard membership of the CA is not required for this event.)
Format: 5 x 14 point games with format (Blocks, Flexible Swiss or Egyptian) depending on number of entries and handicap range. (Ideally level play for low handicap players and hcp for higher handicap players.)
Timing: Start 9.30am
Prizegiving 6.15pm
Cost: £15 (£10 for SCCC members) including tea, coffee and biscuits
A light lunch will be available for £5
To book online please go to the Sussex CCC website :
http://sussexcountycroquetclub.org.uk/plugins/tournaments/entry1.php
The club calendar of events and lawn availability has been fully integrated into the club website and can be reached by clicking the link View club calendar of events and lawns. This can be found in the new box in the righthand sidebar if visible, or by scrolling down the mobile/tablet display. The current month will be displayed . For different month select the month you wish to view and click Show Calendar. This option will be below the calendar. If no calendar is yet available for the month you want you will see an on-screen message to that effect.
The feature is maintained by Francis Ainley and he can be contacted with information or corrections on francis@sussexcountycroquetclub.org.uk or on his private email address.
Club Secretary Liz advises that Members please note the following points:
1.The on-line calendar is now the definitive calendar, i.e. it has precedence over any paper notices that may exist.
2. It is members' responsibility to check the calendar as needed, as updates will be made as and when required
3. Members must inform us of any changes needed to the calendar and to please provide information in the form published, i.e. date, time, event, any special comments and estimate of lawns required.This refers to lawns required for Academy, League and Interclub matches for SECF, CA and Friendlies as well as Club Social events and Corporates. Information can be mailed to Francis as indicated above.
It is not the intention for it to be used as a booking system for internal matches or games. Continue as usual with these by adding them to the paper calendar. The online version will give you more idea of lawn availability to aid your planning.