Short Croquet Mini-competition 24th April 2023

The Short Croquet inaugural Alternate Stroke handicap doubles took place on 24th April. 16 players took part, 8 pairs so a good entry. There were 2 blocks and each block had 3 x 14 point games of 1 hour 20 mins. Block One was won by Bob and Robyn Clark with 3 wins, and Block Two was won by Frances Low and Martin Daniels with 3 wins. As time was short, we decided not to play a final so 2 block winners were declared!

Thanks to all the players, particularly those who have just started the game. I am of course grateful to the experienced players who helped and supported them. I hope we all learnt something!

Anyone interested in starting short croquet, please contact me. It is good fun, challenging and will give you access to many different shots which are useful in GC as well!

Frances Low (Manager) 

Thanks very much to Frances for managing the competition.

Full results

Frances Low and Martin Daniels with prizes

Bob and Robyn Clark

17 April 2023 GC level play singles

A very enjoyable day was had by all (even myself who won precidely zero games )

Play was sensibly arranged in three divisions with two blocks in each division; five games in the blocks and a single crossover game in each division to decide the winner.

Thanks to Richard Brooks for being the Tournament Referee and to Linda Gavigan for her able management.

The top block was won by Tony Jolly with a well-deserved win over Richard Brooks 7-6.

The middle block was won by Bridget Goodman who beat Andrea Huxley 7-5

The third block was won by Martin Daniels (a player to watch I believe!) who beat Francis Ainley 7-6

Congratulations to all three for their wins.

Light lunch was kindly provided by Angela Avis with Nira Scutt and Martin Avis. Thanks very much to them.

Full results

Division Finals

Division 1: Tony Jolly beat Richard Brooks 7-6

Division 2: Bridget Goodman beat Andrea Huxley 7-4

Division 3: Martin Daniels beat Francis Einley 7-6

Other cross-block games:

Noel Gill beat Andrew Wilson 7-5
Morgan Case beat Jonathan Isaacs 7-2
Charles Sale beat Chrissie Merrington 7-3
Liz Farrow beat Andrew Stewart 7-6
John Gosden beat Sara Anderson 7-4
Laki Marengos beat Vincent L'Estrange 7-6
Beryl Hughes beat John Low 7-4
David King beat Jane Powell 7-5
David Dickins beat Paul Green 7-4
Rosemary Faulkner beat Paul Brown 7-3
Narmada de Silva beat Helen Wilson 7-3

AC Advanced Weekend Competiton 15-16 April 2023

Congratulations to Joel Taylor who beat Gabrielle Higgins in the final 26tp - 0, 0-26, 26-20.

Thanks to Dominic Nunns for managing the event and to the lunch teams of Rachel Pointon and Jo Mander on Saturday and Karen Hayton, Angela and Martin Avis on Sunday.

Manager Dominic Nunns writes:

22 participants braved the weather for the Southwick Salver weekend, a season-opening event with a considerable tradition - the names of several world champions grace the salver itself, but the wider tournament has always embraced players of varying handicaps, in part through the use of the ‘Egyptian’ format consolation. After heavy rain prior to the event the players were rewarded with no rain during the event and even a small amount of sunshine.

In the first semi-final to finish, second seed Joel Taylor (Roehampton) came back from a game down to defeat no.3 seed Dom Nunns (Sussex County) 2-1 with highly efficient and accurate break play. The other semi saw an elongated and dramatic match between two players with recent Antipodean success behind them. Local hero Gabrielle Higgins (no.5 seed) eventually beat the world number 3 Jamie Burch (Reigate) in a final game three-ball ending.

The final between Gabrielle and Joel also went all the way to a third game, following the sharing of two manager-pleasingly one-sided games. Gabrielle then took the early initiative, but Joel eventually reported, "I won game 3 +6. Gabs broke down on a TP having done one peel. I completed the peels and then won the three-ball ending after quite a lot of back and forth."

The Egyptian was won by Teddy Wilmot-Sitwell (Winterborne Valley / Dulwich). Although the games were Level Advanced, Teddy’s handicap of 4.5 meant that his starting rating was such that strong performances against scratch players or better would put him in contention under the somewhat esoteric scoring system. He thoroughly deserved his win after scoring a maximum 9 points in his final game for beating Tudor Jenkins, a -1 handicap who had shown some signs of excellent form himself in the early rounds of the knockout. Honourable mentions go to Alan Chance and Paul Castell, both of whom actually won all of their Egyptian games but were nonetheless unable to surpass Teddy's total and finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Full results

Consolation event

Played as an Egyptian.

Advantage GC Doubles 7th April 2023

The competition was won by Liz Drury and Tony James who beat Victoria Yudintseva and Konstantin Yudintsev in the final 7-6.

Thanks to Roger Sutton for managing the event. Pictures below thanks to Vincent L'Estrange.

Full Results

The Plate

Konstantin Yudintsev & Victoria Yudintseva

Fiona & Andrew Fall

Pat Mechen & Sue Caulfield

Manager Roger Sutton

Fancy doing some painting? Please contact Richard Pointon to join our team to smarten up the clubhouse for the summer

Opening Day

The summer season started on Saturday 1 April with the now traditional match between the President's team and the Chairman's team. There were 13 players on each side playing a single game of GC or AC, singles or doubles.

After a recent run of wins by the President's team, this year the Chairman's team prevailed 7-5. (See scoreboard attached)

Despite a lot of rain in the previous days and earlier in the morning, the lawns were playing very well (well done Ben and team) and the rain had stopped in time for our 11.30 start to events.

Many thanks to all who participated and, in particular, thanks to Angela and Chrissy for providing a lovely lunch and to Di for looking after the bar.

Clive

Final Winter Doubles Competition 24th March 2023

Thanks to Vincent for successfully managing a rain-free competition. He reports:
A full complement of 20 pairs entered our final Winter Doubles. Despite a gloomy forecast (and the manager's record with the weather) we enjoyed wall-to-wall sunshine although it was quite windy in the afternoon. There were some very long (or slow?) but close games and it was almost 5pm when the last match finished. Interestingly, 50% of the games ended 7-6 or 7-5.

There were 6 pairs in Block A which was won by Simon Ancell and Chrissie Merrington with 4 wins. 

Block B had 8 pairs and after 5 rounds Liz Drury & Tony James and Beryl Hughes & Gavin Taylor each had 4 wins. As they hadn't played each other there was a play off, won 7-3 by Liz & Tony.

Block C was won by Fran Box & Anne Bolland (who also won their block in the last doubles) with 4 wins from their 5 matches.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all for taking part (who was it who said that it's not the winning it's the taking part?).

Many thanks also to Karen, Linda and Arthur for providing a warming bowl of soup at lunchtime.

​Vincent
 

Full results

Advantage GC Competition 17th March 2023

Congratulations to Roger Sutton and Richard Carline for the excellent and most successful GC competition played with the Advantage scoring system.  Most players appeared to get to grips with the scoring arrangements and no doubt we will see more of Advantage GC on our lawns this season.

Roger organised the event as 5 blocks of four players who played each other in the morning session. The afternoon was a knockout of the block winners and 3 best losers, with the remainder playing  a loose Swiss format plate.

The main event was won by Paul Brown in grand style; at 6:6 and with his opponent David Dickins in control at the final hoop Paul pulled of a clearance from the other end of the court to stay in the game. After further jostling for position around the hoop in which it appeared David would succeed but a positional (and perhaps tactical) error gave Paul the chance to make the final hoop. Congratulations to Paul for winning and to David for making it an interesting final to watch.

Two players were awarded prizes in the Plate event, to Francis Ainley and to Narmada de Silva. Congratulations to then both.

Francis Ainley

Narmada de Silva

This was the first time an Advantage GC handicap competition has been played at Southwick and its success was down to the excellent organisation and preparation. In particular, the work that Richard Carline did in designing and producing his Advantage Posts and starting score cards made a huge difference to playing the game. The writer was somewhat sceptical when told about the system earlier but having played with it is a complete convert. It was so useful to be able to refer to the starting score card - particularly when starting with a minus score - to keep your actual score in your head; the cards made it far easier than looking for clips on peg and post. Thanks Richard for the time and effort put into this. We hope to have further information on his sytem on the website in the near future.

I got the inpression most players came away with a positive view of the Advantage handicap system, in comparison to extra turn format. Please be encouraged to try it out!
 

Results in full

Knockout Stage

Games played in the Plate Event

John Low  beat Sheona McArthur 7-6
Peter Goldsmith beat Victoria Yudintseva 7-5
Peter Goldsmith beat Susan Kilby 7-5 Susan Kilby beat Victoria Yudintseva 7-5
Jim Mander beat Susan Kilby 7-6
Jim Mander beat Peter Goldsmith 7-2
Laki Marangos beat John Munt 7-6
Laki Marangos beat John Low 7-6
John Munt beat Sheona McArthur 7-5
Chris Heath beat Mark Hamilton 7-6
Francis Ainley beat Diana Rolfe 7-4
Francis Ainley beat Chris Heath 7-2
Philip Harrison beat Diana Rolfe 7-6
Diana Rolfe beat David King 7-1

Some pictures from the event

Court equipment ready for play

David Dickins and Paul Brown at the 5th hoop

Paul shooting to save the match

The winning shot

Help, the ladies' washroom is sinking!

In recent weeks the Working Party has been busy rescuing the back of the clubhouse. Old age and a long term water leak from the ladies' changing room facilities had rotted the main beam supporting the back wall of the clubhouse. It needed to be replaced, so, rather like repairing a flat tyre on your car, the back of the building was jacked up and a new beam fitted. Thanks to Ray Hall for pictures of this interesting operation.

And thanks to all the Working Party for carrying it out. They work all winter on these sorts of jobs and could be forgiven if they felt undervalued by members, as they d a huge amount of vital maintenance work. So thank you all!

First beam removed

Preparing to remove the next beam

Supporting the building with a jack

Putting the jack in place

Needs to be absolutely right!

The jack takes the strain

Damaged beam

Removing the beam

Preparing the brick supports

Cleaning them up.

Last beam coming out

Nearly there!

Brick support ready for cleaning up

The new beam

Rebuilding the brick supports

Preparing the damp proof course

It's got to be level!

Finishing the brick supports

Ready to lift into place

Ready to slide in

Nearly there

New beam in place

The jacks come out

The finished beam in place

GC Singles Competitions on 3rd and 4th March

The overwhelming response of entries to the original competition meant it was decided to split the event into two on two consecutive days so that everyone could play (some on both days!).

Friday's event was managed by Roger; thanks to him for that and to the catering team of Linda Davies, Rosemany Faulkner and Marion King. Roger reports that the weather was cold but dry. There were 20 contestants split into two groups of 10; these were then seeded and split into two groups of 5 and then played cross blocks.

Morgan Case was the winner of Block A1 with an impressive 5 wins, with Charles Sale second with 3 wins.
Block A2 was a closer affair with Ian Cobbold winning with 3 wins and +5 hoops and  Richard Brooks second with 3 wins +2 hoops.
Block B1 again was close with Francis Ainley winning with 4 wins +13 hoops and Paul Green second with 4 wins +12 hoops. Block B2 had an run away winner, Simon Fenn-Tye with 4 wins and +10 hoops.

Congratulations to the winners.

Saturday's event was very smoothly managed by Vincent L'Estrange (no rain today!!). The catering team was Angela Avis and Karen Hayton. Thanks to all three for making the competition possible.

Vincent reported that  there was a full turnout of 24 for our second GC Singles Tournament in 2 days, demonstrating how popular they are. Yet again, there were requests for more Saturday events (Committee, please take note - Webmaster). Three groups of 8 completed 5 rounds by which time clear winners had emerged so a final round was not played (most people were cold enough already).

Despite the cold there was some excellent croquet played, especially by the winners who dominated their groups: Group A Bob Clark, 5 wins, net hoops +17; Group B Simon Ancell 5 wins +16; Group C Martin Daniels 5 wins +20. Congratulations to all three.

Thanks to the catering team for a warming bowl of soup at lunchtime.

Full results for both days

A few pictures of the event

Briefing before play

Bob Clark

John Low

Martin Avis

Karen Hayton & Angela Avis

Martin Daniels, Konstantin Yudintsev & Victoria Yudintseva at lunch

Gavin Taylor & Frances Low at lunch

Manager Vincent L'Estrange

Paul Green

Steve Chapman & Mark Hamilton