South East Croquet Federation - GC Handicap League (West)

The Club participated in the GC Handicap League (West)
 run by the SECF. The draw included matches against  Compton, Guildford & Godalming B, Hassocks (withdrew) and West Worthing. Each team comprised 4 players with 3 rounds played - Round 1 (2 Doubles), Round 2 (4 Singles) and Round 3 (1 Doubles and 2 Singles).
 Games were best of 13 points with extra turns allocated against player handicaps. The matches were played between July and September.

The Club performed reasonably well with very narrow
 4 - 5 losses against West Worthing and Guildford & Godalming B. Our best was saved for the last match when we beat Compton 7 - 2. 

Thanks to Sandra Towner (+9), Francis Ainley (+8), Mike
 Akester (+6), Nigel Barton (+6) and Phil Harrison (+5) who represented The Club during the campaign.

Phil Harrison

As a mark of respect at the news on Jane Rimmington's death we are postponing this tournament.

Further news in due course.

SCCC GC Open Championship

Full results

Championship Knockout

Other Results

 Cross-block matches

For those competitors who did not make the cut there was a consolation event with plate and bowl awards.

The plate was won by Paul Durkin who beat Andrew Dymond 7-3. The bowl was won by Keith Pound.

Full Consolation Results

SCCC beat Reigate Priory 7-0 in the SECF "R" League.

SCCC followed up their two previous 6-1 victories with a convincing 7-0 win against Reigate Priory at Southwick (Fri 9 Sept). The SCCC team was Tony Jolly (2), Andrew Fall (3), Phil Harrison (5) and Graham Tucker (6)

In the morning doubles, Tony & Andrew took on John Bristow (2) and Phil Davies (3). Tony & Andrew won the first game 7-5, and went 5-1 up in the second, but John & Phil D made a great comeback to take the game 5-7 and level the match. SCCC got ahead in the third and at 6-3 up Andrew took a hard hit shot from 17 yards that struck the upright very hard, spun into the jaws and trickled through the hoop to clinch the match. Both singles also went SCCC's way, with Phil H beating Lorna Jenkins (9) 2-0, and Graham beating Freda Knight (7) by the same score.

After the lunch break, SCCC continued as before with 2-0 wins for Andrew against Phil Davies, Phil H against Freda, and Graham, in his first competitive match since returning from NZ, against Lorna. Andrew was pleased to avenge previous defeats to Phil D this season. Meanwhile Tony and John were still battling away in their match, for their second decider of the day, after Tony took the first game 7-4 and John the second 5-7. This final game went to the wire, with Tony managing to squeeze through by 7-6, to give SCCC a clean sweep.

One match remains for SCCC in this League, a difficult away match at Ealing.

Report by David King

SCCC reach Final of CA GC Federations Shield

SCCC followed up their win against Broadwas, with another good win in a close handicap match (2 Sept) against Crake Valley (Lake District) by 3-2 in the Semi-Final of the CA GC Federations Shield, where they will now travel to play Phylis Court in the Final.

In order to schedule the game, despite the distance between the teams, the clubs had agreed to play the match with 3 players a side, rather than the usual 4. Crake Valleys's captain, David Cornes, was already coming to Sussex to play in the B Level Final at Eastbourne on 4th & 5th Sept supported by 2 team mates, so agreed to play here while in Sussex.

In the morning games, Linda Gavigan (7) fought hard to beat Frank Sharps (5) 7-6, 7-6, while Tony Jolly (2) and Simon Ancell (6) lost a close encounter to David Cornes (1) & Sandra Cornes (6) 7-3, 5-7, 6-7, .to break off with a 1 - 1 scoreline.

After a pleasant, light lunch and a friendly chat, play resumed with the remaining 3 singles matches. Tony Jolly gained some revenge for his doubles loss, by holding on to beat David Cornes, 7-4 7-5 , while Linda Gavigan lost out to Sandra Cornes 3-7, 5-7. As these two games ended, with the match result delicately poised at 2-2, Simon was still battling with Frank - Simon had won the first game 7-5, but Frank was fighting back in the second and at 6-6 the possibility of a final deciding game loomed, but Simon held his nerve on the golden hoop to win 7-6.

Congratulations to the team for another good performance.

Report by David King

Another win for our Federation GC R League team

Our SCCC Team followed up their first GC Level Play Restricted League win. with another good 6-1 home win over Littlehampton (Friday 20 Aug).

The team - Tony Jolly (2), David King (3), Frances Low (5) & Phil Harrison (6) - led 3-0 at the lunch break, with Frances and Phil each winning their best of three singles matches,, while Tony & David gained a very hard fought 7-6, 7-6 win over Cathy Kirkby (2) & Robyn Clark (3) . After lunch three more singles wins, secured a good victory.

Well done to Phil, winning both his matches 2-0, bringing his handicap down as a result.

David King

(With apologies from the Webmaster for the late publication of his report)

Two groups of 6 players - handicap and advanced - played in pleasant weather this Friday. Groundsman Ben and his team had cut that morning and set the hoops for the GC Eights this weekend, so the lawns were fast and the hoops challenging.

Handicap Competition

In the handicap competition three players stood out from the rest with 4 wins in five games. As they had all lost one game to each other the winner was decided on net hoops. Congratulations to Robin Wootton.

Advanced Competition

There was no difficulty in deciding the winner of the advanced competition as Jonathan Isaacs won all his games!

All in all, an enjoyable day's croquet. Thanks very much to Frances for managing the competitions for the Club.

Winter local and members only competition program published

Details are now on the website of the Winter Competitive Program for 2021-2022.

Local competitions are open to all croquet players in the area (eg members of local SECF clubs) and SCCC club members of course. The 1 day competitions sidebar has the dates and details.

Three members-only competitions are taking place: A GC Drawn Pairs Competition and two GC level play doubles competitions in separate divisions with joint minimum handicap limits. Entry is on the Internal Competition Entry Form and you can see all entries in the Winter Competitions page.

Please note all these new competitions will be 'Pay on the Day'.

Sussex takes 3rd place in GC Inter Counties to retain place in 1st Division

On the weekend of the 21st/22nd Sussex hosted division 1 of this year’s GC inter counties.
For the benefit of newer club members let me explain a little about the format of the event. The team which I as organiser and captain select, can be made up from any player who meets the eligibility criteria, not necessarily a member of our Sussex County club.
This year I selected Liz Farrow and Morgan Case of Sussex County along with Peter Dowd of Compton to join me in the Counties team.
Another of our members, Ian Cobbold was invited and played for the Surrey team (he has dual eligibility).

Division one comprised of twelve teams meaning that eleven rounds were needed spread over the two days. Each match between counties consisted of one doubles game and two singles.

How did we get on, well it was a tough start having to play the favourites in round one and losing to them 0-3. From this point as a former Prime Minister once said (it can only get better). At the end of Saturday we had played six counties and the match total was 3-3 but we believed that we had played most of the stronger teams at this point. Sunday was a different story and the wins began to accumulate and we gradually climbed up the leader board, in fact we beat the remaining five counties to finish with 8 wins.
This put us in third place on the table, the best result for Sussex in this annual competition for several years now.
We easily retained our division one status but the down side is that our division moves the Cheltenham next year!

The event was convincingly won by Nottinghamshire who won all their 11 matches and  whose team had a handicap total of -16, yes that’s right four minus 4 players. By contrast our total was -6.

I would like to echo the thanks given by Ian Burridge, Nottinghamshire’s captain who in his acceptance speech thanked the club for hosting, Jonathan Powe for managing and Linda’s team for the catering. He also commented that the hoop setting was the best he can remember in his visits to Southwick.
Finally I congratulate and thank my team for their performances and support.
More detailed results can be seen on croquetscores.

Report by Richard Brooks

High Bisque Competition win for Sussex Member

The Croquet Academy High Bisque Tournament 2021

It was lovely to host the AC High Bisque tournament again at Southwick after a gap due to Covid.
There were 12 entries but sadly someone had to pull out that morning. I am very grateful to Gerald Gooders and Celia Fastnedge from Littlehampton who kindly substituted at the last minute!
The 4 rounds in blocks were closely contested but the final ended up between Jon Colombo from SCCC and Caroline Alexander from Medway.
The final swung one way then the next but the more consistent play of Jon ensured he won the match. Congratulations to Jon who received the High Bisque Salver.
Well done Caroline and all the players who took part.
My grateful thanks to Morgan Case and Chrissie Merrington who assisted me, did some coaching, and gave much support to me and the players!! Their comments after each match were well received and useful.
High bisque players struggle to see the whole picture on a full lawn so maybe next year, we can have a short court supported tournament? The shots can be more precise and the tactics can be followed more easily. Accuracy and understanding are more likely.
Well done anyway to you all – we noticed many improvements during the day, and a better appreciation of the 4 ball break!!
Keep going – we want to see you again next year!
Frances Low (Manager)