Christmas GC Doubles

We were lucky to have chosen the best day over the holiday period, weather wise for the Christmas Doubles. Having struggleD with people dropping out I was able to start the tournament having found replacements with a perfect number of 32 players - 16 teams. My thanks to Tony Jolly and Richard Stewart for stepping in at the last minute.

I split the tournament into two groupings. Blocks 1 & 2 came together in a knockout, the winners being Martin Daniels (Bromley) partnering Paul Green, and  Liz Farrow and Linda Gavigan as runners up. Block 1 & 2 Plate was won by Bob and Robyn Clark.

Block 1/2 winners Martin Daniels & Paul Green

Runners Up Bob & Robyn Clark

Blocks 3 & 4 were won by Jo Crosby and Nira Scutt who beat Tony Jolly and Rosemary Wyld in the final. Block 3 & 4 Plate was won by Shona McArthur (Preston) and Jim Mander.

Blocks 3/4 winners Jo Crosby & Nira Scutt

Runners up Sheona McArthur & Jim Mander

All results are below or on Croquet Scores.

My thanks to Angela Avis for putting on a lunch although it was disappointing to note the numbers who took advantage of this.

A happy New year to all.

Roger

Thanks to Roger Sutton for managing the event.

Full results

Block 1 & 2 Knockout

3rd and 4th place: Nigel Belllingham & Michael Jay beat Brian Aikens & Ivan Segal 7-6

Block 1 & 2 Plate

Block 1 & 2 Plate 3rd and 4th place: Richard Stewart & Roger Sutton beat Andrew Stweart & Konstantin Yudintsev

Block 3 & 4 Knockout

3rd and 4th place:  Simon Ancell & Susan Kilby beat Di Langridge & Sue Rice 7-2

Block 3 & 4 Plate

Block 3 & 4 Plate 3rd and 4th place: Kathy McColgan & Peter Cave beat Elizabeth Bell & Susan Gale 7-3

Christmas Lunch a lovely occasion for all

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make today's Christmas lunch such an enjoyable event: in the kitchen preparing and serving an excellent lunch behind the bar and all those who prepared the canteen beforehand. A lot of work and very much appreciated.

Great to see some old friends like Gene and Don Mears and Brian Kitching.

And well done Roger for finding a new use for Monopoly!

Plaudits for Gabrielle Higgins and Liz Drury in this year's Croquet England Awards for Most Improved Player. Gabrielle won the Steel Memorial Bowl and Liz won the Colman Trophy

Congratulations to them both.

Two other club members received nominations: Paul Green and Konstantin Yudintsev.

Wintry day for GC competition

 Twenty hardy souls gathered for a 9.30 start on a fine but chilly day. The sun finally broke through in the afternoon but the north westerly wind reminded us that Winter is almost upon us.

Block A, with 8 competitors, managed 6 rounds at the end of which Tony Jolly and Liz Farrow were level pegging with 5 wins and +9 net hoops each. However, Tony had beaten Liz just before lunch so he was declared the winner.

In Block B, with 6 entrants, John Low won all his games, four 7-5 and one 7-6, so all very close but clearly ahead of Paul Green and David Dickins with 3 wins each.

Block C, also with 6 players, saw everyone win at least 2 games. Jill Richardson won the Block with 4 wins, just ahead of Sue Nicholas with 3.

Despite the heavy rain earlier in the month the lawns played well and many thanks are due to Steve & Ray for cutting and marking them before the tournament.

Grateful thanks as well to Rachel Pointon for preparing a welcome & warming soup plus a ploughman's for lunch.

Finally, it was nice to see Martin Daniels back at Sussex County after his recent problems.

Vincent L'Estrange
(Thanks to Vincent for managing the event)

Full Results

Club competitions final results in

Presentations of the last few club competition trophies were made by Clive Hayton at the club on November 11

Phil Dunk being presented with the Sussex Gold Cup

Paul Green, Victor Ludorum for Golf Croquet

He also won the Golf Croquet Doubles Competition with Simon Fenn-Tye

Dominic Nunns being presented with the Moore Cup, the sixth occasion on which he has won it, an equal record with Rutger Biejderwellen for the cup in its current incarnation. It was previously the Bryan Challenge Cup from 1904 - 1927 and then the Simeon Challenge Cup until 1976. As the Simeon Challenge Cup it was won 6 times also by W E Moore, after whom it is now named, but 11 times by Leslie Kirk Greene, so a challenge to Dominic between now and 2029!

Paul reports "Mark Fawcett and l managed to play the Shield final and despite pegging myself off in attempting a cross pegged leave and thanks to Mark approaching and running hoop six as if it was penult, I became victorious plus 8, plus 7!"

Congratulations to all the winners this year. The full list is here and the report on the end of season dinner and main trophy presentation is here.

A chance for new GC players and those with higher handicaps to get into more competitive play

On a rare sunny day, 12 members with 7+ handicaps gathered for a half-day level play GC tournament on Tuesday 7th October. Postponed from October, the competition was intended to encourage high-handicappers with little or no experience of competitions to enter.

Three blocks of 4 played three games each with impressive speed to complete their games by 12.30.  Nerves soon settled and there were several very close fought games.

Block A was won by Kathy McColgan with 2 wins and + 6 hoops, closely followed by Gail Dowd who also had 2 wins with -2 hoops.

In Block B, Karen Hayton won all 3 of her games with +5 hoops, with Linda Davies in second place with 2 wins and +3 hoops.

Alan Innes was the winner in Block C having also won all 3 games and an impressive +9 hoops.  Martin Avis took 2nd place with 2 wins and +6 hoops.

Well done to all 12 players, I think some of those handicaps will soon be much lower!   We look forward to seeing you at future competitions.

Linda Gavigan 

Thanks to Linda for organising and managing this event

UK v USA in Florida, 7-12 November 2023

From 7th to 12th of this month the Solomon Trophy will be played for in Florida, America. This is a prestigious AC competition with teams of 6 from England battling it out with America.

We wish Gabrielle (our club member) all the best as she takes part. She is one of the top AC players in England and was runner up in the Womens’ AC worlds in New Zealand earlier this year.

The England team is 

Debbie Lines (captain) 
Alain Giraud 
Gabrielle Higgins 
Stephen Mulliner 
Mark van Loon 
Aston Wade

Amongst their opponents are Matthew Essick and Ben Rothman. Both have won the GC Worlds in Southwick (2022 and 2019) and Matthew was runner up in the AC Worlds at Hurlingham this year.

For those of you who love croquet it will be worth watching.

Details of the video link when they are known.

Today there was a discussion about the coming weather and the likely effects on the lawns for the competition on Friday.

With heavy rain on Thursday and very strong winds, we felt the lawns were likely to be both very wet and covered in debris from trees etc. Conditions for play were likely to be difficult or unpleasant and importantly to cause unnecessary damage (32 players on 4 lawns all day) so we reluctantly decided to cancel the event.

Of course Friday may prove to be a lovely day but I think it is better to have clarity a day or two beforehand rather than leave a decision to the last minute.

John

End of Season Dinner and Awards Ceremony

Very many thanks to the Catering Team who produced a lovely meal to celebrate the end of the 2023 season and to hold the awards ceremony for the club competitions.

The summary of all the competition winners is on this page.

Not all the winners were present sadly, but there was plenty of silverware on display to take home at the end of the evening.

The awards were made before the meal.

Jerry Key with the Committee Cup

David Dickins with the Handicap Singles trophy

Jim Mander with the GC Improvers trophy

Pam Gooders with the Freddy Reynold trophy

... and the Bush Cup

.... and the Shine Salvers with Gerald Gooders

.... and the AC Victor Ludorum trophy

Morgan Case with the Quaiche

Steve Chapman, most improved AC player, with the Chandler Shield

All the winners who were present. 

Pam Gooders with the evening's haul.

Thanks to Ray Hall, Morgan Case and John Low for the pictures

Your intrepid reporter asked Liz Farrow, Club Captain, what the policy was on engraving club trophies:

Liz tells me

Trophies for our internal competitions are engraved by the club.

We are now trying to make sure that trophies are engraved in October for the winners of that year -ie if you won it in 2023 your name should go on it in October 2023.
 
This is not possible for all trophies due to various reasons, so don’t be worried if your trophy isn’t engraved with your name. 
This will go onto the trophy next time we engrave.

Please ask me if you are unsure about anything to do with engraving.
 

Since we are on the subject of trophies, if you win one from another club or from Croquet England, then their policy may be different so do enquire. The South East Federation engraves all their trophies on behalf of clubs that win them.