Victor Ludorum

Roger Sutton has announced the winners  of this years Victor Ludorum Trophy’s are:_

GC   Winner Reg Soffe 

  2^nd Philip Harrison            

  3^rd Chris Bailey

AC     Winner  Chris Coull         

Runner Up Martyn Cooperman

SCCC Finals Week 2019

Already played / decided by block play

Diana Brothers Drawn Pairs Winners Chris Bailey & Pat Mechem Franc Cup Winner Anne Bolland

Bush Cup - winner Bruce Carr

Hazel Parker - Winner Bruce Carr

Dominic Nunns going to Australia for AC World Championship

Dominic Nunns has been selected to take a ranking place in the UK team travelling to Melbourne, Australia in February next year for the AC World Championships.

A fantastic achievement Dominic - congratulations!!

Director of the Croquet Academy at Southwick, Janet Troptroff have published details of winter coaching plans here.

Liz Farrow win Sussex Open

In a two match final against Robert Clark Liz won the Sussex Open GC Championship, taking home the Hamilton Cup.

Twenty four players entered the competition and spent Saturday playing in four blocks. Eight players qualified for the knockout championship (Stuart Smith, Ross Bagni, Robert Clark, Robin Wootton, Richard Brooks, Roger Sutton, Peter Balchin and Liz Farrow) and played best-of-three matches thoughout Sunday; the remaining players had a four-round Swiss competition for the Plate event, which was won by Ryan Cabble.

Stuart Smith, as the previous holder of the trophy and this year's winner of the GC A Series would have been a safe bet to win the trophy again, but he was evicted by Robert Clark 7-6, 5-4 in the semi-final. Robert himself was bested in the final by Liz 7-6, 6-5.

The Southwick lawns were in good shape, despite the very heavy use over the season, including the recent World GC - a tribute to the good work by our Contractor (and club member who played in this event) Ben Harwood.

Plenty of enjoyable croquet seems to have been played in good spirit and pleasant weather (if chilly in the mornings). Please all come again next year!

Full Results

Championship Knockout

Championship playoffs

Stuart Smith beat Richard Brooks 10-6 to take 3rd place (Richard Brooks 4th place).

Ross Bagni beat Robin Wootton 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 and Peter Balchin (who received a walk-over from Roger Sutton)10-6 to take 5th place (Peter Balchin 6th place).

Robin Wootton received a walk-over from Roger Sutton to take 7th place.

Consolation Event

Other games

A number of 'bye' games were played (counting on card but not to tournament result)
Ben Harwood beat David Gaitley 10-9
Peter Balchin beat John Low 10-5
Richard Carline beat David Gaitley 10-6
Bill Arliss beat David Gaitley 10-8
Robin Wootton beat Stephen Wright 7-1.

There may be other unrecorded games including a Richard Carline doubles special on lawn 8 - result unknown but clearly greatly enjoyed.

Winter one-day competitions have changed!

Please put the following dates in your diaries!

October 18th GC level play singles  This is now an AC tournament.

November 1st GC level play doubles

November 22nd GC level play singles

More winter tournaments here

All the above should be entered on-line on the Club's website.

Roger Sutton

Jonathan Isaacs and Ian Cobbold on CA Council

Congratulations to Jonathan and Ian on the election to the newly reformed Council of the Croquet Association.

Jonathan is a Vice-President of the Croquet Association, a member of the outgoing Council and has been heavily involved in the management and development of the CA for many years, as well as his huge commitments to our own club's development. Jonathan was responsible for starting the Croquet Academy at Southwick and coaches both AC and GC.

Ian's primary croquet club is Cheam where he is currently Chairman; he is on the CA Development Committee and is known to Southwick members through his involvement in golf croquet - he is both a Championship and Examining referree as well as player; for the SECF he is Development Officer.

The CA structure is in reform and the new Council is part of changes to the Constitution to reduce the size of Council and confine its role to high-level policy, strategic initiatives, scrutiny and transparency, with a separate Executive Board.

14pt AC one-day competition 4th September 2019

Congratulations to Paul Castell for winning the advanced competition today, and to Bruce Carr for winning the handicap competition.

Advanced competition

5 players took part in a five round block. Jeff Rushby took Paul Castell's scalp (19 points!) but Paul went on to win anyway. Both Paul and John Taylor ended with three wins but Paul had beaten John.

Handicap competition

Thirteen players took part in a five round Swiss competition. Two large contingents from SCCC and from Purley Bury dominated the entry so the Manager kept them apart as far as possible (to make a more interesting event, not to avoid bloodshed!).

Bruce Carr dominated the competition, winning all his games. Isobel George came second, losing only to Bruce in Round 4.

(Two games in last round went unfinished or score unrecorded)

There was a general view that we must run more of these one day AC competitions, and further events will be organised over the winter season.

Register on club canteen noticeboard or email catering

Sussex A Team wins SECF GC Level League again

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