Club Competition Winners 2026

Association Croquet

Golf Croquet

Awards winners in pictures

Pictures courtesy of our official website journalist (she had the badge to prove it!), Trish Ellis, with many thanks.

Thanks to Fiona Phillips and Liz Farrow for organising the Club Competitions again this season.

Informal AC Summer Competition

Chris Rolph won the Rottingdean Trophy for the informal summer group of AC players, with Chrissie Merrington, David Gillett, Mark Hamilton and John Low.

The same group plays a similar winter competition (both level advanced).

Winner Chris Rolph with trophy and his winnings

Spending his winnings on buying everyone the customary drink

GC Open Singles 17th October 2026

Thirty players gathered on a chilly morning for our penultimate Singles competition of 2026. The temperature increased notably as the morning wore on and Dom was able to justify his decision to wear shorts. However, the afternoon was different as the wind increased and the temperature dropped (so thought the manager). The leaves on lawns 10 and 11 added an extra dimension to the play.

There was a good range of handicaps, from -2 to 10, spread across 5 divisions of 6. It was the strongest field I can remember in my short time at Southwick with 13 players of 2 handicap or below.

Division 1 was perhaps not surprisingly won by Dom Nunns, winning all 5 games with a net hoop tally of +17. David Dickins gave him a good run for his money, winning 4 games and only narrowly losing to Dom 5-7.

It was closely fought in Division 2, where Martin Daniels, Steve Collett and Douglas Shand each won 3 games so it went to net hoops. Martin & Steve were neck and neck on + 5 but as Martin had beaten Steve he was declared the winner.

The third division was another close affair, Tim Bick and Jill Richardson winning 4 apiece but Tim's +13 hoops against Jill's + 10 saw him home. Jill had actually beaten Tim in their head-to-head.

Mike Pudney cruised home in Division 4, winning all his 5 games (+18), with Richard Ellis hot on his heels with 4 wins (+11).

It was very evenly matched in division 5, where three players won 3 games and three won 2 games. It was settled by net hoops with David Round on +5 and Janice Frohnsdorff +3, with Richard Law finishing third.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone for taking part. Thanks are also due to Jackie Thwaites and Anne Thirsk for serving a warming bowl of soup (kindly made by Linda) with bread and cheese at lunchtime.

Vincent

Thanks to Vincent for managing the event.

Full results

GC doubles 9th October

Sixteen pairs entered this competition and despite the unpromising weather forecast there were no late dropouts. There was very little rain but the wind increased as the day went on and conditions became trickier. The lawns were in excellent condition once again and firm enough for jumping, of which there were some fine examples (Konstantin and Fiona to name but two).

We welcomed two players new to competitive croquet, Andy Smith who has recently joined Sussex County and David Round from Littlehampton.

Pairs were in two divisions of 8, each subdivided into blocks of 4 for the morning session, comprising 3 games. The afternoon featured 2 knockout games based on the finishing positions in the blocks.

In Division 1 Brian & Konstantin and Liz & David made it through to the final, with the former triumphant 7-4.

Division 2 saw Jim & Fran take on Marc & Truida in the final. It was a close match which stalled on hoop 10 as each sought to gain the advantage. Time was marching on and once that hoop was settled they agreed an honourable draw at 5-5 and shared first place.

The full results can be seen here.

Thanks to all for entering.

Vincent L'Estrange 

And thanks to Vincent for managing the event

Photos to follow.