AC Interclub Match: Sussex County v East Dorset

After no ascertainable history of ever playing each other in the AC Inter-club competition, Sussex County were this year drawn against East Dorset Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the second year in succession. Once again, it was a close match, but we managed to avenge our 4-3 loss last year with an equally tight 4-3 win this year.

In the morning, Dom Nunns and Gabrielle Higgins never got so much as a sniff at hoop 1, losing 26tp to Jeff Dawson and David Fuller. Meanwhile Paul Castell nearly polished off Steve Leonard +24 but missed his peg out, and Steve made 5 more hoops before Paul managed to hit back in and peg out his remaining ball. Tudor Jenkins came agonisingly close to completing a quadruple peel, failing rover with all peels done, but managed to hit back in on the next turn to complete the game and leave SCCC 2-1 at lunch.

In the afternoon, Jonathan Powe made short work of Paul Castell to level the scores. Gabrielle got off to a good start against Jeff, but had more difficulty with her second ball and ended up on peg with no peels done. Jeff hit the lift and pegged her off, but Gabrielle hit back in and completed an adventurous 2 ball break to put SCCC in the lead again with 3-2. The other two games had plenty of interactivity, but Tudor squeaked a close victory over Steve +3 to secure the match. Dom was also pegged out by David, who with his own partner on 4b and Dom still on 4 had two balls off, which was duly a winning tactic.

All in all, a better result than the joke of the early posed photo might have suggested.

Many thanks to East Dorset LT&CC for their excellent hospitality.

Thanks to Gabrielle Higgins for report and photo

Charity 1-ball local heat

The Charity 1-Ball Competition is a national cr0quet event held annually, each year supporting a differeent charity. Local heats feed into regional and national finals.

Our local heat took place on 14th April and over £170 raised for Alzheimer's Society. Many thanks to the generosity of the competitors and Sussex County Club members contributing to that success.

The gladiatorial fun and tactically testing elements were enjoyed by all, throughout, though sadly we had to lose the prowess of Paul Castell at lunchtime due to another commitment.

Blessed with fine Spring conditions, Ben had the Lawns playing well. One of our talented Club AC players, David Marcus, offered to be non-playing day Manager and opted for All Play All format.

Deborah Marcus shone through with no games lost, as the Event winner.- Congratulations Deborah. David Dickens was 2nd with 5 wins. Clive 3rd (4 wins). All matches were close fought in good spirit.

Thanks to Paul, Ray and Clive as, Referees, Ray as Photographer and all for such an enjoyable day.

The Regional Heat is at Surbiton on 17th May. Other commitments on that date mean we are not certain who will represent us then.

It is open to individuals to apply to play at the Regional Heat. If you wish to do so, please contact the National Organiser Debbie James (email: Charity1ball@gmail.com or charityoneball@gmail.com). Expect £20+ donation request.

In preparation for next year's charity competition we Iook forward to more structured practice and orientation Roll ups in the audumn/spring to lead in to 2026 event and a fresh selected cause. (Any requests for charities to be considered, to Debbie, as above.)

Thank you to Roger Buxton and John Low for their parts in Admin and PR.

Well done everyone for the Team effort, spirit and outcome. The Alzheimers regional coordinators are delighted.

Robin Wootton

Most of the participants in the competition, including winner Deborah Marcus - front row, centre

Club display

Advanced (AC) Tournament (12-13 Apr 2025)

The 2025 running of the Southwick Salver was blessed with warmer temperatures than is sometimes the case, and with a healthy smattering of sunshine.

Sussex County was delighted to welcome a field of 29, the largest for some time, including visitors from Portugal, Switzerland and many parts of the UK.

The Salver has been won by its fair share of world champions, but also has a friendly, fun atmosphere, offering a chance for a range of handicaps to try their luck against, in some cases, significantly stronger opponents on paper. The consolation Egyptian format allows the flexibility for players to play the sort of games and opponents they want to, whilst anyone who plays above their handicap level has a chance to win a bottle of wine along with the main event winner.

Adding to the atmosphere over the weekend were local members coming and going, notably for ‘croquet and cakes’ (name check for the great Fran Box), more international visitors, colourful bunting, some particularly nosy seagulls, and a dusk visit from a bushy-tailed fox as the last Saturday night drinks were downed.

Some of the weekend’s most enterprising play came from Ian Burridge, the only player to make two triple peels. He was unlucky to run into the generally rock-solid break play of eventual winner Andrew Hobbs in the quarters. Credit should also go to Ged Smolskas who defeated No.1 seed Dom Nunns in their quarter, earning a handicap reduction to -0.5, in a game featuring an end-to-end hit-in by Ged as a key moment. Stephen Wright had bested No.2 seed Nigel Polhill in their semi-final to earn the right to play Andrew.

In the final itself, Andrew had looked in full control at game up and on a potentially winning break, for 2b and peg when disaster struck in the form of a wrong ball error. Stephen gave him no further opportunity and equalised. However, Andrew gathered himself calmly and saw the match out.

There was some interest in manager Dom Nunns’s spreadsheet handling of the Egyptian format arithmetic. The software may shortly make its Swiss debut, if that isn’t too confusing a sentence. In its wisdom, it duly declared Alan Chance the winner. Intriguingly, had the semi-finalists been eligible, Ged would have just pipped Alan on the Egyptian points system, and so was duly awarded the Easter egg for 3rd place. Happily, Nigel declared he didn’t care because he didn’t like chocolate anyway.

Andrew wrapped up the weekend with a gracious speech thanking groundsman Ben Harwood and his CTC team for such excellent lawns for the time of year, Clive Hayton of SCCC and the catering team led by Rachel Pointon.

Dom Nunns

Thanks to Dominic Nunns for managing the event.

Winner Andrew Hobbs with the Manager

Andrew Wright, losing finalist

Alan Chance winner of the Egyptian event

Full results

Southwick Salver

Egyptian Consolation

AC Alternate Stroke Doubles 11th April 2025

The sun shone and so we were able to play 4 games in the Alternate Stroke AC Doubles. There were 12 entries so 6 pairs which was ideal.

The manager could have been caught out with the result on points but it worked out in the final round!

The winners were David Dickens and Robin Wootton. David and Robin and worked well together with David's tactical acumen. Congratulations to them - they won 3/4 games.

Runners up were Jonathan and Tony who won 2/4 games and had a draw!

Thanks to all who took part, and made it a very pleasant tournament.

My biggest groan (disappointment) was that there were no peg outs!! In spite of a generous helping of bisques! Still early days and I look forward to more AC tournaments.

Frances Low

Thanks to Frances for managing the event.