Littlehampton Centenary Competition

A sunny day with a warm breeze set the scene for Littlehampton’s annual Centenary invitational on Sunday 19th July.This popular day, ably managed by Bob and Robyn Clark, was as ever the perfect mix of socialising and some pretty competitive croquet.

Southwick’s team of Clive & Angela Jones, Sue Kilby and Linda Gavigan found the lawns a challenge in the first round but gained momentum as the day progressed to finished in a creditable 5th place out of 8 teams against some low handicaps.

Chichester took home the trophy for the 4th time in 5 years with Littlehampton in second place and Lodsworth third.

The Littlehampton members provided an outstanding display of delicious cakes for tea and an enormous raffle together with a quiz sheet to keep everyone busy during lulls between games which was won by Littlehampton because everyone else forgot to hand in their sheets!!

Linda Gavigan

Croquet England Short Croquet National Inter-club Championship

Having beaten Chichester & Fishbourne earlier this summer, Sussex County Croquet Club beat Guildford and Godalming Croquet Club 9-2 at Sussex County on 16 July 2026 for a place in the semi-finals where they will meet either High Wycombe or Bradford-on-Avon.

Detailed results (Sussex names first)

Nigel Billingham and Mike Akester (3.5) beat Peter Adams and Julie Tremble (3.5) 10-2
David Dickins (1.5) beat Richard Perkins (6) 14-13
Steve Chapman (2) beat Hilary Bird (8) 14-11
David Dickins beat Peter Adams (3) 14-9
Nigel Billingham (1.5) beat Julie Tremble (4) 14-5
Steve Chapman beat Richard Perkins 14-9
Mike Akester (6) lost to Hilary Bird 9-11
Mike Akester lost to Peter Adams 6-14
Steve Chapman beat Julie Tremble 14-12
Nigel Billingham beat Richard Perkins 14-9
David Dickins beat Hilary Bird 14-3

Gabrielle

Thanks to Gabrielle for organising the team

Sussex win Murphy Shield Quarter Final

On yet another hot and sunny day with no cooling breeze Sussex County welcomed our friends from Guildford & Godalming for a quarter-final match in the national Murphy Shield.

Ben and Nigel got us off to a good start, winning the doubles in two straight games. The two morning singles were long drawn out affairs, both going to 3 games with Jo winning hers against a 2 handicapper. 2-1 up at lunch.

Guildford & Godalming pulled one back straight after lunch and soon it was 3-3 with, as is so often the case, everything hinging on the final game.

We all sat down to watch as Jo took on Phil Tremble for the decider. Phil won the first game; the second went to the golden hoop with both players having chances to win. Jo eventually prevailed, setting up what might have been a nail-biting finish. However, a confident Jo took full control of the third game winning comfortably 7-2.

A 4-3 victory and an away semi-final against Phyllis Court or East Dorset.

Thanks to Ben, Nigel and Jo for playing and to Guildford and Godalming for the friendly spirit in which the tie was played.

Vincent

Sussex County Open Singles – 15 July

A beautiful day welcomed 32 players for the latest one-day singles competition. 11 entrants attended from clubs outside of SCCC, notably, Nelson Morrow who was over from New Zealand and Debbie and Steve Hayns from the Isle of Wight. Divisions A, B, D and E all had 6 players, each playing 5 games. Division C had 8 players, so was split into two groups of four playing 3 games in the morning, with play-offs in the afternoon to decide the overall winner.

The conditions were challenging: high temperatures, a moderate breeze, fast lawns and uncompromising hoops. It was decided, therefore, to limit games to 50 minutes, without which, I suspect, we would have been playing well into the evening.

Division A came down to a final game playoff between Brian Aikens and Konstantin Yudintsev, both of whom had won three of their first four games. Konstantin prevailed 5-3 to win the group, and elevating Simon Ancell into second on net hoops.

Division B was won convincingly by Richard Brooks, just to show the organiser that he should have been in Division A really! Paul Green had an excellent day, finishing second in a field of lower handicappers.

The Division C Final was contested by Mike Gentry and Beryl Hughes, both of whom had come through from Block C2. Mike had won all his games to this point, and the final went with form; Mike prevailing 7-5.

Division D was hard fought, with 1 win separating the top four players. In the end, Peter Hill came out on top, with Sue Nicholas in second.

Division E was equally tight, but Tony Majoram took the title, with David Larkin in second. Commiserations to Jim Mander who broke his mallet early on, providing him with yet another hurdle to overcome on the day.

Thank you to everybody who made it such a good natured and enjoyable day.

David

Thanks to David for managing the event