The 4 last news
Sussex win 4-3 at Ramsgate
Our U League team , comprising Jonathan Isaacs, David Dickens, Rob Harper and Nigel Billingham recorded a hard earned away win ( 4-3) at Ramsgate today. This means we are 2-0 so far this year.
The home team won the morning games 2-1, with our doubles pair of Jonathan and Rob recording the only win.
Sussex won the afternoon singles (3-1) with excellent wins by David , Rob and Nigel. This was despite an hour of really poor weather comprising thunder, lightning , hail storm, high winds and biblical rain!
Ramsgate were excellent hosts and despite the poor weather a good time was had by all.
Next up Guildford away.
Thanks to Nigel for report and photos
There was an early 8am start on Sunday, 7th June for Francis, Morgan, John and Jo. A smooth journey to the ULEZ zone and Roehampton club (thank goodness for an EV), to find that the weather was kinder in London than it was on the coast.
Overcast skies, no rain, the occasional glimpse of the sun and a gusting wind that took the ball off its perfect line. Perhaps. All this accompanied by very large jets going overhead at incredibly short intervals. The perfect way to clear your head before the next shot – was that Emirates? Qatar? BA?
The morning consisted of three close morning matches (all going to three), of which the doubles was won by John and Morgan, with Morgan running a tricky hoop in added time and Jo winning her singles. 2-1 up at lunch.
A delicious sandwich (with chips!) and brownies were very welcome by 1:15pm.
The afternoon session consisted of four more tight singles matches – all bar one going to three games. Sussex County had three more wins (Morgan, Francis and Jo).
During the day, six games went to golden hoops, four of which were won by Sussex County, and crucially two by Francis in one three game match. Gritty stuff.
So Sussex County won the match 5-2 and are into the quarter finals, where Guildford await.
The journey home to the south coast was remarkable in that Jo was so busy chatting that despite familiar roads, she missed two turnings and ended up doing some sight-seeing in Surrey. She will never live it down!
Thank you to Roehampton for the hospitality and a match played in good spirit.
A big thank you to Jo for captaining on the day, driving the tem both ways and writing a report as well - with a picture too.
Croquet South East GC Level Play League 2026
Sussex County started their campaign in the Croquet South East GC Level Play League 2026 with a hard fought home match against Hove Beach CC.
The team of David Dickins, Douglas Shand, Brian Aikens and Simon Ancell found themselves 1-2 down at lunchtime after some excellent play by the members of the Hove Beach team. This meant that, of the four Singles matches to be played in the afternoon, Sussex County needed to win three of them to clinch victory.
Whatever was in the home team’s lunch seemed to do the trick, as Sussex County managed to secure the three required wins to turn the tables and run out winners of this very close match, 4-3.
Brian Aikens
Perry wins award
Perry from the club's pear tree has won another award at the 2025 Bluebell festival. One of our ciders also won the Cider of the festival award.
We now have other perries that we produce, so we have had to rename our flagship club perry, calling it Hoop & Mallet. It will be available at the Lewes festival next week along with another perry and three ciders of ours.
We are curious to find out more about the Pear tree. If anyone knows anything about the origin, please let us know. The RHS will perform DNA testing of samples free of charge for members and will want as much background information as possible. Do we have any RHS members in the club? Packages should be sent early in the week to avoid spoiling.
If any members know of a perry pears (non-culinary pears) source, please let us know.
David & Deborah Marcus