2026 GC Veterans Championship

The 2026 GC Veterans Championship was won by top seed Tim Russell, who beat second seed Lionel Tibble 7-4, 7-5. This is the third time Tim has won the event in the last four years, two of those at Sussex where the competition has now come to the end of its three-year cycle.

Winner Tim Russell with Tournament Director Steve Leonard

Following the usual programme for this event, the 24 players were arranged into two blocks, each playing 11 single games over the first day and second morning, followed by a knockout and plate stage. Four players from Sussex County took part: Richard Brooks, Liz Farrow, David Dickins and Paul Green. Richard Brooks has played in every Veterans Championship since it start in 2007, with the exception of 2019 (playing the Worlds Qualifier elsewhere) and last year when personal reasons forced his withdrawal. Quite a record!

Weather conditions at Southwick were fine, if a little on the hot side. The lawns were fast, dry and challenging; a watering system fault had occurred 3 days before and over the weekend and that, coupled with the exceptionally dry weather and light winds left the lawns rather less controllable than Sussex’s superb groundsman Ben would have liked. The combination of hard ground and very firm Quadway hoops punished the slightest error in hoop running and many games were extended as good clearances and positioning were followed by failed hoops.

The format used by this competition since its inception means 11 block games over a day and a half. Quite challenging as nearly half the players were over 75. The first day ended with both Tim and Lionel winning 5/7 games, Tim losing to Nelson Morrow and Steve Leonard, and Lionel losing to Rick Lilley and Andy Dochniak.

Both Lionel and Tim went on to lead their respective blocks into the knockout stage, accompanied by the next four ranked players – Andy Dochniak, Steve Leonard, Andy Loakes and Stephen Custance-Baker; David Wise and Colin Britt (ranked 11 and 12) taking the last two places. Sadly, none of the club players made the cut this year and injury forced the withdrawal of Liz and David; Paul Green battled on in the Plate event and Richard acted as Tournament Referee for the remainder of the tournament.

Among the players over 75, only Stephen Custance-Baker survived into the Semi-Final stage and he was awarded the Richard Brooks Vase for the Best Performing Player in the age group. He also won the 3rd-4th place play-off. The (non-existent) Shield was won by Andy Loakes.

Stephen Custance-Baker, Brooks Vase winner

Andy Loakes, Shield winner

12 of the 16 possible players entered the Plate event which had a trophy this year, thanks to Croquet England who agreed to provide a freshly engraved new plate for this and future events. After some discussion with the players, the Manager ran it in a cross-block format as originally intended, with all participants playing opponents they had not yet met in the competition.

Many games were very long – not because of slow play (though there was some of that) but because every hoop was hard fought: lots of long clearances followed by defeat at the hands of unforgiving hoops. With hindsight it would probably have been wise to put a time limit on the plate matches, as this would have shortened the length of play on the second day and spared players long waits between games.

The Plate was won by Luis de Alarcon (Spain) who quietly won 5 out of 6 games, the best performance in the event. Luis said he had not played with Quadway hoops before and that clearly affected his performance on the crucial first day of the competition. Sadly, he was only able to go home with a photo of the award, rather than the Plate itself, as Croquet England doesn’t allow its trophies to travel abroad!

In his speech at the award, winner Tim Russell thanked the groundsman and catering teams for the excellent work making the tournament a great success.

On a personal note, it has been a pleasure managing the GC Veterans Championship at Sussex for the last three years. Tough, competitive play, but always in a good-natured and friendly way. The event is now off to Surbiton.

John Low

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