1871 - A local Derby

Sussex Croquet versus Worthing Croquet Club: first match

Worthing Croquet Club was the first club to be established in England, in 1865, four years ahead of Brighton. They played on Steyne Gardens on the Worthing seafront.

It was not until the third year of Brighton's existence, in 1871,  that an inter-club match was organised.

The article clips below are fairly clear but you can click on each one to see a text version.

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Brighton Gazette 01 June 1871

Edwin Booth was a pastrycook and confectioner and had premises at 70 East Street in what is now an Indian restaurant. Mr Bright may well be a reference to Edward Bright who was a manufacturing jeweller, silversmith and watchmaker whose business was at 13 Pavilion Buildings and therefore convenient to the Pavilion. The site seems now occupied by the former NatWest Bank (Grade 2 Listed) building from 1905 by Godfrey Pinkerton.

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Brighton Gazette 08 June 1871

The first Hon Sec of the Brighton Club, H A Dowell, had resigned in July 1870 and was replaced by Capt. Edward T Dundas. He lived in Bloomsbury Place, Brighton with his wife and three children. Born in Bengal to a military family and earlier himself in the army, he was a man of independent means, aged 42 and the major force in Brighton croquet for several years.

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The field 17 June 1871

We know something about G C Joad. He lived at Patching in a now demolished property of some size.  Both he and his wife were leading players at Worthing and had won the All England Open Championship and the Women's Championship in 1869.

James Heath was the son of Rev D I Heath, sometime Treasurer of AECC and a wealthy and generous supporter of croquet. James would win the AECC championship in 1873 aged 19 years, and again in 1874.

A Henty and E Henty are likely to be of the family listed in the 1871 census at Ferring. Edwin senior (66 years) was a magistrate and banker (what seems to be a private bank in Horsham), and his sons Edwin junior (27 years) and Arthur (22 years) were also bankers; the family was active locally in finance, local administration and the magistracy. Arthur Henty was active in Worthing Croquet Club until at least mid 1890's.

Septima and Octavia Flight did not at that time live in Brighton but in Croydon, though Octavia did move later to Cavendish Place with her mother; They were either frequent visitors or maintained a second residence in Brighton, as both daughters are recorded as taking part in the annual fancy dress ball in January 1875. Both remained active in croquet, taking part in competitions as far afield as Glasgow in 1879, the Championship meeting at Moffat, where Octavia reached the semi-final.

At this time croquet was evolving and an attempt at standardisation took place at the Croquet Conference of Laws in 1870. Various different hoop settings were in use, evolving from the 10 hoop setting to the 6 hoop Hale setting (pegs at either end rather than in the middle). The 7-hoop setting here is the Conference Laws No 2 setting, with 4 hoops in a square, three hoops down the middle and two pegs at each end.

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Brighton Gazette 14 September 1871


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