The Heyday Years of the 1870s

During the 1870's, Sussex County Croquet Club arguably became, with the All England Club at Wimbledon, and under its indefatigable Hon Sec Edward T Dundas,  the premier club in the country. Its competitions were popular, attracting many of the best players and its social life active. Croquet had changed from an amusement to a scientific sport. The Brighton Gazette expatiated thus on 27th September 1873:

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Brighton Gazette 27 September 1873

There were club afternoons each Tuesday in the season and two prize meetings each season June and September. There was an annual private subscription Ball in January.

The club changed from 10 hoop setting to the 7 hoop setting of the AECC revised laws (an additional hoop where the current peg is now, and a turning and winning peg at each end).

Looking through the reports of the prize meetings one can see several players who were well known at the time. Joad, Willis and Hale all played there; and several lady players including K Philbrick who won the AECC Ladies Championship several years running.

The croquet club occupied an important place in society at the time; the better (and wealthier) families all played, and formed marriage relationships. One such was the Flight family.

Thomas Flight was born in 1792 in Southover, Sussex, and became a very successful financier, a member of Lloyds with properties in the City of London, Norwood and Brighton. He had several daughters, at least three of whom were active in the croquet club and the Hove Toxophilite Society (the archery club in Hove; archery was another popular society activity). At least one daughter, Octavia, was a good player and won or was in the top 4 of competitions both locally and at other clubs throughout the 70's; in 1879 for example, she was a semi-finalist in the Moffat championship in Scotland.

In 1882 Octavia Flight married Bonham Carter Everlegh. Everlegh was AECC champion in 1877 and 1879 and much later after the revival of croquet, in 1899.

Another of Octavia's sisters, Frances, who seems not to have been as successsful a croquet player,  married George Robinson Bridge Drummond in 1874 in her home parish of Upper Norwood. GRB Drummond was born in 1846 in Sussex and later served as a captain in the Bengal Army. He played in the Sussex prize meetings between 1876 and 1879. Drummond served as Chief Constable of West Sussex for 30 years from 1879 until 1912. Capt. Drummond was one or the founders of the current Sussex County Croquet Club in 1901.

Capt Drummond is one of only two persons identified so far who played croquet competitively at both the first and current club; the other is C E Willis.

Another pair of sisters were the Philbrick sisters: Katherine and Hannah. Their father Thomas, originally from Essex (trained as a doctor but was by that time - somewhat bizarrely -  a director of the Barbados Gas Company) and the family lived at Middleton Lodge, College Road in Brighton. Both played croquet but Katherine was the better player, becoming AECC ladies champion several times between 1973 and 1882. Neither sister married; Hannah became a nurse, serving for two years as matron at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. D.M. Prichard (History of Croquet page 67) writes that Catherine Philbrick visited the new Sussex club in 1902 but never played there. She lived out her remaining years with her sister in Hassocks, dying in 1929.

The most significant change to the Club in the decade was the introduction in 1875 of Germains Lawn Tennis:

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Brighton Gazette 22 April 1875

Central to the success of the Sussex County Croquet Club in the 70’s was its Hon. Sec for most of that period, Captain Edward Thomas Dundas.

Dundas was born into an army family in India; his father, Thomas Dundas obtained the rank of Lt. Colonel and Dundas himself held his captaincy in the 19th Bengal Native Infantry. His father died when he was about 13, leaving a substantial inheritance and Edward appears to have lived on those funds throughout his life. He married in Calcutta India Louisa Barnard on 6th December 1849 and she gave birth to a son a year later.

Sadly Louisa died two weeks after giving birth, and he and his son return to England. It seems he leaves his son with his wife’s family returns to army life in Scotland.

In 1854 he marries Evrilda Barnard, his deceased wife’s elder sister. They have three children together. Between 1854 and 1870 his family was established in Little Bardfield, Essex where his father-in-law was the Rector. Dundas himself is in the army list in 1856 to 1867 at the 1st Lanarks HQ in Hamilton, Scotland.

Soon after that Captain Dundas moves to Brighton and becomes involved in society activities; It is not clear how soon he becomes involved in the newly established croquet club but he becomes its second Hon. Sec and remains so with (as far as can be seen from the records) occasional absences, until 1878 at least.

He was last recorded as playing in a tournament in 1880. Between 1881 and 1891 Captain Dundas and his family move to Twyford Abbey, Ealing and then to Porchester Terrace in London. He dies there in 1920.

As at Wimbledon and elsewhere, tennis proved to be the downfall of croquet. By 1877 tennis was being played every day and the Club referred to itself as the Sussex County Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club (though The Field continued to called it the Croquet Club only). And, as elsewhere, it proved to be too popular for croquet!


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