The 4 last news
Sussex County Open Half Day Singles – 12 February 2025
An unusually dry afternoon allowed us to play the first GC competition of the year. 20 hardy souls braved the cold weather to play some excellent croquet across 5 blocks.
Division E was the first to finish, with Sue Kilby winning all her games and only dropping 9 hoops.
Division D was very hard fought, with all games being very close. Eventually Stephen Collett won all his games to take the division, but everybody won at least one game.
Diana Rolfe stormed through Division C, winning all her games.
The lower handicap Divisions, A and B, were much closer, with both going to the final game. In Division B, Tony James and Robyn Clark both played some excellent croquet early on, only to lose their final games. Tony, nonetheless, held on to win by one net hoop over Kathy McColgan, who played exceptionally well against lower handicapped players.
Finally Division A went right down to the wire, with everybody having won one game going into the final round. Konstantin beat Bob Clark leaving Paul Green and Morgan Case both requiring a good win to take the title on net hoops. Paul won 7-4 to put him tied with Konstantin on wins and net hoops, but as Konstantin had won the head to head, he took home the much prized box of chocolates.
Thank you to everybody who made it such a good natured and enjoyable afternoon. David
And thanks to David for managing the event.
Richard Carline: Coach of 2024
The 2024 Coach of the Year Award went to Richard Carline for his outstanding contribution to GC coaching.
As a member of the coaching team at The Academy at Southwick he has shown his strength as an innovator, embracing new methods in coaching including slow motion video capture techniques and supporting students’ learning and development through on‐lawn visual aids.
His popular GC Workshop targets players’ individual needs. The demand for this type of coaching course continues to grow, much of it created by Richard’s undoubted enthusiasm.
Beyond his own club, Richard runs GC coaching pods at various locations which have been instrumental in player improvement, and he has helped on several Club‐Level Coach training courses.
All this is done with Richard’s characteristic organisation, enthusiasm, calmness, and a positive approach which engenders a sense of ‘can do’ in his students
Well done Richard - fully deserved!!
Richard is the latest Sussex County coach to receive the honour of Coach of the Year. Others are Janet Hoptroft (2014), Frances Low (2011) and Daphne Gaitley 2003).
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It's not often I post on a matter not immediately about Sussex croquet; in fact, this is only the second such.
I am passing on an important warning about a scam which is increasingly popular.
You will be very familiar with Captcha boxes - we use them on this website.
You tick the box to prove you are human and believing it's a valid security measure. Chances are you do this so often that you don't even think much about it.
However, this has not gone unnoticed by scammers who are using corrupted captcha boxes to lead the user to download damaging software. When you click, code is copied to your clipboard. Then you’re prompted to paste and run the script under the guise of completing the verification process. If you follow this instruction, malware is downloaded, a sophisticated information thief capable of stealing passwords, financial data, and personal information.
The danger lies in its familiarity. CAPTCHAs are everywhere. We’ve clicked them so many times that we don’t hesitate when we see one. Cybercriminals weaponize this routine behavior to avoid suspicion and guide you to install malware onto your own system.
My antivirus provider Avast offers the following advice
- Question the unusual. If a CAPTCHA appears on a site that doesn’t typically require one or asks you to perform additional steps like running scripts, stop immediately.
- Never follow manual instructions. Legitimate CAPTCHAs won’t ask you to copy-paste or run scripts. If they do, it’s a red flag.
- Keep security software updated. Reliable antivirus software can help catch and block malicious scripts before they do any damage.