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 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
A fine day greeted the 36 players who had entered this tournament, it was thankfully cooler than it had been earlier in the week.
Division A was a straight forward win for Richard Brooks and David Dickens who won all of their games They were followed by Brian and Konstantine who had three wins beating Simon Ancell and Vincent only by the fact that they had won their match with Simon and Vincent both teams having three wins and + 4 hoops.
Division two was closer with Mark Barnham and Tony Marjoram and Sue and Tony Nicholas both having 4 wins Mark and Tony however had a better hoop count +14 against +8. Beryl Hughes and Gavin Taylor were third.
Division C was won by members of Bromley CC John Butler and Gloria Perez-Vertiz with 4 wins beating David Funnell and Diana Rolfe, both having four wins but John and Gloria had a +12 hoop count against David and Diana.
Division D was won by Jane Sims and Peter Hill.
Full results to come but all the scores are on Croquet Scores
Thanks to Roger for managing the event
Thankfully the rain which had threatened all day held off. 24 players where divided into 4 divisions of six so each player had five games.
Division 1 gave an indication as to the improvement of the standard of play within the club; all players were club members with two players with minus handicaps. Gabrielle and Konstantine however finished in third and forth places. Rob Harper who recently has been cut to 1 winning with 4 wins and Simon Ancell was runner-up.
Division B also had a close finish with Tony Jolly 4 wins plus 10 hoops just beating Andrew Stewart also with 4 wins but only 8 hoops. Sam Holder was third.
Tim Bick was a run away winner in Division C with 5 wins followered by Sue Nicholas and Peter Hill.
Division D was won by Jane Powell with 4 wins followed by Mark Barnham and David Larkin.
Thanks to Roger for managing the event
Full results to follow, but already on CroquetScores
was played at Southwick on 29th May, mercifully with cooler weather!! 6 teams had entered but sadly Littlehampton were missing Bob and Robyn Clark due to injuries in a car crash. Andrew Baxter (Hon. Littlehampton member) and Mike Akester kindly represented Littlehampton ! So we had Sussex, Rottingdean, Rother Valley, Guildford, Littlehampton and Chichester.
The play was of course on short courts and all games are 14 points. We had a mixture of Alternate Stroke Doubles and Singles but the final round was speed doubles with time limit and no bisques!! Points were: 2 for a win, 1 + for a pegged out win and 1 for a draw.
It was great that a lot of matches pegged out! The setting up of a 4 ball break from the bisques is of course the whole art of AC and SC.
There were some notable wins ; Andrew Baxter pegged out twice in his singles against Sussex and Rother Valley. The last win was highlighted by a dramatic hit in with the opponent having both balls on the peg. Andrew kept his nerve to win 14-12. Richard Ellis won both singles for Rottingdean and Hilary Bird had good wins as did newcomer Dominic Webb. Katharine Minchin was in good form and pegged out in her singles game.
Guildford won with with 14 points, Rottingdean was second with 11 points and Littlehampton third with 9 points.
Many thanks to all clubs and players for their cheerful support and for playing some excellent croquet. I am as ever grateful to Ben for setting up the short courts and for providing us with wonderful lawns. Also to Clive for dismantling lawns 10 and 11 !
Pass the word around - short croquet is good fun, it is a learning curve and it brings new challenges! Join us!!
Frances (Manager and Referee)
Thanks to Frances for organising and managing the event
Photos: Richard Ellis
Sussex started their defence of the Croquet South East U League today with a match against Reigate Priory.
In very hot weather the team comprising Steve Chapman, Martyn Cooperman , Deborah Marcus and Nigel Billingham won the match 5-2.
In the morning session Nigel and Deborah won the doubles but Steve and Martyn both narrowly lost their singles.
It was a clean sweep for Sussex in the afternoon, winning all singles pretty convincingly .
Next up is a match against Canterbury/ Ramsgate (away) on June 10th.
Nigel Bellingham
Thankfully the rain which had threatened all day held off.
24 players where divided into 4 divisionsof six so each player had five games. Division 1 gave an indication as to the improvement of the standard of play within the club, all players were club members with two players with minus handicaps. Gabrielle and Konstantine however finished in third and forth places. Rob Harper who recently has been cut to 1 winning with 4 wins and Simon Ancell was runner-up.
Division B also had a close finish with Tony Jolly 4 wins plus 10 hoops just beating Andrew Stewart also with 4 wins but only 8 hoops Sam Holder was third.
Tim Bick was a run away winner in Division C with 5 wins followers by Sue Nicholas ands Peter Hill.
Division D was won by Jane Powell 4 wins followed by Mark Barnham and David Larkin.
Thanks to Roger for managing the event
Full results to follow
We had a very successful meal with 60 attendees. The flag was raised, food eaten, drink drunk; the raffle made over £300; speeches were made and a few even played croquet!
Thanks to the Catering Team for the lunch.
A team of volunteers painted the new walls forming the corridor between the two buildings on Tuesday. It looks muh brighter. Thanks to them, including new member Davide, who happened to be around and volunteered to help.
The third of the Croquet England GC Tournaments was held at Southwick on Saturday. This time the D Level for 10+ handicaps.
Another gloriously sunny day. Probably the warmest of the year so far.
Twelve players fought it out during the day. Starting in two blocks of 6 and then moving onto a knockout and playing for places. The top two from each block went forward to the semi-finals. The first semi-final was between Carol Corcoran of Littlehampton and Hilary Stanko of Worthing. Carol won the match 7-4. In the second semi-final Martin Sloot of Phyllis Court played Derek Code of Brentwoods. Derek prevailed, winning 7-5.
In the final against Derek Code, Carol Corcoran eventually came out the winner 7-5 with Martin taking third place and Hilary fourth.
Andrew Stewart
Thanks to Andrew for managing the event.
Full results
| Block A | HM | AM | JE | CC | MS | CW | Wins | Net Hoops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hilary Morris | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | -6 | |
| Angela Marjoram | 7 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 3 | -1 | |
| Jan Eynon | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 1 | -14 | |
| Carol Corcoran | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 23 | |
| Martin Sloots | 7 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| Christine Weller | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 2 | -5 |
| Block B | MW | DC | HS | NC | MK | DR | Wins | Net Hoops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maureen Ward | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 1 | -16 | |
| Derek Code | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 18 | |
| Hilary Stanko | 7 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 12 | |
| Nigel Corby | 7 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 0 | |
| Marion Kinshuck | 7 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 1 | -3 | |
| Dianne Randall | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 1 | -11 |
Main Knockout
| Semi-Final | Final | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| Carol Corcoran | Carol Corcoran 7-4 | Carol Corcoran 7-5 |
| Hilary Stanco | ||
| Martin Sloots | Derek Code 7-5 | |
| Derek Code | ||
Martin Sloots beat Hilary Danko 7-5 for 3rd place.
Nigel Corby beat Angela Marjoram 7-5 for 5th place.
Christine Weller beat Marion Kinshuck 7-4 for 7th place.
Diane Randall beat Hilary Morris 7-6 for 9th place.
Maureen Ward beat Jan Eynon 7-4 for 11th place.