The contrast between Sussex County with its eleven lawns and a membership of just over two hundred and at Reigate Priory with its one three-quarter sized lawn and a membership of approximately forty, couldn’t be more marked.
Yet, here they were competing against each other at Southwick in the South East Croquet Federation GC Level Play League.
Our team of Brian Aikens, David Dickins, Ben Harwood and Richard Brooks found themselves 3-0 up at the lunch break without dropping a game. However, the afternoon session proved to be far more of an even contest with Reigate Priory taking two of the four Singles matches and coming close to winning a third.
It was Sussex County who ran out 5-2 winners at the end of play, but ‘hats off’ to our opponents who showed that small croquet clubs don’t have to be merely ones where social croquet is played. Competition croquet is alive and well at Reigate Priory.
Sweden won the Tier 2 championship at Sussex County in the six day tournament which ran from 5 to 10th August. They beat Canada in the final 4-0.
In Tier 3, Scotland beat Germany to take the trophy and additionally beat Switzerland to be promoted into Tier 2 with Switzerland taking their place in Tier 3.
The Championship in a few figures: 42 inter-country tests, 237 matches, 575 individual games and more than 4,300 hoops run during the 6 days of the competition. With 11 lawns at our disposal but 12 country teams taking part in two blocks, one half of one test had to sit out in each session of play for the first two days of block play and make up the games later in the event, something we largely managed to do. The competition had one new country taking part - Hong Kong; they were playing in their first tournament and said they thoroughtly enjoyed themselves.
We were fortunate that the weather provided almost perfect conditions for play as the timetable was very tight, with play continuing until dusk on 4 of the six days (and beyond on one day!)
It seemed to be the case that a good proportion of players hadn’t met Quadway hoops before. They struggled initially as many shots bounced back which would have been bullied through on other hoops. The hoops were set to 1/32nd clearance and as we had had an extended dry spell, the ground was very firm by Southwick standards, so that may have contributed to the hoop challenge as much as anything. Whatever the causes, a very high proportion of hoops were strongly contested as players either blobbed the hoop or hesitated to run unless closer to the hoop than usual with the consequent risk of being cleared – and we saw a very high general standard of clearances. It was one of the great excitements of the competition to see players taking on long clearances and not just hitting the ball, but hitting it full centre!
The countries were represented by players of all ages from 80+ to 17 years old. Those of us playing on the UK south coast are more used to seeing a competition of – shall we say – the more mature age group. To see so many young players hitting with skill, strength and confidence made the spectator aware that croquet certainly has a great future as well as a past. I want to pay tribute to all the teams for playing the tournament in a very congenial and enjoyable manner.
Previous contact between Sussex County and photographer David McHugh led to an excellent article about the competition in the Times newspaper, followed by reports on radio and ITV; these were all good publicity for croquet.
The club put on a good show for the event and I have had several emails thanking us for our hospitality, so thanks to all who made it possible.
John Low
Manager
Organising a group photo before play starts
Portugal: Tier 3 Bronze Medalists
Germany: Tier 3 Silver Medalists
Scotland: Tier 3 Champions and winners of promotion to Tier 2
Part of Wales team: Tier 2 Bronze Medalists
Canada: Tier 2 Silver Medalists
Sweden: Tier 2 Champions and winners of promotion to Tier 1
During the event Ian Burridge was presented with the WCF Hall of Fame Certificate for his lifetime commitment to croquet throughout his involvement with the sport - not only in his achievements in playing but also in improving the profile of croquet in his roles as Treasurer and President of the WCF.
Photos by Ray Hall
Twelve players, including new member Suzi Capey, braved the searing heat to compete in our latest 7+ tournament.
In Division A Linda, David and Tony each won two games but David's net hoops of +8 made him the clear winner. Division B was more straightforward with Peter winning all three games with an impressive +12 net hoops. The third division was also clear cut, Trish winning all her games with an even more impressive +13 net hoops.
Thanks to all for entering and congratulations to the winners.
Vincent
Thanks to Vincent for managing the event.
| Division A | LG | SK | TM | DL | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linda Gavigan | 7 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 3 | |
| Sue Kilby | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | |
| Tony Marjoram | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| David Larkin | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 1 |
| Division B | PG | AA | LD | PH | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Goldsmith | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 | |
| Angela Avis | 2 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | |
| Linda Davies | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | |
| Pat Harden | 3 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| Division C | AM | TE | MA | SC | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angela Marjoram | 4 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | |
| Trish Ellis | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 | |
| Martin Avis | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 3 | |
| Suzi Capey | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Sussex County entered two teams for this competition - “Southwick Primaries” resplendent in blue, red, black and yellow, and “Southwick Secondaries” in green, pink, brown and white.
The coveted prize (bottle of wine) for the best dressed team went to the Lodsworth Am Drams, some of whom wore ‘20s flapper dresses and all the adornments (some of which got in the way of their mallet swing, it has to be said).
Fish and Chips (Chichester & Fishbourne), won both the singles and doubles croquet competitions. Southwick Primaries came third in the doubles competition on net hoops.
Our biased opinion was that Southwick Secondaries definitely had the best dressed table.
Thank you to everyone who played and who helped with the admin.
Jo Crosby
Paul Green has written an article explaining the Croquet Grading System and D-Grades for those players new to tournaments. Find it here or in the menu: Play croquet -> About the game.
The 2025 GC Veterans Championship was won by Simon Carter.
Play at Sussex County Croquet Club took place over three days. 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 the following morning, followed by a knockout and plate stage.
Conditions were good at Southwick; the Quadway hoops were set to their narrowest standard, which still gave a generous clearance which made the hoops manageable (for Quadways!).
By the end of the first day, of the top seeds Tim Russell had 6/7 losing to Trevor Smith; James Field 5/7 wins losing to Steiner Olsen and John Carr who played like a man possessed all tournament with superbly accurate shooting, and Tournament Referee Ian Shore who was not having a great day despite some excellent clearances and a wonderful jump shot ending to one game, finishing the day with 3/7 wins. The surprise, however,was Simon Carter who lost 3 games on the first day (3 happy players could go home saying they beat the eventual champion!)
Outside of the top seeds, others were having a good day: Phil Davies (ranked in the bottom sixth of the event) won 5/7 games on the first day, and a further 3 on the second to win him a place in the knockout stage.
By the end of the block stage it was Dochniak, Olsen, Russell and Farrow who qualified from the red block (in that order) and Huttley, Davies, Carter and Wise in the blue block.
In the quarter-finals, Simon Carter, finding form which was evading him on the first day, Tim Russell and David Wise made short work of their opponents, with Mark Huttley winning in three hard-fought games against Liz Farrow. A 7-3, 7-2 win for Simon against Mark Huttley and a harder 3 game win for Tim against David Wise set up the final for the afternoon of the final day.
Simon kindly described the final for me:
Old rivals and good friends, Simon Carter and Tim Russell, met in the final. As top seeds in their blocks, this was the expected outcome, but their paths to this point had not been without hiccups and surprises in the block stage. Simon had a particularly scrappy first day, losing three games. Tim’s progress was smoother, though he did lose to the event’s oldest player, Trevor Smith. Simon had then found his form and cruised in straight games to the final, while Tim had a very close best of three with David Wise in the semi to secure his place.
The final began with Simon on cracking form, running hoops from distance and leaving Tim wondering how he’d got to 6-1 down so rapidly. However, Tim showed true grit, guile and talent to claw the game back to 6 all before Simon ran a slightly nervy 13.
The second game was Tim’s from start to finish at 7-3, with Simon never really having a look in, setting up a crowd pleasing third game. This last one ebbed and flowed, with strong long-range clearances from both players, and the score was soon 4 all with every hoop being a tussle. Hoop 9-as so often is the case-was the turning point. Tim had put in what seemed like a narrow blocker that saw Simon prone on the grass in Mulliner fashion, before executing a long, angled shot to squeak past, and straight down to just by hoop 10.
More tussles ensued before Tim levelled the game at 6 all. Simon’s first approach to 12 had perfect weight but was the victim of a sneaky curve that swung it into the back of the hoop. Shoulders slumped, Simon waited for the inevitable jump from Tim to claim the title, but as we all know, a jump from a yard in a friendly is not the same at 13 in a championship. Tim blobbed the shot, but left his ball in front, leaving Simon to have a go, and once again, the nerves showed but Simon did achieve ‘ball swap’ leaving his own ball snugly into the hoop and Tim out of options.
It was a very well fought, good natured final that could have gone either way and Tim will be back next year to try to reclaim it from Simon!
The plate event, with 14 players taking part, was arranged as 7 rounds of cross-block play, in the expectation that it might peter out towards the end, which indeed it did with long journeys beckoning some players and the prospect of a good final to watch for others. At least 5 games were played by all and at that point Ian Shore, the only player to have won all his games, was declared the winner. Sadly, there is no trophy for the plate event, so Ian fashioned his own from a paper plate and ‘engraved’ it himself; hopefully Croquet England can find a proper trophy for future years (and for the shield too).
Whilst the final was engrossing the crowd at Southwick, Shield finalists Liz Farrow and Phil Davies were quietly battling away on Lawn 4. Liz took the first game easily at 7-0 but Phil pulled himself together for the second, winning 7-6. The last game slipped away from him however, with Liz taking the game at 7-3.
Congratulations to the winners (and especially to club member Liz) and to all who took part. The whole event was played in good humour and with enjoyment. We were sorry that this year, for the first time since the GC Vets was established, Richard Brooks was unable to play in the tournament for family reasons; however, he was able to attend the final and presented the Brooks Vase to Liz Farrow who won it for the second year running as the best-placed player over 75.
Next year is the final year of this run when the GC Veterans is at Southwick. I hope we get more club players entering. Look out for it in next year's CqE fixtures calendar at the beginning of March!
John Low
Manager
Simon playing the winning stroke
Paul Green beat Richard Platt 6-7, 7-6, 7-2 in the final of the Compton 3+ competition on 27th July. He had been in first place in his block earlier, losing only one game.
Congratulations to Paul.
The tournament was split into 4 divisions of 4 players.
The A Division was tightly contested between Martin Cooperman (Sussex County) and Sam Holder of Hove Beach. They both won 2 games with Martin having a net score 1 point higher than Sam.
In the B Division Tim Bick (Hove Beach) and Tony Marjoram both one 2 games but Tim’s net hoop score was +6 compared with Tony’s -2.
In the C Division Chris Baccarini was a clear winner winning all his games comfortably. David Larking came second with one win but a better net score than the other opponents.
Keeping it in the family Sue Kilby won the D Division from Peter Goldsmith, both won 2 games with Sue having the better net score.
Jonathan Isaacs
Thanks to Jonathan for managing the event.
| Division A | SH | MC | RE | GT | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Holder | 4 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | |
| Martyn Cooperman | 7 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |
| Richard Ellis | 4 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 4 | |
| Graham Tucker | 3 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
| Division B | NS | LA | TB | TM | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nira Scutt | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 4 | |
| Les Ardley | 5 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 2 | |
| Tim Bick | 7 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |
| Tony Marjoram | 7 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 3 |
| Division C | TK | CA | DL | CB | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Kent | 5 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Christine Ardley | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| David Larkin | 6 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | |
| Chris Baccarini | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 |
| Division D | DR | RD | PG | SK | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diana Rolfe | 7 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 3 | |
| Rita Dona | 4 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 4 | |
| Peter Goldsmith | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
| Susan Kilby | 7 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 |
The second of Sussex County’s four GC Level Play League matches, against Cheam CC, was on a knife edge until the very last game.
The team of Brian Aikens, David Dickens, Jonathan Isaacs and Nigel Billingham travelled up to Surbiton, which is where Cheam are playing their home fixtures, and found themselves 2-1 down at the lunchtime break with Jonathan being the sole victor.
The rain, which had been forecast, miraculously held off as afternoon play began. In order to secure the match, three wins out of the four Singles matches were needed.
Brian lost comfortably to Ian Cobold, who played very accurately and, ironically, is also a member of Sussex County. This put added pressure on the three remaining Sussex County players who all had to win in order to secure victory.
David and Nigel both won their matches in two straight games which meant that the outcome of Jonathan’s match was the decider. At one game all, Jonathan and his opponent found themselves being watched courtside by both sets of their respective team members as they began their third and deciding game.
From the off, Jonathan played a solid and controlled game which included two jump shots and a monster angled hoop run on Hoop 11 to secure the game and the match for Sussex County.
Well done the team and, in particular, well done Jonathan with wins both in the morning and afternoon sessions. As Bill Shankly famously said, “Form is temporary, class is permanent”.
Brian Aikens
On Friday, 18 July holders SCCC set off for Dulwich to play a quarter-final match in the Murphy Shield in what proved to be a close encounter.
After an early start, the Sussex team of Ben Harwood (1), Vincent L’Estrange, Paul Green and David King (all 3) arrived in buoyant mood, despite the last 14 miles of the journey through the south London traffic taking about 1 ¼ hours. (same for the return journey).
In the morning doubles, Ben & David lost by 5-7, 6-7 in a very tight match with some amazing hoop runs (some fortuitously), while Vincent scored a good 7-6, 7-4 win. A morning lead then depended on Paul Green, who was level at 1 game all and about to start his 3rd game. All went well and Paul won that 7-2 to give SCCC a lunchtime lead of 2-1.
We all enjoyed a very good buffet lunch, knowing that 2 wins in the 4 singles would give us the match . The first result in the afternoon was a 0-2 defeat for Vincent, reversing his good morning win. Next to finish was David, who was well beaten 0-2. Ben meanwhile had won his first game 7-4, but was 5-1 down in the second – but showing amazing resilience he clawed his way back to pull off a fine win by 7-5! So the match score was now level at 3 all, when we all went off to find out how Paul was getting on.
Paul had won his first game 7-4, but his opponent was fighting back hard, and went on to win the second game to level it up. All now depended on the final game. After a good start, Paul was 5-2 up, but it was not over yet – his wily opponent would not let up and was inching back, and only at the 12th did Paul manage to clinch the hoop and give us a Semi Final place with an overall 4-3 victory.
Well done team, and our thanks to Dulwich for their hospitality, and a very tough but enjoyable match.
Our semi-final will be against Guildford & Godalming or Hamptworth who have yet to play their quarter-final.
David King & Vincent L'Estrange
