Sussex County v Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis (& Croquet) Club friendly match

On 12th August Fiona Phillips, Robyn Clark, Vincent L’Estrange, Tony Jolly, David King and Linda Gavigan set off early for a friendly match against Wimbledon.

After coffee and a brief tour of the club house we were ferried to the croquet lawns, tucked away behind the main club site. The lawns, recently in use as practice courts for the Wimbledon Grand Slam, were in great condition and played very well.

As we’d done the last time our hosts came to Southwick, we each partnered one of their team for two very enjoyable rounds of doubles which were hard fought but great fun.

The temperature had reached 30c+ by the time we stopped for a delicious (and air conditioned!) lunch. One of the highlights was chatting to Robert, the AELTC historian and archivist who joined us for the day (back row, first left in the photo). A mine of information on the history of the club, tennis and croquet. When we returned to the lawns the heat was such that only one further game was possible. A complete contrast to the weather last year when our visit was cancelled due to torrential rain. If only!

A leisurely tea and cake back at the main club house rounded off a lovely day.

As always, the Wimbledon hospitality was outstanding and we look forward to welcoming them to Southwick at the beginning of September. Traditionally these friendly matches are played home and away on alternate years but as last year was cancelled due to the weather we’re doing both this year.

Linda Gavigan

Alzheimers Croquet and Cream Tea a great success

Message from Tim Wilkins, Service User Involvement Officer, West Sussex, Alzheimer’s Society.

Please can you thank all your Coaches/Volunteers for all their wonderful support and information to everyone playing croquet and watching, car parking duties and all their help with everything.

Once again they were all fantastic, Angela.

The feedback I’m having from people who attended is all so positive. One gentleman who came along with his wife who has Alzheimer’s emailed me to say: ‘We had a lovely time, the afternoon was so well organised. The people who were helping us play croquet and doing the refreshments were wonderful’.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

Angela Avis

It's off to the seaside for Sussex County's two teams in the Croquet South East GC Jamboree, held on Sunday 9th August.

A report by Angela Marjoram and Diana Rolfe

Sunday's glorious sunshine was perfect weather for our yearly Carnival Day, organised and run by Bill Arliss, and assisted by Bob Clark.

Eight teams arrived bright and early, most in fancy dress with a colourful variety of table decorations, hoping to win the prizes of best costumes and best table display.

Each team played 4 x 40 minute timed doubles games in the morning; followed by 8 x 50 minute timed singles games after our lovely lunch prepared by the wonderful catering ladies.

The 2 Sussex County teams - Southwick Sur Mer and Sussex Surfers both won 2 of our 4 doubles games; and in the afternoon Southwick Sur Mer won 5 of their singles, whilst the Sussex Surfers won 3 of their singles (some were won by the new target/percentage system).

Southwick Sur Mer team was captained by Diana Rolfe, with
David and Joanne Harding
Sue Kilby
Morgan Case

(Team member David Harding won both his singles in the afternoon and with them a handicap reduction.)

Sussex Surfers was captained by Angela Marjoram, with
Graham Tucker
Pat Harden
Peter Goldsmith
Paul Green

A good time was had by all, with much hilarity, helped with some Pimms, made by Tony Marjoram.

At this time the Editor hasn't received overall results in the competition but will update in due course.

Sussex member wins High Bisque Tournament

Last week's Supervised High Bisque Tournament run by the Croquet Academy at Sussex was won by Rosemary Faulkner. The main draw was tightly contested with Tony Marjoram, Sue Kilby, Rosemary Faulkner and Chris Davidson all doing well. The final round saw Tony defeat Sue, and Rosemary beat Chris. So 3 wins for 3 players!! Rosemary had a draw in one game and no defeats so the manager declared her the winner.

Rosemary Faulkner being presented with the trophy by Club Chairman Clive Hayton

Congratulations to Liz Farrow and David Dickins who won this year's AC Handicap Doubles at the Hurlingham Club.

Also congratulations to Tony Marjoram who won the Norwich Croquet Club Chalkhill Mallet AC Handicap Trophy.

David and Tony are just two of Sussex County's new generation of AC croquet players, whom the Club has been nurturing the last few years through the Academy summer courses and the short croquet beginners program with Frances Low. 

MacRobertson Shield Round 2 comes to Sussex

Live streams from the Sussex grounds on Croquet England YouTube 

Up to date results on CroquetScores

The working party install our new clock.

GC Doubles competition 27th July

Today's morning competition was played in warm, or even hot, sunny conditions. 14 pairs were divided into 2 divisions of 4 players and one of 6, the last played as a Swiss.

Division A was won by Francis Ainley & Kathy McColgan.

Division B was won by Mark Barnham & David Larkin.

Division C was won by Sue Kilby & Chris Baccarini (by 1 net hoop).

Thanks to all for taking part.

John Low

Full results

Eileen celebrates an important birthday.

An impromptu but very happy 90th birthday party for Eileen was held after Sunday's Croquet&Cakes.

Eileen has done so much for the club as our expert gardener, tending, with the help of her team, all the borders around the club grounds. Thank you, Eileen, they always look lovely!

2026 GC Veterans Championship

The 2026 GC Veterans Championship was won by top seed Tim Russell, who beat second seed Lionel Tibble 7-4, 7-5. This is the third time Tim has won the event in the last four years, two of those at Sussex where the competition has now come to the end of its three-year cycle.

Winner Tim Russell with Tournament Director Steve Leonard

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 second morning, followed by a knockout and plate stage. Four players from Sussex County took part: Richard Brooks, Liz Farrow, David Dickins and Paul Green. Richard Brooks has played in every Veterans Championship since it start in 2007, with the exception of 2019 (playing the Worlds Qualifier elsewhere) and last year when personal reasons forced his withdrawal. Quite a record!

Weather conditions at Southwick were fine, if a little on the hot side. The lawns were fast, dry and challenging; a watering system fault had occurred 3 days before and over the weekend and that, coupled with the exceptionally dry weather and light winds left the lawns rather less controllable than Sussex’s superb groundsman Ben would have liked. The combination of hard ground and very firm Quadway hoops punished the slightest error in hoop running and many games were extended as good clearances and positioning were followed by failed hoops.

The format used by this competition since its inception means 11 block games over a day and a half. Quite challenging as nearly half the players were over 75. The first day ended with Steve Leonard and Andy Dochniak both unbeaten with 7/7 wins each; surprisingly, Tim and Lionel won only 5/7 games, Tim losing to Nelson Morrow and Steve Leonard, and Lionel losing to Rick Lilley and Andy Dochniak.

After the blocks were finished the following day, Steve and Andy topped their respective blocks, Andy with 10 wins from 11 and Steve with 9 wins from 11. They were accompanied into the knockout stages by Tim, Lionel, Andy Loakes, Stephen Custance-Baker, David Wise and Colin Britt (ranked 11 and 12) taking the last two places. Sadly, none of the club players made the cut this year and injury forced the withdrawal of Liz and David; Paul Green battled on in the Plate event and Richard acted as Tournament Referee for the remainder of the tournament.

Among the players over 75, only Stephen Custance-Baker survived into the Semi-Final stage and he was awarded the Richard Brooks Vase for the Best Performing Player in the age group. Andy Dochniak won the 3rd-4th place play-off. The (non-existent) Shield was won by Andy Loakes.

Stephen Custance-Baker, Brooks Vase winner

Andy Loakes, Shield winner

12 of the 16 possible players entered the Plate event which had a trophy this year, thanks to Croquet England who agreed to provide a freshly engraved new plate for this and future events. After some discussion with the players, the Manager ran it in a cross-block format as originally intended, with all participants playing opponents they had not yet met in the competition.

Many games were very long – not because of slow play (though there was some of that) but because every hoop was hard fought: lots of long clearances followed by defeat at the hands of unforgiving hoops. With hindsight it would probably have been wise to put a time limit on the plate matches, as this would have shortened the length of play on the second day and spared players long waits between games.

The Plate was won by Luis de Alarcon (Spain) who quietly won 5 out of 6 games, the best performance in the event. Luis said he had not played with Quadway hoops before and that clearly affected his performance on the crucial first day of the competition. Sadly, he was only able to go home with a photo of the award, rather than the Plate itself, as Croquet England doesn’t allow its trophies to travel abroad!

Luis De Alarcon, Plate winner

In his speech at the award, winner Tim Russell thanked the groundsman and catering teams for the excellent work making the tournament a great success.

On a personal note, it has been a pleasure managing the GC Veterans Championship at Sussex for the last three years. Tough, competitive play, but always in a good-natured and friendly way. The event is now off to Surbiton.

John Low

This article was edited on 28 July to correct some errors: relative positions of players after the blocks and the winner of 3rd/4th playoff was incorrectl;y attributed.