GC singles competition, 28 April 2026

A full house of 36 players enjoyed a fine if somewhat cold and windy day’s croquet in six divisions of six players ranging in handicap from -1 to 11.

Many of the visitors were seeing the refurbished club house for the first time and there were many admiring comments.

Three players made the manager’s life easy by winning all their games. Special mention must go to Rob Harper, one of the three undefeated players, doing so in Division C in his first ever tournament. The other two were Stephen Wingrove in Division B and Tim Weller in Division F. The runners up, all tying with another player on three wins but coming out ahead on net hoops, were David King (Division C), Richard Brooks (Division B) and David Larkin (Division F).

Stephen Collett was the clear winner of Division D with four wins, followed by three players on three wins, of whom Sue Nicholas had the best net hoop score.

In Division A, Konstantin Yudintsev dropped only one game, to Brian Aikens. Both finished on four wins but Konstantin was awarded the prize with +10 net hoops to Brian’s +6.

Division E had three players on four wins, again resolved by net hoops. Tim Bick edged out ahead of Peter Hill, also recording an excellent first ever tournament, pipping Kathy McColgan to the runner up spot by 2 net hoops.

Thanks to Gabrielle Higgins for managing this event.

Konstantin Yudintsev

Stephen Wingrove

Rob Harper

Stephen Collett

Tim Bick

Tim Weller

Full results

B and C Level Series Tournaments 25th and 26th April

Over a very sunny weekend two Croquet England Tournaments were held at the Club

On the Saturday it was the turn of the B Series Tournament for competitors below a D grade of 1700. 32 players took part using nine lawns.

The first part of the day was playing in 8 blocks of 4 with the top two players from each block going forward to the main knockout and the remaining 16 playing for the plate and other places.

There were many hard fought matches but eventually Matthew Parsons from Bradford upon Avon and our own Vincent L’Estrange got through to the final with Matthew winning overall by 7 games to 4.

Thanks to the catering team for producing a welcome lunch during a very long day’s play.

The C Level Tournament was a slightly more sedate affair with twelve competitors competing for the trophy.

This time they played in two blocks of 6 with the top four players going forward for the knockout and the remainder playing for places.

Several Sussex County players did well during the day and Diana Rolfe got through to the final against Tim Weller from Worthing. Diana was the winner in the final beating Tim 7 games to 3.

Thanks to Andrew Stewart for managing both events.

Full results to be found on CroquetScores for the B level and separately for the C level tournament.

Charity One-Ball local heat

The Charity One-Ball took place on Friday 25th April under bright sunshine.

There were eight entrants, so an all-play-all format meant seven games for everyone.

The charity was Save The Children this year and everyone was invited to wear something red.

The heat was won by Tony Marjoram with 6 wins followed by Nigel Billingham on 5. Rosemary Faulkner and Richard Ellis were third and fourth respectively on 4 wins.

David Marcus

Thanks to David for managing the event.

Full results

We hosted a great day playing Bradford on Avon today. A mixture of doubles and singles were played in the morning with some very close games.

Southwick just came out on top 9-6.

The group from Bradford on Avon then joined Fran’s Croquet and Cakes for a very enjoyable afternoon. Encore!

Thanks to Diana and Fran for organising the day.

The AC Spring Weekend Tournament

The Southwick Salver Advanced (AC) Tournament (11-12 Apr 2026) at Sussex County Croquet Club A near-full field of 29 players entered this year’s Salver from far and wide, hoping for an early glimpse of some spring sunshine by the sea and of the newly refurbished clubhouse. Phase 1 of the redevelopment was recently completed, and both club members and visitors are highly impressed. All those who have donated so far were duly thanked, and a sense of anticipation is already building for Phase 2 and the finishing of the job. With a number of events this season in both codes, further visitors from the UK and beyond will have a chance to see the progress for themselves shortly.

On day one, Nigel Polhill was involved in drama at both ends of the day. As the evening spectators looked on through their drinks with a mix of intrigue, entertainment and slight concern about supper timings, Nigel edged out Ged Smolskas for a +1(t) win. However, he had been declared winner of ‘shot-of-the-tournament’ by lunchtime for his bombard peg-out from distance to finish an already adventurous triple peel.

Elsewhere, the players seeded 1 (Dom Nunns), 2 (Debbie Lines), 5 (Gabrielle Higgins) and 6 (Annabel McDiarmid) had progressed to the semi-finals. Sadly, by start of play on Sunday it was apparent that Annabel’s wrist injury was going to prevent her from playing, after she had played so well - particularly in defeating the event’s joint top peeler, Ian Lines. Dom claimed his place in the final against Debbie with a +25tp win against Gabrielle.

By the time the final reached its deciding game, The Egyptian consolation event had bubbled up to one of its most exciting conclusions yet. With large numbers of points available for any upsets, there were several contenders at various stages, including club members Liz Farrow and Jonathan Isaacs, as well as visitors Matt Cook, John Greenwood, Peter Payne and Guy Hewitt. The event is ferociously difficult to win as a minus player, so the fact that Thomas Cullis came so close was hugely to his credit. However, the eventual winner of the red wine was Tim Luke, with three determined wins from five, all against stronger players on paper.

The opening stages of the final were more interactive than either player might have wished, but from a certain point in game two the quality of play went up several notches. Dom, game up, had completed two peels and pegged out Debbie’s forward ball before showing good patience in progressing the 2 v 1 ending. However, one slip was all that Debbie needed to pounce for a decisive three-ball break. Undeterred, Dom won game three with a 7th-turn triple to claim his third Salver win. Whilst early peeling opportunities were spurned, the eventual key was an accurate rush of peelee after 2-back to five feet straight in front of 4-back, allowing an immediate jawsing and a subsequent straight double peel to finish.

Congratulations to Dominic and thanks for also managing the event.

Full results

Salver knockout

Egyptian Plate

(NB, winner is defined by points gained, not direct results so table order has no significance.)

Short Croquet Interclub Competition

There was so much enthusiasm for playing in SCCC’s first ever match in Croquet England’s Short Croquet Interclub competition that playoffs had to be held to pick the team.

It was impossible to find a date that everyone interested could make, but on 14 April 10 hopefuls were blessed with fine weather and enjoyed three rounds of closely contested games.

Some were experienced Short Croquet players while others were playing their first game of Short Croquet, so help with the rules was on hand and a few coaching pointers were offered at the end of the day.

Steve Chapman was undefeated and so secured first place in the team. Nigel Billingham, David Dickins, Tony Marjoram and Kathy McColgan all won two of their three games, but Nigel was unavailable for the first match date and David Dickins very honourably stepped aside in favour of Bob Clark; Gabrielle as manager had made a handicapping error at the start of the day by failing to check if anyone’s AC handicap had reduced since their SC handicap was set, which resulted in David having more bisques than he should have done in his game against Bob, and David also has more external AC tournament experience than Bob.

The resultant team of Steve, Tony, Kathy and Bob will be taking on Chichester at home on 2 June. Spectators and supporters are welcome.

Meanwhile, there was enthusiasm for another day of Short Croquet later in the season, and if anyone is interested in joining the group, do let Gabrielle Higgins know.

Many thanks to Ben for setting out lawn 10 for Short Croquet for the day as well as lawn 11.

Thanks to Gabrielle for organising the event.

Big clubhouse clean-up

Thanks to Linda for organising the cleaning and re-filling of our new clubhouse with all the tables, chairs, kitchen equipment etc. And to everyone who helped.

And it was a great day for croquet!

GC doubles competition 3rd April 2026

Full results

2026 Annual General Meeting

The very first use of the newly refurbished clubhouse. It looks brilliant!

GC Doubles 20th March 2026

The weather was set fair for the Open Doubles competition on Saturday 20th March with non-stop sunshine and a light breeze. The lawns were in superb condition and because the ground was firm, with no rain for a few days, jumping was allowed for the first time.

With 12 pairs there were two divisions of 6. Division A and Division B.

In Division A there was a fairly tight contest with two pairs fighting it out to the last game for top spot. In the end Richard Brooks and David King prevailed against Simon Ancell and Vincent L’Estrange with 5 wins and net hoops of 10. Bridget Goodman and Jane Powell were in third place.

It was a little different in Division B with Beryl Hughes and Sue Nicholas building a commanding position, winning all their games with net hoops of 10. Francis Ainley and Kathy McColgan were in second place and Les and Christine Ardley in third.

I think everybody had an enjoyable day not only playing croquet but relaxing in the lovely spring weather.

Andrew Stewart.

Thanks to Andrew for managing the event.

Full results