Despite a valiant effort, the Southwick underdogs could not overcome the mighty Surbiton team of Samir Patel, Stephen Mulliner, Phil Eardley and Adam Swinton in the semi-final of the AC Interclub Championship. With a team including the current numbers 4 and 8 in the world, whose combined grade was nearly a thousand points more than the Southwick team of Dom Nunns, Gabrielle Higgins, Mark Fawcett and Paul Castell, Surbiton’s 6-1 victory was perhaps not entirely unpredictable.

It was nonetheless an enjoyable day, with the weather at least comfortably bettering the forecast. Samir and Stephen making swift work of all their matches, completing triple peels in all three with Dom and Gabrielle making a mere 2 hoops between them, allowed Stephen an opportunity to introduce Samir, Dom and Gabrielle to Peel Croquet, a variant of AC with much greater interactivity requiring much more accurate and adventurous play and offering much more tactical complexity. And a team of novice caterers have learned that if everyone brings a little extra ‘just in case’ you will end up with far too much food, so we were well fed.

We wish Surbiton the very best of luck in the final against Bowdon.

Gabrielle Higgins

Croquet South East GC Level Play League Sussex County v Compton

On 28th August Sussex County played the last of their four 2025 fixtures in the Croquet South East GC Level Play League which was a home match against Compton Croquet Club

The prolonged summer dry spell had just decided to come to an end on that very day, making it one of those days when thoughts of ‘should or should not additional clothing be added to the kit bag’ came into reckoning. Those who took heed of the forecast were right to do so as, at the very moment the first ball was struck, the rain began to fall. A quick scramble for waterproofs was made by the majority and yet, after ten minutes, the sun was shining once again.

Play was like that for the most of the morning with players disappearing into the courtside huts or under nearby trees for brief spells when the rain just got too much and at other times, shedding their outer layers to enjoy the welcome periods of sunshine.

This Hokey-Cokey style of play clearly suited the Sussex County team who found themselves 3-0 up at lunchtime without dropping a single game.

The rain passed through during lunchtime making play in the afternoon far more consistent in terms of wardrobe choices. Sussex County continued to play strongly and won three of the four afternoon Singles matches making the overall result 6-1 to the home side.

In the excitement of achieving this result, which made it four wins out of four in this league, a team photograph was completely forgotten! However, well done to Brian Aikens, David Dickins, Ben Harwood and Morgan Case for their victory in this fixture and to all players who have represented us in this league over the 2025 season.

Brian Aikens

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If you want to enter a competition, please email the webmaster.

The system is now working normally.

Sussex County Annual Tournament 26-27 August 2025

24 players from across the country (and indeed, the world, as we welcomed back Dennis Bulloch from New Zealand) gathered for the annual AC tournament. Sufficient players this year for the three classes of advanced level play in near perfect weather for croquet.

The August dry conditions had made the hoops tough to run and a lot of games went to time as a result; there were no recorded peels. An easy schedule of five games over the two days meant a fairly relaxed competition with time to chat between games.

Thanks to Linda Gavigan, aided by Rosemary Faulkner, Robyn Clark for the excellent BBQ which was very popular with the players and did a very good trade.

With 8 players in each of the three classes, the format for each was the same: each class was divided into two blocks of four; the top two players in each block played semi- and final for the trophy and the lower two played in a notional plate knockout, so the class was to be played out to all 8 places. In practice, the non-championship players preferred to play someone they hadn't already met in the last round so there was a general mix-up rather than a strict order.

The A Class trophy, the Abbbey Challenge Cup, was won by Thomas Cullis who beat Antipodean visitor Dennis Bulloch in a tight match which ended +2. Thomas was previously a club mamber and has now return so we welcome him back.

The B Class trophy, the Scott Cup, was won by Simon Turner who beat David Houston by one point in the final. David had won all his games in his block, whereas Simon, in the same block, had only one win and got through on net hoops (the remaining three players all on 1 win were not resolvable by matches won between them). Simon met the winner of the other block Tony Elliott in the semi-final and beat him, setting up the very close final victory.

The C Class tropy, the Daldy Cup, was won by up-and-coming Sussex member David Dickins. Both David and his opponent, Adam Newbould, had won all their games in their blocks; Adam was probably favourite to win but was convincingly beaten +12. 

It was a pleasure to manage such a friendly group of players and I hope to see everyone back again for next year's competition.

John Low
Manager

Thomas Cullis with the Abbey Challenge Cup

Simon Turner with the Scott Cup

David Dickins with the Daldy Cup

R league v Dulwich

The hot morning in London ended with Sussex County 3-0 up. Phil Harrison and Jo Crosby won a tight doubles match in 3 games (7-6,6-7,7-3), Mark Barnham also a tight singles in 3 (5-7,7-5, 7-4), with Kathy McColgan cruising her morning singles match.

The afternoon brought two straightforward wins for Mark and Kathy, a defeat for Jo (who gets the wooden spoon!), and a brilliant win for Phil who played magnificently for a 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 win.

So the overall result was 6-1 to SCCC. A great team effort. Now we wait on other results to see if we’ve won the R league.

Jo Crosby

AC matches to follow

The AC Inter-Club for Federation Teams (Secretary's Shield) 2025

This event is for those teams who won their Federation Handicap AC league in 2024. Our team won the Croquet SouthEast U league and so are able to take part.

Sussex County Croquet Club are now through to the final against Peterborough and our team of 4 will be travelling to a neutral halfway venue at Watford on 23rd September.

The team will be Gabrielle Higgins, Jonathan Isaacs, Simon Fenn -Tye and David Dickins. We expect Peterborough to put out a very strong team as well so it should be a good, close match.

AC Interclub semi-final

Here’s a match those of you who love AC may want to come and watch.

On Sunday 31st August Sussex County Croquet Club will be hosting Surbiton in this semi final.

Our team is Gabrielle Higgins, Dom Nunns, Mark Fawcett and Paul Castell.

Again, we expect a very strong team from Surbiton, so it will be a great opportunity to see world class players in action.

Croquet SouthEast GC Level Play League - Sussex County v Reigate Priory 21 August 2025

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

Photos by Ray Hall

7+ Singles Tuesday, 12 August 2025

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.