Success for Sussex County in Longman Cup against Hurlingham

Sussex County went to Hurlingham for the second round of the Longman Cup, Croquet England's national knock-out handicap AC event.

The Hurlingham Club is "a green oasis of tradition and international renown bordering the River Thames in Fulham set in 42 acres of magnificent grounds". Preparations were under way for a tennis tournament and a sign appeared during the day on the door of the gentlemen's loo "Professional tennis players only". Facilities included a BBQ area about the size of our club kitchen.

The club does, however, lie underneath the flight path to Heathrow and so it is quite noisy.

Steve Chapman got us off to a good start with a convincing win but David Gillett lost. Chrissie Merrington and Simon Fenn-Tye staged a late rally in the doubles to give us the lead at lunchtime.

Steve won again but Chrissie lost. Simon overcame a forest of bisques to secure the match for Sussex County. In the final game David and his opponent were level when time was called. The opponent hit in and scored a point. David also hit in but failed to get in front of the hoop.

Sussex meet Roehampton or St Albans in round three.

Report by David Gillett

Summer Draw

1^st Prize £100 No. 1….Clive Hayton

2^nd Prize £75 No. 99……David Head

3^rd Prize £50 No. 83……Bob Clark

GC Open Singles 19th June 2024

On a windy but mostly fine "Summer's" day 30 players were divided into 5 blocks of six.

The winners were

Block A - Steve Chapman, 4 wins, net hoops +10; closely followed by Bob Clark with 4 wins and +9.

Block B - Brian Aikens, 4 wins + 4, followed by Konstantin Yudintsev 3 wins, +6

Block C - Michael Jay, 3 wins, +5 with Gavin Taylor second, also 3 wins, +4.

Block D - Francis Ainley, 4 wins and an impressive +12 and then Jill Richardson, 4 wins, +6

Block E - Jim Mander, 4 wins, +9; Graham Tucker, 3 wins , +5

Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to Linda Davies and Anne Stanton for all their work preparing a lovely lunch.

Steve Chapment

Brian Aikens

Francis Ainley

Jim Mander

Further congratulations are due to the following, whose handicaps reduced following completion of the tournament: Simon Ancell 1, Francis Ainley 4, and Jim Mander 5.

Thanks to Vincent for managing the event.

Full results

Half day GC doubles 14th June

Block A
1st: Brian Aikens & Steve Chapman
2nd: Bob & Robyn Clark
3rd: Ivan Segal & David King

Block B
1st: Carol & Chris Bailey
2nd: Di Langridge & Rosemary Faulkner
3rd: Pam & Gerald Gooders

Block C
Winners: Peter Goldsmith & Peter Cave

Thanks to Roger for managing the event.

Full results

Paul Griffiths

Our congratulations to Sussex County member Professor Paul Griffiths who has been awarded an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours list for Services to Virology. Paul has had a long and distinguised career in virology research and in particular cytomegalovirus. He is the Patron of CMV Action, a charity dedicated to educating about the serious problems cytomegalovirus poses to unborn babies if a woman catches it during pregnancy.

Sussex County wins Croquet SouthEast Ladies Day

The Sussex Couny team of Pam Gooders, Deborah Marcus and Kathy McColgan won this year's Ladies Day organised by Croquet SouthEast (the new name of the South East Croquet Federation). Congratulations to them.

Full report on the Croquet SouthEast website.

Record amount raised for British Heart Foundation 

This year's Charity One Ball competition across the country raised £9,382.16 for the British Heart Foundation, a remarkable achievement.

Gabrielle Higgins was our local heat winner and the Regional Final at Surbiton which was won by David Long of Blewberry Croquet Club. The national final at Nottingham was won by Peter Bell of Bristol Croquet Club.

Next autumn and spring there will be one ball sessions to prepare your skills for next year's charity competition.

Diana Brothers Drawn Pairs Competition 2024

Thanks to Vincent and Roger for managing the day, and Fiona for overall planning.

Full results

The knock-out stage is as follows: 

Best of 3 games, 

Quarter final played by 1 August, semi by 1 September.

Half Day singles tournament 1st June 2024

16 players were drawn into 4 blocks, evenly handicapped on a cold but dry morning.

The winners were as follows:

Block A

1st Gerald O’Brien,

2nd Konstantine Yudintsev

3rd Paul Green

Block B

1st Pam Gooders

2nd Rosemary Faulkner

3rd Linda Gavigan

Block C

1st Diana Rolfe

2nd Angela Avis

3rd Jo Crosby

Block D

1st Pat Harden

2nd Martin Avis

3rd Hilary Jolly

Thanks to Roger for managing the event.

Full results

SCCC GC Singles Tournament 31st May 2024

36 players entered the SCCC One Day GC Singles Tournament on 31st May. The tournament was split into 4 sections with the top 2 sections split into 2 blocks of six followed by a cross block final. The higher handicap sections were split into two blocks of 6 and played 5 games each.

Conditions were cold and slightly windy but fortunately the predicted rain failed to materialise, & most of the sections completed their games in time to beat the Friday rush hour.

The catering team of Rosemary Faulkner and Pat Mechen put on a splendid buffet lunch

And some very tasty cakes were offered at tea time.

The results were as follows:

A Section:

Block 1

Winner Liz Farrow

2nd Richard Brooks

3rd Andrew Wilson

Block 2

Winner Steve Chapman

2nd Martin Daniels

3rd Simon Ancell

Final play off: Steve Chapman beat Liz Farrow 7 – 4

B Section: 

Block 1

Winner Douglas Shand

2nd Vincent L’Estrange

3rd Michael Gentry

Block 2

Winner David King

2nd Gavin Taylor

3rd David Dickens

Final play-off: Douglas Shand beat David King 7-5

C Section:

Winner Francis Ainley 5 wins

2nd Steve Baldwin 3 Wins (+7)

3rd Sue Nicholas 3 Wins (+6)

D Section:

Winner: Jim Mander 5 Wins

2nd Paul Griffiths 3 Wins

3rd Paul Brown 2 Wins

Thanks to Jonathan Isaacs for managing the competition.

Steve Chapman

Liz Farrow

Douglas Shand & David King

Francis Ainley

Jim Mander