GC Level play doubles in divisions 21 June 2025

It was the longest day of the year, but fortunately, the competition did not take all of it!

Played in pleasant sunshine for most of the day, the event was in two divisions: a division of 8 teams with average lower handicaps, and a division of 6 teams for the higher average handicaps. Not the best ebtry for doubles we have had this year, and a number of players had to be dragooned in.

Expected to be very hot, the Manager amended the higher division from a division of 7 games to 2 blocks and knockout, reducing the number of games to 5/6. This division results in a final between Richard Brooks & David King and Gavin Taylor & Richard Ellis. Some excellent play from both teams resulted in a 7-6 win for Gavin and Richard. Congratulations to them.

The second division had a pleasant day of 5 games with every team winning at least one game. Only one team won all their games however: congratulations to Mike Akester and Philip Harrison.

Division A winners Richard Elliss & Gavin Taylor

Division B winners Mike Akester & Phillip Harrison

Full results

Sussex County v Hove Beach

It was a real pleasure on Friday to welcome Hove Beach for a very enjoyable match. We had the perfect weather for it, and surely there can't be many better ways of spending a summer's evening than having good food, lovely weather, beautiful surroundings, great company & croquet.

We played two rounds of 8 doubles games, separated by a lengthy break for refreshments. Our volunteers produced really tasty food & drink and a special mention to Denise J. & Angela A. for providing that; also Peter G. for his delicious pavlova (I must get the recipe for that).

Also, thanks to everyone else who stepped up to help with all the other chores an event like this inevitably entails.

Our home advantage obviously paid off and it was nice for us to win 12-4, but the evening was about so much more than that. Hove Beach can get their revenge in August maybe when we play them on their home turf! I will be posting details of that event in the next few weeks.

Francis Ainley

GC level play MORNING singles 17 June 2025

This event was for players over 7 handicap.

Congratulations to David Larkin, Nira Scutt, Angela Avis and Sue Kilby, winners of the four divisions in the competition.

Thanks to Linda for managing the event.

Full results

Inter Livery Golf Croquet Competition 14th June 2025

The Inter Livery Golf Croquet Day is one of the largest of our “corporate days”. Organised by Paul Brown on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Glovers, it takes a lot of preparation and pre-planning by Rachel Pointon and her catering team and involves several other volunteers as well. John Low skilfully masterminded the two simultaneous tournaments.

This year the Master Glover welcomed 21 different livery companies entering a record 38 teams. The competitors ranged from those who have played croquet often and some who had never picked up a croquet mallet before that day. New entries into the competition included the Nurses, the Parish Clerks and the Innholders.

Two competitions are held simultaneously, and both followed the same format, each playing in two blocks with a cross-block final round.

The day was honoured by a visit from the High Sherriff of West Sussex, Dr. Tim Fooks, though he was clearly disappointed that his busy schedule meant he couldn’t assume his normal role as part of the often victorious Leathersellers’ team.

The final of the premier competition, the Glover’s Cup was something of a rout, with Accountants A (Lynn Percy and Master Jonathan Grosvenor) defeating Horners A (Rebecca Joyce and Barry Maunders) 7 to 0.

The final of the Inter-Livery Challenge was won by Nurses A (Celia Brown and guest Nurse Clive Grimley) who beat and Turners B (Christopher and Angela Scott). The Worshipful Company of Nurses is one of London’s newest Livery Companies and this was their first ever sporting win.

The catering team did themselves proud once more with a wonderful lunch and refreshments. This from the Worshipful Company of Butchers sums up comments from other teams:

“Just a quick note to say how much we, The Butchers, enjoyed everything about the day. The organisation, the wonderful club, the lunch and teas so well prepared by all in the kitchen, the croquet but above all the sense of community around the Livery moment that the day so well embraces.”

Paul Brown

Briefing before play starts

Some training for new players

Not everyone has played before

Play in progress

Glovers Team C

Our catering team

Our catering team

Prize giving

Organiser Paul Brown

Inter Livery Trophy winners with Glovers Master

Glovers Trophy winners

Manager

Trophies

Sussex beat Caterham 5-2 in U league

Today our U League team had a magnificent win (5-2) against Caterham who came stacked with low handicaps.

Big morning wins for Steve Chapman and Nigel Billingham in the singles against very low handicap players set a good foundation for the afternoon.

In the afternoon session there were big wins for Robyn Clarke and Nigel Billingham which sealed the match, rounded off nicely by a good but close win by Simon in the final game of the match.

A great day in fine weather. Well done team.

Nigel Billingham

The Caterham and Sussex U League Teams

GC Doubles 7th June 2025

Sixteen pairs contested the Doubles Tournament on Saturday. The weather forecast was not good but in the end the rain held off until about 4pm which allowed most of the games to be played in the dry and on the whole warm.

Because of the numbers entering the pairs had to be divided into two divisions of eight. It was recognised at the start that it was not going to be possible to complete all the seven games available but everyone made a very good effort before the weather took over.

In the end the winners of Division A were Brian Aikens and Konstantin Yudintsev with 6 wins from 6 games followed by Stephen and Debra Hayns in second place and Bob Clark and Nigel Billingham in third. Division B was won by Kathy McColgan and Diana Rolfe with 6 wins out of 6 games followed by Andrew & Fiona Fall in second place and Joanne Crosby and Nira Scutt in third.

Thanks to Andrew Stewart for managing the event.

Brian Aikens & Konstantin Yudintsev

Kathy McColgan & Diana Rolfe

Full results

Short Croquet Competition 6th June 2025

Congratulations to Bob Clark for winning the Short Croquet competition on 6th June.

Thanks to Frances for arranging and managing the event and to Ben for preparing the short courts.

DIANA BROTHERS DRAWN PAIRS

The day was forecast for light showers . We were lucky in the morning to have it dry whereas the afternoon group valiantly faced rain for part of the time.

There were five blocks and Blocks A B and C had clear winners with three games out of three won.

• Block A. Chris Ardley & Jo Crosby
• Block B. Roger Sutton & Tony Marjoram
• Block C. Mike Akester & Susan Caulfield
• Blocks D winners were : Trevor's Wright & Sandra Towner (2 out of 3 won )
• Block E winners were : Fran Box & Nira Scutt. (2 out of 3 won)

This competition now moves on to a knockout stage with three runners up needed to make 8 Pairs for a quarter final.

The following 3 pairs had all won two games out of three so go to knockout stage.

• Les Ardley & Peter Wyld
• Clive Hayton & Anne Stanton
• Paul Brown & Fiona Phillips

Jim Mander & Angela Marjoram also won 2 games but just lost out on net hoops.

You will find knockout details on the website. Please make your own arrangements to play your matches.

Fiona

Open Afternoon Sunday 1st June

A warm welcome greeted 26 visitors to the annual Open Afternoon on Sunday. Our team of volunteers soon had everyone enjoying their first experience of playing croquet to the extent that 3 visitors signed up for the discounted 3 month trial membership with a further 7 booking their introductory free lessons.

Our bakers had provided the usual splendid array of cakes for tea, served by Jo Mander and Denise Johnson who took a splendid £102 for club funds.Thanks also to Deborah Marcus for manning the bar.

Well done to everyone who helped but most of all to Fran Box for organising the event.

Linda Gavigan

Sussex County Open GC Singles – 30 May 2025

A lovely day was promised by most of the weather forecasts for the GC Singles competition on Friday 30 May. In the event, the morning was cold with a threat of rain, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of our 30 competitors.

The format was for five divisions with six players in each division, all of which were looking to be very well matched. At this stage the Tournament Manager would like to apologise for any marital stress caused by putting two married couples in the same block as each other!

Division A proved to be very competitive, with some excellent croquet played by all. Going into the final Game Liz Farrow had won all four, but a win by Simon Ancell (even by one hoop) would have snatched a late victory. After some fine play, Liz prevailed 7-6, thereby winning her group and all her matches.

Division B went with the form book; both Tony Jolly and Jonathan Isaacs taking four wins out of five. However, Tony, with +14 net hoops to Jonathan’s +11, came out the winner.

In Division C, Jill Richardson was the standout performer winning four of her matches to take the group and reduce her handicap to 3. Well done, Jill!

Division D was the closest of all and had the tournament manager reaching for his calculator. Going into the final round Sam Holder had won four games, and Robin Wootton three. Sam went down 7-5 to Jim Mander leaving Robin requiring a 2 hoop win over John Low to win the group. John fought all the way to take it to the golden hoop, which Robin won, putting him level with Sam on wins and net hoops. However, this was not enough, with Sam winning the group due to his head-to-head win over Robin earlier in the day.

Division E also went down to the final round, with Kathy McColgan, Tony Marjoram and Christopher Mabley all having won 3 games to that point. Tony and Christopher both went down 7-6 in their final game, leaving Kathy McColgan to take the Block with a 7-3 win.

Thanks to all who took part in a very good-natured day.

Thanks to David for managing the event and to the catering team of Anne Stanton and Rosemary Faulkner for providing lunch.

Full results