AC Longman Cup: Sussex County v Compton, 28 June 2025

Today Sussex County competed in a last 16 Longmans cup match against Compton Croquet Club. The teams were very evenly matched in handicaps and we played 7 games in the day.

Compton had the best of the morning with Simon Fenn-Tye, Steve Chapman and Robyn Clarke loosing but Nigel Billingham won his singles so we were 2-1 down.

The afternoon started well with Nigel winning again but Steve lost a close match against good opposition. Simon managed to win a very close game to even the games to 3-3.

All now depended on Robyn who won her singles to give us a 4-3 win.

Well done to everyone from both clubs for a competitive match played in a friendly way making it an enjoyable day for all.

Simon Fenn-Tye

GC level play singles in divisions 27 June 2025

28 entries were split into 4 divisions, two of 8 players and two of six players.

Division A was won by Brian Aikens with 5 wins and a hoop count of +10 followed by David Dickens and Bob Clark.

Division B was won by David King followed by Francis Ainley and Mike Gentry. 

Division C: Jill Richardson won with five wins out of 5 followed by Kathy McColgan and Robin Wootton.

Division  D: Tim Bick won with Five wins out of 5 followed by Fiona Fall and Linda Gavigan.

Well done to everyone who took part.

Roger Sutton

Thanks to Roger for managing the event

Brian Aikens & David King

Jill Richardson & Tim Bick

Full results

Short Croquet Jamboree 25 June 2025

The 2nd Short Croquet Jamboree was held on 25th June. A record 8 teams entered which was very encouraging.

The format was a round of singles, followed by a round of doubles then lunch - kindly provided by Rachel and Richard.

Afternoon play started with a round of one singles and a doubles. The last round was speed doubles!! Good fun.

Short croquet is played on short courts and is a 14 point game with full bisques in singles. A good learning curve. Our doubles is alternate stroke so again it can be used by newer players to learn from more experienced ones.

The play was very competitive with 3 teams in contention until the last round. It ended with a win by 1 point for Chichester 2, followed by Sussex 2, and Sussex 1 and Littlehampton following in 3rd place.

I think everyone enjoyed the day! Thanks to the teams for entering: Sussex 1, Sussex 2, Littlehampton, Rother Valley, Rottingdean, Reigate, Chichester1 and Chichester 2.

Do contact me if you would like to try Short Croquet. I aim to do some introductions in the autumn. If there is interest of course! Don't miss out!

Frances Low (Manager)

Thanks to Frances for organising and managing these Short Croquet events.

Photo of the winning Chichester team with the manager, and their chocolates! 

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.