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 member and has now returned 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

Full results

Class A

Knockout

3rd-4th playoff: Paul Castell beat Jonathan Isaacs +13

Class A 'Plate'

Class B

Knockout

Class B 'Plate'

Class C

Knockout

Class C 3rd-4th Playoff: David Gillett beat Chris Williamson +2

Class C 'Plate'

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

Roberts Stafeckis, WCF Event Lead

Roberts Stafeckis presents Portugal medals with Manager John Low looking on

Ian Burridge

During the event Ian Burridge was presented with the WCF Hall of Fame Certificate for his lifetime commitment to croquet throughout his involvement with the sport - not only in his achievements in playing but also in improving the profile of croquet in his roles as Treasurer and President of the WCF.

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.

Full results

Croquet SouthEast GC Carnival Day, 3rd August

Sussex County entered two teams for this competition - “Southwick Primaries” resplendent in blue, red, black and yellow, and “Southwick Secondaries” in green, pink, brown and white.

The coveted prize (bottle of wine) for the best dressed team went to the Lodsworth Am Drams, some of whom wore ‘20s flapper dresses and all the adornments (some of which got in the way of their mallet swing, it has to be said).

Fish and Chips (Chichester & Fishbourne), won both the singles and doubles croquet competitions. Southwick Primaries came third in the doubles competition on net hoops.

Our biased opinion was that Southwick Secondaries definitely had the best dressed table.

Thank you to everyone who played and who helped with the admin.

Jo Crosby

Paul Green has written an article explaining the Croquet Grading System and D-Grades for those players new to tournaments. Find it here or in the menu: Play croquet -> About the game.

2025 GC Veterans Championship

The 2025 GC Veterans Championship was won by Simon Carter.

Play at Sussex County Croquet Club took place over three days. Following the usual programme for this event, the 24 players were arranged into two blocks, each playing 11 single games over the first day and the following morning, followed by a knockout and plate stage.

Conditions were good at Southwick; the Quadway hoops were set to their narrowest standard, which still gave a generous clearance which made the hoops manageable (for Quadways!).

By the end of the first day, of the top seeds Tim Russell had 6/7 losing to Trevor Smith; James Field 5/7 wins losing to Steiner Olsen and John Carr who played like a man possessed all tournament with superbly accurate shooting, and Tournament Referee Ian Shore who was not having a great day despite some excellent clearances and a wonderful jump shot ending to one game, finishing the day with 3/7 wins. The surprise, however,was Simon Carter who lost 3 games on the first day (3 happy players could go home saying they beat the eventual champion!)

Outside of the top seeds, others were having a good day: Phil Davies (ranked in the bottom sixth of the event) won 5/7 games on the first day, and a further 3 on the second to win him a place in the knockout stage.

By the end of the block stage it was Dochniak, Olsen, Russell and Farrow who qualified from the red block (in that order) and Huttley, Davies, Carter and Wise in the blue block.

In the quarter-finals, Simon Carter, finding form which was evading him on the first day, Tim Russell and David Wise made short work of their opponents, with Mark Huttley winning in three hard-fought games against Liz Farrow. A 7-3, 7-2 win for Simon against Mark Huttley and a harder 3 game win for Tim against David Wise set up the final for the afternoon of the final day.

Simon kindly described the final for me:

Old rivals and good friends, Simon Carter and Tim Russell, met in the final. As top seeds in their blocks, this was the expected outcome, but their paths to this point had not been without hiccups and surprises in the block stage. Simon had a particularly scrappy first day, losing three games. Tim’s progress was smoother, though he did lose to the event’s oldest player, Trevor Smith. Simon had then found his form and cruised in straight games to the final, while Tim had a very close best of three with David Wise in the semi to secure his place.

The final began with Simon on cracking form, running hoops from distance and leaving Tim wondering how he’d got to 6-1 down so rapidly. However, Tim showed true grit, guile and talent to claw the game back to 6 all before Simon ran a slightly nervy 13.

The second game was Tim’s from start to finish at 7-3, with Simon never really having a look in, setting up a crowd pleasing third game. This last one ebbed and flowed, with strong long-range clearances from both players, and the score was soon 4 all with every hoop being a tussle. Hoop 9-as so often is the case-was the turning point. Tim had put in what seemed like a narrow blocker that saw Simon prone on the grass in Mulliner fashion, before executing a long, angled shot to squeak past, and straight down to just by hoop 10.

More tussles ensued before Tim levelled the game at 6 all. Simon’s first approach to 12 had perfect weight but was the victim of a sneaky curve that swung it into the back of the hoop. Shoulders slumped, Simon waited for the inevitable jump from Tim to claim the title, but as we all know, a jump from a yard in a friendly is not the same at 13 in a championship. Tim blobbed the shot, but left his ball in front, leaving Simon to have a go, and once again, the nerves showed but Simon did achieve ‘ball swap’ leaving his own ball snugly into the hoop and Tim out of options.

It was a very well fought, good natured final that could have gone either way and Tim will be back next year to try to reclaim it from Simon! 

The plate event, with 14 players taking part, was arranged as 7 rounds of cross-block play, in the expectation that it might peter out towards the end, which indeed it did with long journeys beckoning some players and the prospect of a good final to watch for others. At least 5 games were played by all and at that point Ian Shore, the only player to have won all his games, was declared the winner. Sadly, there is no trophy for the plate event, so Ian fashioned his own from a paper plate and ‘engraved’ it himself; hopefully Croquet England can find a proper trophy for future years (and for the shield too).

Whilst the final was engrossing the crowd at Southwick, Shield finalists Liz Farrow and Phil Davies were quietly battling away on Lawn 4. Liz took the first game easily at 7-0 but Phil pulled himself together for the second, winning 7-6. The last game slipped away from him however, with Liz taking the game at 7-3.

Congratulations to the winners (and especially to club member Liz) and to all who took part. The whole event was played in good humour and with enjoyment. We were sorry that this year, for the first time since the GC Vets was established, Richard Brooks was unable to play in the tournament for family reasons; however, he was able to attend the final and presented the Brooks Vase to Liz Farrow who won it for the second year running as the best-placed player over 75.

Next year is the final year of this run when the GC Veterans is at Southwick. I hope we get more club players entering. Look out for it in next year's CqE fixtures calendar at the beginning of March!

John Low
Manager

Ian Shore, Plate winner

Liz Farrow, Shield winner

Simon Carter, Champion

Finalists Siman Carter and Tim Russell

Simon playing the winning stroke