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UK v USA in Florida, 7-12 November 2023

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From 7th to 12th of this month the Solomon Trophy will be played for in Florida, America. This is a prestigious AC competition with teams of 6 from England battling it out with America.

We wish Gabrielle (our club member) all the best as she takes part. She is one of the top AC players in England and was runner up in the Womens’ AC worlds in New Zealand earlier this year.

The England team is 

Debbie Lines (captain) 
Alain Giraud 
Gabrielle Higgins 
Stephen Mulliner 
Mark van Loon 
Aston Wade

Amongst their opponents are Matthew Essick and Ben Rothman. Both have won the GC Worlds in Southwick (2022 and 2019) and Matthew was runner up in the AC Worlds at Hurlingham this year.

For those of you who love croquet it will be worth watching.

Details of the video link when they are known.


Today there was a discussion about the coming weather and the likely effects on the lawns for the competition on Friday.

With heavy rain on Thursday and very strong winds, we felt the lawns were likely to be both very wet and covered in debris from trees etc. Conditions for play were likely to be difficult or unpleasant and importantly to cause unnecessary damage (32 players on 4 lawns all day) so we reluctantly decided to cancel the event.

Of course Friday may prove to be a lovely day but I think it is better to have clarity a day or two beforehand rather than leave a decision to the last minute.

John


End of Season Dinner and Awards Ceremony

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Very many thanks to the Catering Team who produced a lovely meal to celebrate the end of the 2023 season and to hold the awards ceremony for the club competitions.

The summary of all the competition winners is on this page.

Not all the winners were present sadly, but there was plenty of silverware on display to take home at the end of the evening.

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The awards were made before the meal.

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Jerry Key with the Committee Cup

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David Dickins with the Handicap Singles trophy

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Jim Mander with the GC Improvers trophy

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Pam Gooders with the Freddy Reynold trophy

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... and the Bush Cup

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.... and the Shine Salvers with Gerald Gooders

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.... and the AC Victor Ludorum trophy

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Morgan Case with the Quaiche

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Steve Chapman, most improved AC player, with the Chandler Shield

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All the winners who were present. 

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Pam Gooders with the evening's haul.

Thanks to Ray Hall, Morgan Case and John Low for the pictures


Your intrepid reporter asked Liz Farrow, Club Captain, what the policy was on engraving club trophies:

Liz tells me

Trophies for our internal competitions are engraved by the club.

We are now trying to make sure that trophies are engraved in October for the winners of that year -ie if you won it in 2023 your name should go on it in October 2023.
 
This is not possible for all trophies due to various reasons, so don’t be worried if your trophy isn’t engraved with your name. 
This will go onto the trophy next time we engrave.

Please ask me if you are unsure about anything to do with engraving.
 

Since we are on the subject of trophies, if you win one from another club or from Croquet England, then their policy may be different so do enquire. The South East Federation engraves all their trophies on behalf of clubs that win them.


GC Level Play Singles Competition 21 October 2023

A difficult week weatherwise for croquet: the advance forecast for Friday was horrendous and for Saturday, the competition day, not much better. Discussions on cancelling held earlier in the week as doing so at the last minute is never helpful for players and catering volunteers. Frances cancelled her short croquet course module on the Friday but the regretted it as the forecast proved completely out, with a day of sunshine instead of storms. Oh well.

As it was, Saturday also looked ominous even the day before and we did have a fair few showers until about 2pm; but then the sun came out and a pleasant afternoon followed, to the extent that quite a few players had an extra game after the competition ended.

Entry was rather lower than usual as out winter competitions are usually over-subscribed and eventually 16 players took part in two groups: a higher handicapped group playing a block of five rounds with six players; and a lower handicapped group playing a five round Swiss with ten players. I don't think Sussex County has used the Swiss format for its GC one competitions before, as it requires some time between rounds and can be more uncertain in producing a result than a block; and so it proved in this event. However, it does have the advantage for improving players that they get to play opponents who would otherwise be in a higher block.

As a winter competition no jumping was allowed so these were not handicap card or ranking games.

GrahamTaylorWinnerCBlock-sml.jpgThe block event was comprehensively won by Graham Tucker who was unbeaten in all his games. Congratulations to him. It was also a pleasure to see two newer players taking part, one at least in her first competition. I hope they both enjoyed the experience, even if they didn't win as many games as they would have liked. Do come again!

RichardBrooksWinnerSwiss.jpgThe Swiss event had 10 players in the handicap range of -1 to 4 so provided plenty of opportunities for the higher end to play better players; and so it proved. By the end of round three Bridget Goodman (2) was on 3 wins, ahead of Jane Powell (4), David Dickins (4), Konstantin Yudintsev (3) and Richard Brooks (-1), all on 2 wins. The fourth round ended with 4 players on 3 wins, and the Manager was in trouble! These resolved themselves to two players on 4 wins after the final round - Richard Brooks and David Dickins - but of course they hadn't played each other. As the sun was out and there was no time constraint, so a play-off followed which was won by Richard 7-4. Congratulations to Richard and also to David for an excellent performance on the day.

A special thank you to Steve Chapman and Ben Harwood our grounds contractor; Ben opened lawns 7-9 for us to play on rather than lawns 1-3 (which would have been unplayble with the rain, and Steve prepared them up with good hoop settings and smart new lines. Thank you very much.

Thanks also to Rachel Pointon for providing and preparing an excellent light lunch, even though not many had requested it; and puttin up with the Manager changing his mind about when lunch would be, to take advantage of a dry spell. The time our catering volunteers put in to buying, preparing and serving lunch on these occasions is very much appreciated by those who eat it.

Full results

C Block PG JM GT JC KH KM Wins Position
Paul Green(4) 4 4 7 7 6 2 5
Jim Mander(7) 7 3 7 3 7 3 3
Graham Tucker(5) 7 7 7 7 7 5 1
Joanne Crosby(9) 6 3 5 2 4 0 6
Ken Hughes(8) 6 7 3 7 7 3 2
Kathy McColgan(10) 7 2 6 7 5 2 4
A&B Swiss Wins Results
David Dickins (4) 4 beat B.Hughes 7-3, M.Case 7-4, G.Taylor 7-4, K.Yudintsev 7-4; lost to B.Goodman
Richard Brooks (0) 4 beat K.Yudintsev 7-6, M.Case 7-2, J.Powell 7-4, R.Wootton +5; lost to B.Goodman
Liz Farrow (0) 3 beat G.Taylor 7-3, B.Hughes 7-4, M.Case 7-5; lost to B.Goodman, J.Powell,
Bridget Goodman (2) 3 beat L.Farrow 7-6, D.Dickins 7-6, R.Brooks 7-6; lost to K.Yudintsev, J.Powell
Konstantin Yudintsev (3) 3 beat B.Hughes 7-3, G.Taylor 7-4, B.Goodman 7-4; lost to D.Dickins, R.Brooks
Jane Powell (4) 3 beat R.Wootton 7-3, L.Farrow 7-6, B.Goodman 7-3; lost to M.Case, R.Brooks,
Morgan Case (-1) 2 beat J.Powell 7-3, R.Wootton 7-4; lost to R.Brooks, D.Dickins, L.Farrow
Beryl Hughes (4) 1 beat G.Taylor 7-5; lost to D.Dickins, K.Yudintsev, R.Wootton, L.Farrow
Gavin Taylor (4) 1 beat R.Wootton 7-6; lost to L.Farrow, K.Yudintsev, D.Dickins, B.Hughes
Robin Wootton (2) 1 beat B.Hughes 7-6; lost to G.Taylor, J.Powell, M.Case, R.Brooks


Sussex Open Championship September 9th and 10th September

The Sussex open took place at Southwick on the 9th and 10th September.

The weather was hot and the 16 competitors faced two days of stiff competition in sweltering conditions.

The field was split into four blocks of 4 on the first day with an all-play-all format playing the best of three games.

The eight players making it through to the knockout stage played on the second day were; , Dominic Aarvold, Steiner Olsen, Richard Brooks, Tim King, Steven Custance-Baker, Charles Sale, Colin Britt, and Morgan Case.

Dominic and Stephen played the final, and for the second year running Dominic prevailed winning 7-6 7-6.

Many thanks to Roger Sutton for managing the event.

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Winner Dominic Aarvold
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The whole group

Full results

Block 1-A DA CB MMF NB Matches Games Position
Dominic Aarvold 577 77 77 3 6 1
Colin Britt 765 77 77 2 5 2
Manual Marcos Fal 45 26 64 0 0 4
Nigel Billingham 62 66 77 1 2 3

Block 2-B MC SO SC ES Matches Games Position
Morgan Case 767 677 77 3 6 1
Steinar Olsen 570 277 77 2 5 2
Steve Chapman 765 755 77 1 4 3
Elisbet Scholles 13 25 23 0 0 4

Block 3-C SC RB MAT DD Matches Games Position
Stephen Custance-Baker 77 77 77 3 6 1
Richard Brooks 65 77 77 2 4 2
Maria Alcaraz Troya 64 34 66 0 0 4
David Dickins 64 61 77 1 2 3

Block 4-D TK CS AS PH Matches Games Position
Tim King 77 747 77 3 6 1
Charles Sale 42 77 77 2 4 2
Andrew Stewart 476 46 66 0 1 4
Phillip Harrison 22 41 77 1 2 3

Championship Knockout

Quarter Final Semi-Final Final Winner
Dominic Aarvold Dominic Aarvold 2-7, 7-6, 7-3 Dominic Aarvold 7-4, 7-5 Dominic Aarvold 7-6, 7-6
Steinar Olsen
Richard Brooks Richard Brooks 7-5, 5-7, 7-5
Tim King
Stephen Custance-Baker Stephen Custance-Baker 7-5, 3-7, 7-4 Stephen Custance-Baker 3-7, 7-5, 7-5
Charles Sale
Colin Britt Colin Britt 7-5, 7-4
Morgan Case

Plate

Plate Block DD ES PH SC MMF MAT NB AS Wins Position
David Dickins 5 1 3 7 3 7 2 6
Elisbet Scholles 3 5 4 5 4 7 1 8
Phillip Harrison 7 7 3 6 6 3 2 5
Steve Chapman 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 1
Manual Marcos Fal 7 7 7 6 7 7 5 2
Maria Alcaraz Troya 3 7 7 4 6 7 3 4
Nigel Billingham 7 7 4 6 7 3 3
Andrew Stewart 6 3 7 4 3 1 7

Shield Knockout

Semi-Final Final Winner
Tim King Steinar Olsen 7-6, 4-7, 7-6 Morgan Case 7-6, 5-7, 7-3
Steinar Olsen
Charles Sale Morgan Case 7-6, 7-3
Morgan Case

3rd & 4th Playoff

 Richard Brooks beat Colin Britt 7-5, 7-6

7th & 8th Playoff

Charles Sale beat Tim King 7-5, 7-6


Issue with the one-day competition form

Apparently users of more recent iPads who use their Safari browser can't see the whole of the competition choices offered. The list looks something like this:

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Unfortunately the length of each line can't be changed so it is what it is. I believe you can solve the issue by using Chrome or other browser downloaded from the Apple store. Or use a phone - iPhones don't seem to be affected.

In the longer term I will change the form to avoid this limitation - sometime before Christmas.


The deadline is extended to 9th October.


This competition is reduced to Saturday afternoon only. The Sunday session will not take place. 3 games on Saturday pm only. You can still enter online (note for technical reasons the entry system will still show the Sunday in the event title)

Play starts at 1pm.

£5 entry fee for Sussex County members, £7.50 others.


GC level play doubles competition 22nd September 2023

 A report from the Manager Richard Ellis:

We had a wonderful day today. Apart from a brief shower we were blessed with delightful weather.

The competition was played in 3 blocks. Block A, the top block, was hard fought but won by Richard Carline and Louise Taylor who only dropped one match. Block B was clearly won by Vincent L’Estrange & Simon Ancell, who won every match they played. Block C was very closely run between Diana Rolfe and Jim Mander against Rachel and Richard Pointon. They both had won 4 games, and ended up with net 10 hoops, so the final decision came to the last game where Rachel and Richard were able to beat Diane and Jim.

Angela and Hilary put on a wonderful spread for us at mid-day and we need to thank them for all their hard work.

Thanks also to Richard for managing the event with an awkward number of entries

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Richard Carline & Louise Taylor

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Simon Ancell & Vincent L'Estrange

Full results

Block A RW&AC BA&KY DK&RB DD&SC FP&TJ LT&RC LG&LF Games Position
Robin Wootton & Alan Cottle 7 7 4 7 4 3 3 4
Brian Aikens & Konstantin Yudintsev 5 6 7 7 6 2 5
David King & Richard Brooks 5 7 5 6 7 7 3 3
David Dickins & Steve Chapman 7 5 7 5 7 3 2
Fiona Phillip & Tony Jolly 6 5 7 5 5 1 7
Louise Taylor & Richard Carline 7 7 4 7 7 7 5 1
Linda Gavigan & Liz Farrow 7 6 0 7 6 2 6
Block B AS&RF BH&GT DS&JR SN&TN FA&PG VL&SA DL&SR Games Position
Andrew Stewart & Richard French 4 7 4 7 4 2 4
Beryl Hughes & Gavin Taylor 7 7 4 2 7 3 3
Douglas Shand & Jill Richardson 4 6 7 4 7 2 5
Sue & Tony Nicholas 7 7 7 4 7 4 2
Francis Ainley & Paul Green 2 3 6 4 7 1 6
Vincent L'Estrange Simon Ancell 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 1
Diana Langridge & Sue Rice 4 6 5 6 4 0 7
Block C TJ&GD FB&GT RP&RP DR&JM PM&SC TE&PG Games Position
Tony James & Gail Dowd 4 4 5 7 6 1 5
Fran Box & Graham Tucker 7 2 1 7 7 3 4
Rachel & Richard Pointon 7 7 7 7 4 4 2
Diana Rolfe & Jim Mander 7 7 4 7 7 4 1
Pat Mechen & Sue Caulfield 5 5 5 4 3 0 6
Trish Ellis & Paul Griffith 7 3 7 5 7 3 3