Opening Day

The summer season started on Saturday 1 April with the now traditional match between the President's team and the Chairman's team. There were 13 players on each side playing a single game of GC or AC, singles or doubles.

After a recent run of wins by the President's team, this year the Chairman's team prevailed 7-5. (See scoreboard attached)

Despite a lot of rain in the previous days and earlier in the morning, the lawns were playing very well (well done Ben and team) and the rain had stopped in time for our 11.30 start to events.

Many thanks to all who participated and, in particular, thanks to Angela and Chrissy for providing a lovely lunch and to Di for looking after the bar.

Clive

Final Winter Doubles Competition 24th March 2023

Thanks to Vincent for successfully managing a rain-free competition. He reports:
A full complement of 20 pairs entered our final Winter Doubles. Despite a gloomy forecast (and the manager's record with the weather) we enjoyed wall-to-wall sunshine although it was quite windy in the afternoon. There were some very long (or slow?) but close games and it was almost 5pm when the last match finished. Interestingly, 50% of the games ended 7-6 or 7-5.

There were 6 pairs in Block A which was won by Simon Ancell and Chrissie Merrington with 4 wins. 

Block B had 8 pairs and after 5 rounds Liz Drury & Tony James and Beryl Hughes & Gavin Taylor each had 4 wins. As they hadn't played each other there was a play off, won 7-3 by Liz & Tony.

Block C was won by Fran Box & Anne Bolland (who also won their block in the last doubles) with 4 wins from their 5 matches.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all for taking part (who was it who said that it's not the winning it's the taking part?).

Many thanks also to Karen, Linda and Arthur for providing a warming bowl of soup at lunchtime.

​Vincent
 

Full results

Advantage GC Competition 17th March 2023

Congratulations to Roger Sutton and Richard Carline for the excellent and most successful GC competition played with the Advantage scoring system.  Most players appeared to get to grips with the scoring arrangements and no doubt we will see more of Advantage GC on our lawns this season.

Roger organised the event as 5 blocks of four players who played each other in the morning session. The afternoon was a knockout of the block winners and 3 best losers, with the remainder playing  a loose Swiss format plate.

The main event was won by Paul Brown in grand style; at 6:6 and with his opponent David Dickins in control at the final hoop Paul pulled of a clearance from the other end of the court to stay in the game. After further jostling for position around the hoop in which it appeared David would succeed but a positional (and perhaps tactical) error gave Paul the chance to make the final hoop. Congratulations to Paul for winning and to David for making it an interesting final to watch.

Two players were awarded prizes in the Plate event, to Francis Ainley and to Narmada de Silva. Congratulations to then both.

Francis Ainley

Narmada de Silva

This was the first time an Advantage GC handicap competition has been played at Southwick and its success was down to the excellent organisation and preparation. In particular, the work that Richard Carline did in designing and producing his Advantage Posts and starting score cards made a huge difference to playing the game. The writer was somewhat sceptical when told about the system earlier but having played with it is a complete convert. It was so useful to be able to refer to the starting score card - particularly when starting with a minus score - to keep your actual score in your head; the cards made it far easier than looking for clips on peg and post. Thanks Richard for the time and effort put into this. We hope to have further information on his sytem on the website in the near future.

I got the inpression most players came away with a positive view of the Advantage handicap system, in comparison to extra turn format. Please be encouraged to try it out!
 

Results in full

Knockout Stage

Games played in the Plate Event

John Low  beat Sheona McArthur 7-6
Peter Goldsmith beat Victoria Yudintseva 7-5
Peter Goldsmith beat Susan Kilby 7-5 Susan Kilby beat Victoria Yudintseva 7-5
Jim Mander beat Susan Kilby 7-6
Jim Mander beat Peter Goldsmith 7-2
Laki Marangos beat John Munt 7-6
Laki Marangos beat John Low 7-6
John Munt beat Sheona McArthur 7-5
Chris Heath beat Mark Hamilton 7-6
Francis Ainley beat Diana Rolfe 7-4
Francis Ainley beat Chris Heath 7-2
Philip Harrison beat Diana Rolfe 7-6
Diana Rolfe beat David King 7-1

Some pictures from the event

Court equipment ready for play

David Dickins and Paul Brown at the 5th hoop

Paul shooting to save the match

The winning shot

Help, the ladies' washroom is sinking!

In recent weeks the Working Party has been busy rescuing the back of the clubhouse. Old age and a long term water leak from the ladies' changing room facilities had rotted the main beam supporting the back wall of the clubhouse. It needed to be replaced, so, rather like repairing a flat tyre on your car, the back of the building was jacked up and a new beam fitted. Thanks to Ray Hall for pictures of this interesting operation.

And thanks to all the Working Party for carrying it out. They work all winter on these sorts of jobs and could be forgiven if they felt undervalued by members, as they d a huge amount of vital maintenance work. So thank you all!

First beam removed

Preparing to remove the next beam

Supporting the building with a jack

Putting the jack in place

Needs to be absolutely right!

The jack takes the strain

Damaged beam

Removing the beam

Preparing the brick supports

Cleaning them up.

Last beam coming out

Nearly there!

Brick support ready for cleaning up

The new beam

Rebuilding the brick supports

Preparing the damp proof course

It's got to be level!

Finishing the brick supports

Ready to lift into place

Ready to slide in

Nearly there

New beam in place

The jacks come out

The finished beam in place

GC Singles Competitions on 3rd and 4th March

The overwhelming response of entries to the original competition meant it was decided to split the event into two on two consecutive days so that everyone could play (some on both days!).

Friday's event was managed by Roger; thanks to him for that and to the catering team of Linda Davies, Rosemany Faulkner and Marion King. Roger reports that the weather was cold but dry. There were 20 contestants split into two groups of 10; these were then seeded and split into two groups of 5 and then played cross blocks.

Morgan Case was the winner of Block A1 with an impressive 5 wins, with Charles Sale second with 3 wins.
Block A2 was a closer affair with Ian Cobbold winning with 3 wins and +5 hoops and  Richard Brooks second with 3 wins +2 hoops.
Block B1 again was close with Francis Ainley winning with 4 wins +13 hoops and Paul Green second with 4 wins +12 hoops. Block B2 had an run away winner, Simon Fenn-Tye with 4 wins and +10 hoops.

Congratulations to the winners.

Saturday's event was very smoothly managed by Vincent L'Estrange (no rain today!!). The catering team was Angela Avis and Karen Hayton. Thanks to all three for making the competition possible.

Vincent reported that  there was a full turnout of 24 for our second GC Singles Tournament in 2 days, demonstrating how popular they are. Yet again, there were requests for more Saturday events (Committee, please take note - Webmaster). Three groups of 8 completed 5 rounds by which time clear winners had emerged so a final round was not played (most people were cold enough already).

Despite the cold there was some excellent croquet played, especially by the winners who dominated their groups: Group A Bob Clark, 5 wins, net hoops +17; Group B Simon Ancell 5 wins +16; Group C Martin Daniels 5 wins +20. Congratulations to all three.

Thanks to the catering team for a warming bowl of soup at lunchtime.

Full results for both days

A few pictures of the event

Briefing before play

Bob Clark

John Low

Martin Avis

Karen Hayton & Angela Avis

Martin Daniels, Konstantin Yudintsev & Victoria Yudintseva at lunch

Gavin Taylor & Frances Low at lunch

Manager Vincent L'Estrange

Paul Green

Steve Chapman & Mark Hamilton

You can now enter our summer club competitions (club members only!)

Full house for GC Winter Doubles

By dint of a little gentle arm-twisting the last place in the competition was filled on Thursday to make a full complement of 40 players. The day were a bit drear and chilly but sensibly the Manager Frances Low had cut the final round from the blocks and it seemed players were content to finish when they did.

Three blocks were organised, a 'top' block of 8 teams of the lowest handicapped players and two approximately equal blocks of six teams each.

The top block was convincingly won by Jane and Neil Humphreys, winning 4 out of 5 games. 

Block B1 was won by Anne Bolland and Fran Box with 4 out of 5 wins and +10 points; Paul Green and Francis Ainley also had 4/5 wins and +10 points but had lost to Anne and Fran so came a very close second.

Block B2 was won by Di Langridge and Sue Rice, also with 4 out of 5 wins, the only pair to do so in their block.

Thanks to Frances Low for managing, aided by Roger Sutton, and to Angela Avis and Judith Peek for organising the excellent soup lunch (very welcome after the cold play) and to the soup makers, of course.

Full results

Some pictures of the event

Manager Frances Low

Play in progress

Thanks for the game

Lunchtime

Angela and Judith serving lunch

A happy Manager!

Top player Crunchy

Prizegiving

Steady on Di!

GC Singles Competition 3rd February 2023

This was the first competition of 2023 and, unlike earlier winter events, was played on a pleasant day with some sunshine in the afternoon after a chilly start.

Block A was won by Richard Brooks, who won 6 out of 7 gsames, as also did Morgan Case; Richard beat Morgan by 1 point on net hoops to take the winning slot.

Block B was won by Steve Chapman who won all his games with a massive +22 points (Handicapper, please note!!)

Block C was won by Alan Grundy with 4 out of 6 wins, beating Paul Green on the same number of wins but with 2 net hoop points less.

A mention for Mark Hamilton who took a vacant place in Block C at the last minute and won all his games, but declined the winning place as he should have played in a higher block.

Thanks to Linda for managing the event so efficiently and to Angela and Martin Avis for organising the lunch (and the cooks who made it).

Full results follow and a few more pictures.

Full results

Sussex members in Women's GC Championships

Gabrielle Higgins

Liz Farrow

Congratulations to Gabrielle Higgins and Liz Farrow for their selection to play in the 2023 WCF Women's GC World Championships which take place this year here at Southwick in August. Gabrielle and Liz are currently ranked 6th and 8th best UK women players of Golf Croquet.

We wish them every success.

Extra One-day Competition on 3rd March

The competition on 4th March is over-subscribed so we have added an additional competition on the day before - 3rd March 2023.

If you have already entered please follow the instructions sent out by Roger by email. New players can also enter on-line as normal.