News
SCCC Finals Week Schedule
Monday 25th September
10 am
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Freddy Reynold Cup | AC | Pam Gooders v Deborah Marcus |
Tuesday 26th September 2023
10am
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Committee Cup | GC | Peter Goldsmith v Jerry Key |
1pm
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Improvers Cup | GC | Konstantin Yudintsev v Jim Mander |
Wednesday 27th September 2023
2pm
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Handicap Singles Cup | GC | David Dickins v Richard Ellis |
Thursday 28th September 2023
10 am
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sussex Gold Cup | AC | Liz Farrow v Phil Dunk |
13 pm
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Southwick Cup | GC | David Dickins v Konstantin Yudintsev |
14 pm
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Doubles Div 1 | GC | Ian Cobbold & Richard Carline v Richard Brooks & David King |
Friday 29th September 2023
10 am
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Bush Cup | AC | Pam Gooders v Richard Carline |
Saturday 30th September 2023
2 pm
| Lawn | Competition | Format | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Quaiche | GC | Bob Clark v Morgan Case |
Other finals have had to be arranged for first week of October
Handicap doubles - Paul Green & Simon Fenn Tye v Ray Hall & Jim Mander 8 October 10.00 Lawn 8
Chairman's - Mon 2 October 10.00 lawn 4 Vincent L'Estrange v Simon F.T.
Doubles Div 2 - 6 October 10.00 Lawn 4 Di Langridge/Robyn Clark v Gooders
Supervets 6 October 10.00 Lawn 5 Peter Goldsmith v Ray Hall
Drawn pairs 4 October 10.00 Pam Gooders/VincentL’Estrange v Ian Johnson/Pete Wyld. Lawn 3
Already played / decided by block play:
AC Finals - winners
D’Esterre. Deborah Marcus
Daldy. Gerald O’Brien
Franc. Simon Fenn Tye
Moore cup. Dominic Nunn
New Challenge. Deborah Marcus
Paul Green CA C Series winner for 2023
Congratulations to Paul Green who won the CA C Series Final at Guildford & Godalming Croquet Club this last weekend.
This is one of the GC national competitions organised in handicap levels by the CA.
Well done Paul, next year it should be the B Series!
GC Winter Doubles
Club members can now enter this competition in two divisions. Follow menu: Play croquet - Club and team competitions - Winter club competitions.
These are for club members only.
Singles level play 4th September
A summer day at last! no rain and with a temperature reaching 25 degrees which although welcome meant everyone was happy to play a maximum of 6 games.
There were 30 entrants, with a third from clubs other than SCCC.
Many of the games were closely fought with games going to the golden hoop.
In Block A both Brian Aikens and Richard Brooks won 5 games but Brian won with net hoops of +14.
There was a clear winner in Block B with Simon Ancell winning all his games.
Block C was won by Gavin Taylor who won 5 games
Block D saw Francis Ainley win all 5 of his games.
Thanks to Angela and Martin Avis for doing the catering.
Fiona Phillips
Thanks to Fiona for managing the event.
| Block A | LF | MC | RB | AW | BA | CM | RW | TJ | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liz Farrow | 7 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Morgan Case | 1 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Richard Brooks | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Andrew Wilson | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Brian Aikens | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Chrissie Merrington | 7 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 7 | ||
| Robin Wooton | 7 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 8 | ||
| Tony Jolly | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Block B | AS | JG | MJ | SA | AH | DS | TN | DK | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Stewart | 4 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 8 | ||
| John Gosden | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Michael Jay | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Simon Ancell | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 1 | ||
| Andrea Huxley | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Douglas Shand | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Tony Nicholas | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 7 | ||
| David King | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Block C | DD | GT | JP | PG | VL | JR | PH | SN | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Dickins | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Gavin Taylor | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Jane Powell | 6 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Paul Green | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Vincent L'Estrange | 5 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 8 | ||
| Jill Richardson | 7 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Phil Harrison | 5 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 7 | ||
| Sue Nicholas | 7 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Block D | AO | FA | LG | PB | NDS | HW | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avril Oulton | 3 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 6 | |
| Francis Ainley | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | |
| Linda Gavigan | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | |
| Paul Brown | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | |
| Narmada De Silva | 7 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | |
| Helen Wilson | 7 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 |
CA Longman Cup Sussex County v East Dorset
Sussex County travelled to East Dorset for the semi-final of the CA's Longman Cup, a national handicap AC tournament. The result was a 6-1 defeat with Steve Chapman being our only winner. Three of the losses were quite convincing but the other three were by one, two and three points respectively. The last of these was in the doubles where an unfortunate leave after time was called allowed Est Dorset to go two ahead. Our hosts provided a nice lunch and we had an enjoyable day despite the result.
Individual results (ED names first):
Alan Jones & Chris Rice beat David Gillett & Simon Fenn-Tye +3T
Mike Rice beat Chrissie Merrington +20
Chris Weedon beat Steve Chapman +1T
Chris Weedon beat Chrissie Merrington +14
Alan Jones beat David Gillett +2T
Mike Rice lost to Steve Chapman -6
Chris Rice beat Simon Fenn-Tye +14
Very many thanks to the team of David Gillett (Captain), Chrissie Merrington, Steve Chapmen and Simon Fenn-Tye for volunteering to play in this match. It was a long way to trvel to Parkstone and back , and to play competitive croquet in the middle.
As its almost a year since I lost my dearest Pamela to dementia, I felt it would be rather appropriate to join the Brighton Memory Walk organised by the local Alzheimer’s Society at the end of September and at the same time raise a little cash to help with their work to alleviate the effects of this dreadful disease.
I can confirm I am now booked in for the walk and have set up a “Just Giving” web page to make it easy for anyone to contribute. The contact detail for the web page is :
www.justgiving.com/Bill-Arliss-BMW2023
I have to confess that I am having to stretch the walk title rather as any actual walking by myself of more than 50 yards becomes rather dodgy, so hopefully I will complete the 6.5km on my mobility scooter. I understand that the route we will follow takes us right along the sea front by the pier and will include all the journeys we both regularly made together by mobility scooters for several years past.
I do hope you will be able to give our charity some support.
Bill Arliss
AC Annual Midweek Tournament 2023
For the first time in several years we were able to run all three classes in this annual AC competition, one of only two now organised by Sussex County. This sounds good, but it masks an underlying problem I shall return to; first, the competitions.
C Class
This event was a block of 6 players and was won by Steve Chapman who won all his games. Steve is a relatively recent croquet player; he first appears in our GC competitions in 2019 and in CA events a year later. His overall game win rate in GC competitions since then is 75% which is an impressive start. This was his first foray into 'official' AC competitions and I think one can confidently predict it will not be his last, nor his only competition win either. Congratulations to Steve on his achievement. The trophy now used for this competition is one of the Club's two Daldy Cups; originally a CA trophy for the All England Handicap competition, it was won outright by Miss Margaret J Daldy and later presented to the club of which she was a long term member, winning 18 competitions here between 1932 and 1957. Something for Steve to aspire to!
B Class
This event was also a block of 6 players and was won by Stephen Wingrove. Stephen plays at Purley Bury and is another improving player, with a 71% game win record this season. He won all his games to take the (not as impressive a cup as the C Class unfortunately!) Scott Cup. Congratulations to Stephen.
A Class
The A class event had 8 competitors and was initially started as an American block; however, after the first round the Manager took the decision to convert to a Swiss to reduce the number of games played, rather than risk having to work out the winner of an incomplete block. Given 5 games were played over the two days that was probably the correct decision.
The competition was won by club member Paul Castell who beat all his opponents, including the two players with a lower handicap than his. Paul has been a croquet player at the highest level for decades: his competition record goes back to 1998 with more than 2200 CA competition games played and 17 tournament wins over the period. He has also been a dedicated club supporter and has won 16 club trophies since 1996 - this competition's trophy, the Abbey Challenge Cup being won now for the third time. Congratulations Paul!
Does this competition have a future? I noted at the start that we have not run 3 classes for a number of years. With an entry handicap range this year from -1 to 14, to run fewer than 3 classes would have been impossible as the range in each event would have been too great. The sad fact is that this entry was at the lower limit of viability - you cannot realistically play an AC competition with less that 6 players. I first played in this competition in 1997 and at that time it was a whole week with class events, handicap singles and doubles, and all lawns occupied to fit them in. In 2008 it reduced to a weekend tournament and in 2015 relinquished the weekend to become a midweek event. With fewer (and aging) players of Association Croquet and not so many like Steve Chapman taking up the format I fear it does not have a great future.
John Low (Manager)
Full results
| A Class | Wins | Results |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Castell (-0.5) | 5 | N.Coote +18,T.Jenkins +8,M.Fawcett +26tp,J.Isaacs +18,L.Farrow +3 |
| Tudor Jenkins (-1) | 3 | J.Tuttiett +26tp,P.Castell -8,J.Daniels +6,M.Fawcett +24,L.Farrow -17 |
| Neil Coote (0) | 3 | P.Castell -18,J.Tuttiett -3,J.Isaacs +9,J.Daniels +11,M.Fawcett +3 |
| Liz Farrow (2) | 3 | J.Isaacs +11,M.Fawcett -3,J.Tuttiett +3,T.Jenkins +17,P.Castell -3 |
| Mark Fawcett (-1) | 2 | J.Daniels +12,L.Farrow +3,P.Castell -26tp,T.Jenkins -24,N.Coote -3 |
| John Daniels (0) | 2 | M.Fawcett -12,J.Isaacs +26,T.Jenkins -6,N.Coote -11,J.Tuttiett +6 |
| James Tuttiett (1) | 1 | T.Jenkins -26tp,N.Coote +3,L.Farrow -3,J.Isaacs -12,J.Daniels -6 |
| Jonathan Isaacs (2.5) | 1 | L.Farrow -11,J.Daniels -26,N.Coote -9,J.Tuttiett +12,P.Castell -18 |
| B Class | CR | SW | JL | TE | CM | DG | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Rolph(4.5) | +8 | +23 | +5 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Stephen Wingrove(4.5) | +2 | +9 | +11 | +23 | +14 | 5 | 1 | |
| John Low(4.5) | +9 | +9 | +13 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Tony Elliott(5) | +9 | 1 | 5 | |||||
| Chrissie Merrington(6) | +6 | 1 | 6 | |||||
| David Gillett(7) | +9 | +14 | 2 | 4 |
| C Class | AH | TM | SC | RP | ST | EP | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Hicks(7) | +15 | +19 | +19 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Tony Mayer(7) | +6 | +8 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| Steve Chapman(9) | +6 | +6 | +18 | +9 | +9 | 5 | 1 | |
| Richard Platt(9) | 0 | 6 | ||||||
| Simon Turner(10) | +2 | +17 | +9 | +14 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Elaine Phillimore(7) | +3 | 1 | 5 |
Friendly Match against Hove Beach Croquet Club
Here are a few photos from Friday evening when we played a friendly match against Hove Beach. There was great food & drink and a really welcoming and friendly atmosphere. We also managed to win 5-3! Some of our team left before the photos were taken. They included Steve Chapman, Peter Goldsmith & Carl Gray. Apologies if I've left anyone out.
Thanks to Rosemary for organising the team.
Francis Ainley
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Close outcomes in doubles day competitions
32 players entered the August GC Level Play Doubles Tournament on a somewhat showery August morning which later developed into a lovely sunny afternoon.
The players were split into two competitions based on their aggregate handicap played over 6 rounds.
Both competitions were closely fought with 2 very close finishes.
In the A section 4 of the 8 pairs ended up with 4 wins. Liz Drury/Tony James & Richard Brooks/David King were level on +6 net hoops, however Richard & David beat Liz & Tony and won based on who beat who.
In the B Section the result was also pretty close with 2 Doubles on 5 wins and 2 doubles on 4 wins. Beryl Hughes & Gavin Taylor won based on net hoops from Fran Box & Graham Tucker with a net hoop score of +12 compared with Fran & Graham’s plus 10.
At the beginning of the tournament the Manager put out a special plea to avoid slow play following several complaints that had been made recently.
The players did extremely well and completed 6 rounds in under 6 hours including a lunch break. Well done all.
Jonathan Isaacs
Manager
Thanks to Jonathan for managing what proved to be a difficult event, with withdrawals right until the last minute; PLEASE, we all know it's sometimes unavoidable but do try to withdraw as early as possible if you need to. You will now receive a 4 week warning as well as a 10 day one to encourage everyone to check their dairies for clashes!
Full results
| Block A | BA&SC | TJ&FP | AC&PG | RB&DK | LD&TJ | SA&PH | BG&JP | AH< | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Aikens & Steve Chapman | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 5 | ||
| Tony Jolly & Fiona Phillips | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 8 | ||
| Alan Cottle & Paul Green | 1 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 7 | ||
| Richard Brooks & David King | 2 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||
| Liz Drury & Tony James | 7 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | ||
| Simon Ancell & Philip Harrison | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Bridget Goodman & Jane Powell | 6 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Andrea Huxley & Louise Taylor | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Block B | RC&DL | FB> | BH> | RW&PB | R&RP | DR&SK | SG&TE | SN&JM | Wins | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Carline & Diana Langridge | 6 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Fran Box & Graham Tucker | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Beryl Hughes & Gavin Taylor | 7 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Robin Wootton & Paul Brown | 3 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Rachel & Richard Pointon | 7 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Diana Rolfe & Sue Kilby | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 8 | ||
| Susan Gale & Trish Ellis | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 7 | ||
| Sue Nicholas & Jim Mander | 1 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 5 |