GC Singles 24th September 2024

A rare break in the recent weather allowed for an excellent day’s croquet on Tuesday 24th September.

Three divisions were played, with the two blocks in Division B having a final set of playoff matches to complete the afternoon and determine bragging rights.

Divisions A & C had seven players in each and did well to complete all the games within time, given that there had to be a bye in each round.

In Division A both Simon Ansell and Tony Jolly got off to a flying start, both winning their first four games. This set up what looked to be the decider in round 6, which Simon edged 7 – 6. However, Michael Jay put the cat among the pigeons by beating Simon in the final round, leaving Tony needing a victory against Chrissie Merrington to win the group. However, Chrissie prevailed 7 – 5, leaving Simon as the group winner.

David King ran out comfortable winner in Division 2 Block 1, just losing one game 7-6 to Jill Richardson, who finished second in the group. Division 2 Block C was sadly reduced to 5 players due to one no-show.

Notwithstanding, Robyn Clark had a good day, winning three of her four matches, and then beating David King 7-6 in the B v C crossover match to win the division. In fact, Block 1 finished the day with bragging rights over Block 2, winning 4 of the 5 playoff matches.

Performance of the day, however, goes to Kathy McColgan, who won all of her matches in Division. Thanks to all who took part in a very good-natured day.

And thanks to David Dickins for managing the event.

Full results

Division B Crossover Round

Robyn Clark beat David King 7-6
Jill Richardson beat Sue Nicholas 7-4
Andrea Huxley beat Jane Powell 7-6
Jim Mander beat Francis Ainley 7-4
Rosemar Faulkner beat Robin Wootton 7-5

GC Doubles Competition 14th September 2024

The competition had two divisions. Division A was won by Steve Chapman and Nigel Billingham. Division B was won by Phil Harrison and Mike Akester, beating Linda Gavigan and Vincent L'Estrange by one net point. Congratulations to them and thanks to Richard Ellis for managing the event.

Full results

Finalists please note the lawn allocation. Do come down and watch. AC schedule is below.

GC CLUB COMPETITION FINALS SCHEDULE 2024

LEVEL PLAY DOUBLES DIVISION 1 Wednesday 25 September 10.00

Lawn 8 Ivan Segal/Brian Aikens v Richard Brooks/David King

CHAIRMAN’S CUP Wednesday 25 September 11.00

Lawn 10 Konstantin Yudintsev v David Dickins

IMPROVERS CUP Wednesday 25 September 2.00 p.m .

Lawn 5 Jo Crosby v Alan Price

HANDICAP DOUBLES Thursday 26 September 2.00 p.m

Lawn 5 Jerry Key/Alan Price v Fran Box/David Dickins

COMMITTEE CUP Friday 27 September 11.00

Lawn 10 Sue Kilby v David Larkin

HANDICAP SINGLES Friday 27 September 2.00 p.m.

Lawn 8 Richard Ellis v Ray Hall

LEVEL PLAY DOUBLES DIVISION 2 Friday 27 September 2.00 p.m.

Lawn 5 Vincent L’Estrange/David King v Jo Crosby/Bob Clark

DRAWN PAIRS Thursday 10 October 2.00 p.m

Lawn 5 Vincent L’Estrange/Pat Harden v Rachel Pointon/Mike Stanton

_____________________________________________________________________

QUAICH - Gabrielle Higgins v Morgan Case Played 17 September

Won by Gabrielle 7- 2 3-7 7-4

To be arranged - President’s cup, Southwick cup & Supervets.

AC competitions finals

CqE Diplomas for David King and Frances Low

Croquet England Diplomas recognise those club members who have given outstanding service to croquet and have been active in Club or Federation affairs over a long period. Diplomas have been awarded this year to David King and Frances Low. The citations read:

David has been a member of the club since 2011. He is always ready to offer help and is very keen to help people play and improve their game. David is a club coach and he coaches on Academy GC courses as well as helping with newcomers on our four free lessons introductory offer. His welcoming nature and friendly patient approach have been key to getting many newcomers to join the club.

David’s background as an accountant means he is great assistance to the club treasurer and he acts as the examiner of the club’s annual accounts as well as helping out with monthly accounts and the financials for special events. He also acts as the Treasurer for the South East Federation.

It was in the three GC World Championships that SCCC has held since 2019 that David’s organisational and people skills came to the fore. In 2019 he acted as the main point of contact for visiting players on their transport arrangements between the four host clubs - Southwick, Compton, Tunbridge Wells and West Worthing. In 2022 and 2023 he ran the player registration process and the gate for spectators.

David has captained club teams, most recently in the South East Fed GC R league where SCCC have been champions in 5 of the last 11 years. David regularly plays in tournaments. In doubles his regular partner is Richard Brooks and they are a very successful pair in local tournaments.

David is a regular helper at our corporate / society events and has taken on organising a couple of them this year.

Frances has been a Grade 2 AC coach since 2006, an examining coach since 2014, a GC coach since 2016 and an AC referee since 1998.

She is a founder member of the committee that runs the Croquet Academy and has been a strong advocate of AC coaching. Her teaching background gives her a good basis for coaching and she sets high standards.

Frances is also a member of Rottingdean Croquet Club and coaches members there in AC as well as encouraging them to enter South East Federation and other events.

Frances has been very concerned about the decline in AC playing numbers. To counter this, she has led the introduction of Short Croquet at Southwick. Initially with Winter modular courses that she ran in 2021, 2022 and 2023 to introduce people to Short Croquet. During the playing season in 2022 and 23 she backed these courses up with regular Wednesday morning roll-up sessions. She has gone further in 2023 and 2024 with Short Croquet doubles tournaments and in 2024 two Short Croquet jamborees with teams from Southwick and other local clubs (several players for other clubs have benefitted from her Short Croquet Coaching as well). We now have more people playing AC than for many years, many of whom played only GC a couple of seasons ago.

Frances helped during the recent World Championships at Southwick with the player registration process and by scoring on the lawn side scoreboards.

Frances is a regular tournament manager for our one-day GC and AC tournaments and for SE Federation events held at Southwick.

Congratulations to them both.

GC Doubles Tournament 9th September

Report from Roger Sutton, Manager

The half-day doubles tournament on the 9th of September was hastily re-arranged to accommodate the 6 Spanish players who had entered the Sussex Open over the previous weekend. Their flight back to Spain on the Sunday evening had been cancelled and so I rearranged the blocks and included Jenny and I to make the numbers.

The winners of each block were
Block 1 - Helen and Andrew Wilson 3 wins +7 hoops
Block 2 - Sue Kirby & Diana Rolfe +3
Block 3 - Pilar Alvear & Sergio Garcia 3 wins +9

Congratulations to Helen and Andrew, Sue and Sue, Pilar and Sergio.

And thanks to Roger for managing the event.

Full Results

Stephen Custance-Baker wins Sussex Open Golf Championship

The Sussex Open this year was a truly international affair. 8 Spaniards had flown in from Seville and Steiner Olsen had flown in from Norway. Add to that Peter Balchin  had driven up from Wales.

The Spanish players

Saturday the field was split into 4 blocks and games battled against the rain all day, fortunately the lawns stood up to the rain and all lawns remained playable.

The first four in each block would go forward to the championship knockout on the Sunday.

Block one was led by Steiner Olsen followed by Martin French, Andy Jones and Jonathan Isaacs. Block two was won by Richard Gardener followed by Mark Hamilton, Liz Farrow, and Maria Burguete. Block three was led by Kim Taylor followed by Pilar Garcia,  Stephen Custance-Baker and Arturo Garcia. And finally block four was won by Konstantin Yudintsev, with Colin Britt Lourdes Alvear  and Bob Clark. So the Championship Knockout continued with its international flavour.

There was a slight improvement in the weather on the Sunday but heavy overnight rain had made courts 2 and 3 unplayable.

The last 16 played a single 13 point game, which was also the case for the quarter final. We were mindful that our Spanish visitors would have to leave at 5 o’clock to catch their flight home. For the losing quarter-finalists a bowl event was played which was won by Steinar Olsen.

Steinar Olsen

Liz Farrow, Richard Gardener Kim Taylor and Stephen Custance-Baker battled through to the Semi Final, which was played as a best of three 13-point games.

Richard Gardener beat Liz Farrow 7-5 5-7 7-3 and Stephen beat Kim 7-2 3-7 7-5.

This set up a final between Richard Gardener and Stephen Custance–Baker. Stephen got the better of this winning 7-2 5-7 7-2 and so won the Hamilton Trophy which was presented to him by the Mark Hamilton, in honour of his mother.

Stephen Custance-Baker

Those not in the knockout played a plate event which was won by Giles Peperell.

Giles Peperell

Thanks to Roger Sutton for managing the event and to Linda Gavigan for the pictures.

Full result

Championship

5-8th place 'Bowl'

Plate Event

Sussex County visit West Chiltington

The Sussex County team of Rachel & Richard Pointon. Jo Crosby & Nira Scutt travelled to West Chiltington on Tuesday to play a South East Croquet GC Handicap League match.

Black clouds were gathering around the croquet lawns, and a few rumbles of thunder heard, but fortunately the rain held off and Sussex County won a closely fought match 5-4.

Thanks to West Chiltington for their hospitality and an excellent tea! This match followed an earlier 8-1 win at home to Cheyney in the same competition.

Sussex County reach Final of The Murphy Shield

The Murphy Shield is a knock out GC competition organised by Croquet England.

On 31st August Sussex County hosted Guildford and Godalming in the semi final and our team of Simon Ancell, Vincent L’Estrange, David Dickens and David King put us in a very strong position after the morning’s play by streaking into a 3 – 0 lead.

However, the afternoon’s play was not quite as straightforward as Guildford and Godalming began to stage a comeback with some tenacious play. Despite this rally, the lead was just too much for them to overcome and Sussex County held firm and ran out winners 4 -3.

Well done the team and thank you to all who represented us in the earlier rounds to enable us to get to this position.

The final will be played at a neutral venue following the playing of the other semi final between Watford CC and Chester CC.

David King, David Dickens, Simon Ancell and Vincent L’Estrange, Murphy Shield Semi Finalists

Thanks to Brian Aikens for organising our team in this event.

Alan Theobald

It is with much sadness we report the death of Alan Theobald on Wednesday 28th August having suffered from deteriorating health in recent years. 

 Alan was a respected and active member who contributed much to the club including his lengthy service as a member of the Management Committee. He was also competitions secretary from 2008 until about 2011 and a member of the Academy coaching team.

Fellow member Gerald knew him well and said Alan had spent his childhood in Hove, attending Hove County Boys School. He became an industrial chemist of some renown and had three daughters.

Gerald visited him often in his nursing home in Hove for enjoyable chat and coffee.

He was an original 'hut buddy' - cleaning and painting them every year.

He played both AC and GC codes of croquet and won a number of club tournaments: his first were the High Bisque Salver in both 1997 and 1998. Later he took up Golf Croquet and in 2004 he won the GC Doubles Cup with Sharon Wood, later to become his wife. He followed this with two wins of the GC Singles Cup in 2008 and 2011. He maintained his AC involvement and in 2011 he won the Castell Soda Syphons with the then Chairman Alan Rew. They came second the following year. (The Castell Soda Syphons was an alternate strokes AC competition; the trophies were donated by Elizabeth and Paul Castell.)

Longer serving members of the club will remember him with fondness. Once such, Frances, commented: 

Alan was a loyal and respected Club member. He played AC when I first encountered him. He was playing in a SECF tournament. He joined SCCC and got married to Sharon. Alan took to GC very rapidly and developed into a good player. He represented the Club and acted as GC handicapper.

He was always helpful and happy to pass on his skills via coaching. Condolences to Sharon. Happy memories of Alan in his playing days.

Fellow member David goes further back:

I remember Alan from my schooldays as we both attended the same grammar school in Hove. He was a bit older than me being a sixth form prefect whilst I was still a third form boy.

The only reason for us coming into contact was that he demurred from giving me a half hour “cap and shoe” detention for not wearing my school cap because his older brother John, also a former prefect, was going out with my best friend’s sister.

He was also my partner once during the Shine Salvers competition, and during a couple of other inter club matches. We also attended the same bridge tuition course at Brighton and played regularly each week with our wives at his and Sharon’s house. I was sad to learn of his demise.

Picture shows (L to R) Elizabeth Castell, Alan Rew, Paul Castell and Alan Theobald

Sussex County B wins Restricted League

Paul Green, Organiser of the team writes:

They did it! 

Members from Guildford & Godalming, who were at our club, for a Murphy Shield match, brought the news that their club lost the last R-League match they had to play. As they were the last club who could draw level with us, we are now certain we have won the R-League (though the result is still unofficial).

This league consisted of 14 teams from 13 clubs.

I would like to thank David Dickins, who played in all 4 matches, and was the staff around which the team did so well. He also chauffeured the team on our two away matches. Francis Ainley played in three games and brought in excellent results. Ray Hall played in two matches and brought in a disproportionate number of wins for his position as the highest handicapped player in the team. Thanks to Linda, who brought home the winning game against Ealing. To Robyn, thank you for playing against Surbiton. Finally, to Andrew Stewart who, with David Dickins, won the hardest fought doubles match I have ever seen at Ealing, winning the Golden Hoop in the third game. Well done team, we made a little bit of history, together.

Thanks to Paul Green for organising the team and arranging the fixtures; it's not an easy job.