Year: 2024

As always at Wycombe, the welcome was as warm as their level of play. Only Andy Evason adjusted to new June – winds from the Arctic more familiar in March – to defeat 3 handicapper, Geoff Johnson, 26-12. Deirdre Cochrane, a bit bruised from an e-bike mishap earlier in the week, put up a gutsy fight against Richard Pepperell, +2, but his silky expertise carried the day. .Minty Clinch and David Long were present but pointless. The carrot cake and dark chocolate ginger biscuits were outstanding.. Andy played a second hero’s role by driving the team to the venue in his winged Tesla (below). A treat indeed.

Blewbury’s prestigious June Advanced tournament attracted a diverse field from faraway places. Clive Goode (-0.5), Ian Vincent (-1) and Ian Draper (1.5) made up the Nottingham trio, with Charles Harding (0.5) from Bowden in Lancashire completing the powerful northern challenge. Hurlingham’s Mark Ormerod (-1.5) and David Marsh (-1.5) from Wrest Park represented southern clubs. On paper, Pete Trimmer (-2), Dave ‘magic mallet’ Trimmer’s flamboyant brother, was the man to beat. Could Blewbury’s chairman, Joe King (-1), or Peter Allen (0.5) send them home empty-handed?

Played in the best possible spirit, the matches unfolded over two days. The contenders relaxed under the gazebo for Dierdre Cochrane‘s delectable lunches; smooth service guaranteed by her daughter, Philippa, and Susan Tilbrook. While they ate, Mark and Pete reminisced over an incident at ‘the Worlds’ – the 2023 World Championships in which they’d both competed. As tournament manager, Joe anxiously fielded computer glitches off court, but kept his cool where it mattered. Pete retired on three wins after one day, Mark recorded four wins and a defeat but it was Joe unbeaten in four games, with victories over Mark and David on the second day, who topped the table. BCC salutes a famous victory.

Chris Roberts from Phyllis Court managed the two day contest for the annual AC 7+ Phyllis Court and Blewbury Cup. This year, day one took place at Phyllis Court, with the action moving to Blewbury for the climax. This took place between Philip Taylor, the man in the dark hat from Tunbridge Wells, and Kevin Ward from Phyllis Court. With the handsome silver trophy waiting on the sidelines, they engaged in winner takes all matches . Philip, his handicap reduced to 6 after the entries closed, recorded another win, leaving Kevin, on the highest handicap of 12, as a very honourable runner up. Blewbury stalwarts, Brian Jamieson and Steve Fisher, were left looking forward to more fruitful opportunities down the line.

The AC Handicap league gives higher handicappers an opportunity to play competitively against other clubs. Last year, our squad just achieved 1 win from their 5 matches, and our first match of the season had started in similar vein with a 4-0 defeat at Phyllis Court.

Undeterred, on 18th May our team of 4 confidently gathered in the Blewbury sunshine, ready to take on Oxford Uni. And when Oxford arrived, they were a player short, having found themselves only able to raise 3 players amid the exam season. So David Long stepped down, and agreed with their captain – Charlie Sharpe (son of Aussie croquet star Alison) – to provisionally score one game as a walkover to Blewbury: that result was subsequently ratified by the SCF, but only due to the lack of notice given (individual games should normally be rescheduled, assuming 72-hours notice).

Despite that 1-0 advantage, we still nearly lost the match: Charlie proceeded to beat Andy Evason 26-9; and Deirdre Cochrane lost by the same score to Oxford’s Mark Baker. However, in the last match to finish, Andrew Petit achieved the squad’s first game win of the season; with a 26-15 victory against Rob Pearson to square the match at 2-2. All 7 of us retired to the Red Lion to lick our wounds over a convivial and tasty pub lunch – on a day possibly better remembered as being that of Blewbury’s annual beer festival.

As is the custom, the HI-Bisquers weekend brought together a cheerful gang of improvers, several in their first tournament. Carol and Brian Jamieson organised the ‘all play all’ format with the expertise we so often rely on. On sunshine Saturday, David Long, Blewbury’s sole representative, started slowly against Neil George, the irrepressible BBC producer from Caversham. As the day progressed, everyone had at least one win so there was all to play for on Sunday. Elizabeth Connolly’s withdrawal distorted matters for day 2 , with all matches against her struck off the grid.,

Would it rain? Of course it would, but it saved the downpour for last when David Long, rallying bravely in previous matches, lost his slender winning chance to Phyllis Court newbie, Helen Essa, playing off 24. That left Neil and Wycombe’s Kenny Weir, continuing his meteoric rise after picking up his first mallet last September, on four wins each. Who beat who? Kenny (below), as it happened, though Neil ran 65 hoops to his 55. A four way tie for third left Helen, David, Paul Franklin and Karen Newbould thinking about what might have been.

With two CqE short croquet tournaments a year, Blewbury is establishing a  reputation as a great place to play the ever more popular variation of the game. The May fixture, impeccably run by Brian and Carol Jamieson,  attracted the full complement of 16 players, though Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli had to drop out on  the day. 

The competitors were divided into four ‘all play all’ blocks for the morning games. In the afternoon, the leaders in each block took on  each other to establish the top finishing positions. With a handicap of -1.5,  Sheffield’s  Eugene Chang, now working in France, spent much of the day lying prone  to  line up his peels.  Deservedly,  he ran out the winner over Kington Langley’s Margaret Murray. Andy Evason, a creditable fourth in his first tournament year, was Blewbury’s best player.

Philippa served a delicious pasta lunch. With Avril’s fruit salad and meringue dessert, it was much appreciated by those wise enough to order it.  As Eugene said as he collected his engraved glass, ‘it was a fabulous day out for all’. 

The next short croquet tournament is on Saturday, August 3rd. Entries please…

The Southern Federation Croquet (SFC) Advantage League kicked off with an incestuous epic between the two home teams. Under David Dibben’s captaincy, Susan Tilbrook led the D team’s 11-5 victory charge with four straight wins, reducing her handicap from 6 to 5.

Dibben consoled C team captain, David Vincent, by pointing out that the tussle was much closer than numbers indicate. Ten of the 16 games finished 7-6, suggesting the advantage system is doing its job.

The event was attended on behalf of Blewbury by David Long and Steve Fisher. Carol Wadsworth represented Phyllis Court, her main club. The courts were in fair shape though almost every hoop had a small rabbit run and the hoops driven in too far. We were triple banked giving six people on each of seven courts and a few waiting for a game. It was played as a “flexible” Swiss and at around 15:00 the four with the best results played in semi-finals and final. I only managed to win three out of six but David managed five out of six. David played Matt Miles-Griffiths from High Wycombe where he had to give away 1.5 bisques. The game was close but David won. This was followed by the final against Richard Coward, also from High Wycombe, who gave David the same number of bisques. Richard had a succession of long hit ins to try and stop David but to no avail. There will probably be an official photo at some point meanwhile here is one of David thanking Martin Burger who managed the event in the afternoon. David is holding a rather nice glass trophy in the box.