Thanks to those of you who’ve volunteered. Our weekly white-lining rota for the summer season is now shown below.
The dates shown are all Mondays: you don’t have to do the white lining on a Monday, but you are responsible for ensuring lines are appropriately visible throughout the weeks starting on each of those dates. That includes checking the club calendar to ensure that they are freshly marked out shortly before – ideally the day before – any major competition (including, eg, all CqE-listed tournaments).
Paul Wolff – 16/3, 22/6, 10/8, 21/9
Andrew Petit – 23/3, 11/5, 29/6, 17/8
David Long – 30/3, 18/5, 6/7, 24/8
David Vincent – 6/4, 25/5, 13/7, 31/8
Sarah Donne – 13/4, 1/6, 20/7, 7/9
Andy Jones – 20/4, 8/6, 27/7, 14/9
Tim Leverton – 27/4, 4/5, 15/6, 3/8
Additionally, the white lining machine needs washing out every 4 weeks. These dates are shown in bold.
If swaps are needed, eg due to holidays, please arranged these between yourselves; John Garnett is also prepared to take an occasional turn if you can’t find anyone else to swap with.
If the diluted paint drum is running low, please top it up with a ratio of 2 parts water to 1 part paint. And please leave the transfer roller soaking in a bucket of water when you’ve finished.
Finally, if you find paint supplies are running low, or have any queries about the job, please ask me.
Please give a very warm welcome to Blewbury’s new captain of croquet, Andrew Petit.
It’s a huge change from his previous day job as a Church of England vicar. Next week the former vicar of the parishes of Cholsey and Moulsford starts the vital task of setting up the club’s 2026 fixture list. Not only will Andrew tell you where and when to play but he’ll also offer spiritual guidance to those who are out of form!
He will have the invaluable assistance of Bruce Gibson, who is to continue his role as tournament secretary for the Croquet England competitions which Blewbury stages.
Also stepping up to the committee this week was Jackie Bryant, who has taken over the clubhouse cleaning organisation as well as merchandising responsibilities. I can guarantee you’ll be hearing from her on both these matters!
Now, with a former general practitioner and a former vicar on the committee, you can be assured that the club has you covered on medical as well as pastoral issues.
The other major appointment at this week’s committee meeting was my taking over as newsletter and communications officer from the late Minty Clinch as notified in The footsteps of giants.
As mentioned in that piece, the committee are keen for all members to contribute by posting their own reports and pictures. That would save me some work, and I promise that this will be the last time I will write about Dave Dibben in the third person.
And for those who haven’t read it yet, here’s a link to the excellent eulogy at Minty’s funeral service
Another important role was filled this week when Philippa Turner kindly offered to take the lead on catering duties at Blewbury events. She will be keen to recruit volunteers for her rota, so please give that some consideration.
2026 and all that
Members who have been kept off the courts recently by sub-zero temperatures and biblical deluges can take comfort from the fact that planning for 2026 is well underway. The playing season is scheduled to kick off some time in March with the Hi-Lo Doubles, which have been deferred from the autumn.
We intend to field a team in the SCF Doubles League next season — two doubles pairs in a side — so there’s your chance to hone your skills alongside a partner.
Next up will be the Roger Cambray Memorial Shield on Easter Monday, April 6th. That’s our heat of the national charity one-ball competition.
Following that — on April 18th — will be the first of the CqE-listed events, a GC Open one-day tournament.
We should not be short of referees at these tournaments because both Andy Jones and Ruth Raunkiaer (left) have offered their services. Both the Phyllis Court players will also make themselves available for GC coaching and Andy has qualified as a tournament manager.
Before all that there will be another winter social at the Red Lion, including our ever-popular quiz. Watch this space for confirmation of the date, almost certainly in January.
Did you find boring boring?
If so, I’m afraid your croquet is about to be accompanied by noise from a new set of operatives.
Following the installation of a borehole pump 24 metres below the level of our courts, Avonmore will shortly be moving in to set up our new irrigation system. See club secretary David Long’s report “We’ve struck water“
What he didn’t say was that this work on making our lawns the best in the south is extremely expensive. A couple of big loans have made this possible and any more financial contributions, however small, would of course be most welcome.
It is hoped that the rest of the work will not disturb play; in the meantime, usual winter rules apply. Please use common sense of whether the courts are too wet or frosty and, if any doubt, lock up and go home!
And if you do get on the lawn….NO JUMPING! As,ever, a heads-up will be issued in the spring as soon as it is considered that jump shots won’t harm our precious turf.
After pile-driving through a rocky chalk layer, we struck water 6m down below our courts. Having continued a further 18m below that, to install a pump that should still be well-covered even in severe droughts, the borehole team are now tidying up and making way for our replacement irrigation system to be installed over coming weeks. We’re very grateful to Croquet England for the £5k grant we’ve gained towards this work, and even more so to those members who’ve provided donations or loans to supplement the Kay bequest and make this all possible. We hope that our courts will remain playable throughout the remaining irrigation works, though there may be some disruption while trenches are being dug… and when the new system is being tested! Please bear with us.
It is with great sadness that I have taken over from the late, great Minty Clinch as the club’s communications officer.
Following a suggestion in committee last year Minty and I agreed that I would one day succeed her in the job; both of us were hoping that it would be several years down the line.
Minty loved the role — which she performed in her own inimitable style — and she will be an extremely hard act to follow.
I’m afraid you will have to get used to a red-top sports hack as a poor replacement as a ‘legend in her own lunchtime’ writer on travel, skiing and just about everything else.
And I have to admit to being something of a one-trick pony croquet-wise… I play only GC and no AC, one-ball, short croquet or any of the other codes.
So here’s a plea to all members — and particularly those who I wouldn’t normally meet on the courts — to send all your news and results through to me.
We have been a bit thin on updates since Minty’s passing so I will try to keep you up to speed with what’s going on at the club. Better still, post your own reports!
A mistake we made removing Minty from the website following here death which has meant that the 2025 results are not shown here. The data are available but some work is needed to recover and display the data once more.
Minty’s Funeral took place in the beautiful church of St Mary’s Uffington.
Adam Ruck provided us with a copy of his eulogy which is reproduced below.
Minty Braham (Clinch) funeral eulogy. St Mary’s Uffington, 28 Nov 2025
Glass half full or half empty? Glass completely full was Minty’s approach to life, and to your glass if she was pouring, probably with overspill onto the table. She grasped the ketchup bottle of life with both hands and squeezed every last drop out of it.
She was certainly a woman of parts. I won’t repeat them all – traveller, competitor at any game going. Hostess, masterchef (‘feed me till I want no more’ and beyond), generous giver of presents, dog lover, setter of cryptic treasure hunt clues that no one could solve.
Dawn informed me the other day that Minty preferred to be known as a journalist rather than writer or travel writer. This was a surprise,because Minty wrote a lot. There were film star biographies – Redford went into paperback – and a novel which was translated into Finnish. I wonder how many here have read much of all that?
I hadn’t, but have been dipping into the novel for clues, of which there are plenty. It’s the story of a woman who breaks free from a stifling conventional upbringing – she was known as Spotty Swotty at school – through her work in freelance journalism. There are some disparaging remarks about The Archers – ‘manufactured crises’ – so it obviously came after Minty submitted a script and had it rejected.
But Minty wasn’t defined by writing. It was something she knew she could do, well and efficiently, and it enabled her to live the life she wanted – visiting interesting places and doing interesting things, with people whose company she enjoyed. She took a remarkably charitable view of the travel press fraternity.
By the time I met her she had moved on from the film world, which was too sedentary for her and, as she said, 9 out of 10 of the screenings she had to sit through were rubbish. My first impression was when we arrived simultaneously at some promotional event at the Ritz. ‘I’m afraid you can’t come in in jeans,’ said the doorman. ‘Would you prefer me to take them off?’ said Minty, without breaking step.
Rules were there not to be obeyed, and she was up for anything. Hiking in the Himalayas, riding with gauchos, dog sledding and polar bears in Svalbard, Mongolia, North Korea, Iran, the more far-flung the better. When she went diving to feed sharks in the Caribbean we wondered which party to that exchange would be the more nervous. Via ferratas and couloir skiing in the Alps held no fear for her and when her favourite mountain guide in Chamonix said ‘there is no crevasse big enough for Minty’ he was referring not to her size but her indomitable spirit.
Minty used to say all Clinches were cursed with a passion for sport and no talent. Never mind, it was her enthusiasm and determination that won her admirers and friends wherever she went.
‘We thought she was indestructible’ was the gist of many messages we have received since she died. She certainly gave self-destruction her best shot, racking up hospital visits in France, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia. From these setbacks she bounced back, more determined than ever.
I think the most inspiring thing about Minty was the way she adapted, as her favourite activities – riding, skiing, tennis – ceased to be available to her. She threw herself into croquet at Blewbury and in no time took over as lunch provider for the club and columnist for the national magazine. She thought nothing of driving half way across the country to play 6 hours of croquet in the hottest summer on record, and drive back again. She played bridge, kept up her golf until a couple of days before her last fall, and she took up painting and sculpture with some really impressive results.
This being a eulogy, are we allowed to suggest that Minty was not perfect? I suspect she may not have been a model patient, and had confirmation of this when I went to see her in the trauma unit of the JR last month. ‘How are you doing?’ I asked. ‘I’m afraid I’ve been behaving rather badly,’ she replied. ‘Yes she has!’ came a loud voice from the bed opposite. The problem was, she needed to get out in time to lead her family team at the Wantage Art Group Quiz Night, to be followed by the golf day she had arranged for Ravi at Wrag Barn. It was not to be, and she was not happy.
Bad behaviour? Some of you may know the story of Minty’s mother Biddy walking off rather than lose to Minty at croquet. We were reminded of this during a recent game of Happy Families. As Minty’s collection of Brewers and Butchers slipped away, her face darkened, until she threw down her remaining cards in fury: ‘well, Apsara’s obviously going to win.’ I don’t think she ever gave up on Racing Demon, but did she ever lose?
At the wheel of her BMW she got somewhat inaccurate of late, and it gave an added frisson to my bike rides when I knew Minty was out and about. I think only those of us who played golf with her, and had to point out her ball in mid-fairway, knew how bad her eyesight was. But there was no stopping her and woe betide anyone who mentioned the idea of eye tests for the over 70s, a policy initiative she viewed as a personal vendetta and a violation of human rights. She had a few scrapes and was a popular figure at the local bodywork garage, but she slowed down and by some miracle never did anyone, not even herself, physical harm.
According to the last chapter of Minty’s biography of Harrison Ford, every good story has a tranquil beginning, a turbulent middle and a happy end. Minty’s life was certainly a good story. Its beginning doesn’t sound entirely tranquil, but I dare say her marriage to David had its turbulent moments, as for example when he opened the car door into the path of an oncoming Mercedes with the result that Minty lost her licence for drink driving (a ban she cheerfully ignored, using an American licence instead).
As for the end of her story, the last twenty years were indeed happy for Minty who loved her life in this great village and they were happy for us who lived with her and were lucky to share the many friends she made here, her family, and her beloved Alfred.
So with great sadness we say goodbye to the one and only, remarkable Minty: a great spirit, home from the hill. The Minty Clinch – great name, shame about the music.* I can’t improve on the words of her friend Charles, who grows the best sweet peas and keeps us updated with the form of Surrey Lord which he calls Minty’s horse.
After they made her, they broke the mould.
Adam Ruck
Notes Feed me till I want no more and Home from the hill are references to previous items in the service
*a previous speaker mentioned the fact that there was a rock band named after her. She went to one of their gigs in a London pub and introduced herself. They were terrified she was going to sue. She made them give her a CD. It was execrable.
To all of you who did not manage to get to the AGM earlier this week. You missed a treat: the cake baked by David Long for the occasion. I can testify that it tasted as good as it looked.
This year’s AC World Championships are being held in West Palm Beach Florida. Only 72 players – from across the globe – take part. We almost had 3 BCC members there. Robin Brown earned a place but withdrew, Sophie McGlen got on the reserve list, but in the end only Joe King achieved the great honour of being there and representing our club.
The first stage of the competition was played in 8 blocks of 9 competitors. In such august company, Joe struggled but did manage 2 wins; against fellow Brit Stephen Allen, and vs. Jack Rush (USA). There is no shame in losing to the likes of World-ranked #4, Logan McCorkindale (NZ), who has since advanced to the Championships’ semi-finals and now takes on Reg Bamford.
That meant Joe was one of 32 players to enter the Plate competition. Here he enjoyed much greater success, winning all 4 of his block games to reach the knock-out round of 16. Further success, against Australian Michael Gidding, earned Joe a quarter-final place. But his run came to an end there, losing 2 straight games in a best-of-3 against Mexican Brian Lozano.
Well done, Joe. We hope you enjoyed the experience, and wish you – and other eligible Blewburians – even greater success next time!!
With no home lawn time, Blewbury was on the high road to Hurlingham to enjoy one-ball in the most elegant circumstances on the most brilliant day. As the shadows lengthened over the court on which Bunny Fulford beat America’s Matthew Essick to win the AC World title in 2023, Brian and Carol Jamieson locked horns . With six wins out of six, Brian had only to beat his wife to raise the Bingham Bowl. As he went to post the result, he said something along the lines of, “Well played, darling. Now we go home with nothing”. As Carol approached, I started hesitantly. “Maybe just this once you might have…” but I never finished. “I could never do that. It’s not in my DNA”.
Happily it was a truly golden day. On a more distant court, one of the Davids was beating the only Howard, the one result that could beam the silverware back to Brian. As it did; David Long and Carol came joint third with a 75% win rate. I had the same percentage but from less games due to sat nav meltdown, and Sandy Millikin was a winner too..
Pretty good for a Blewbury quintet that made up roughly 20% of a field of 24., And a great Jamieson victory in their last CqE tournament before they leave the committee at the AGM. Their plans for the future? “Play more croquet”. Is that really possible, but don’t say you weren’t warned…
