The seven days marking the turn of the month perhaps typified for me the life of the croquet player and how much depends on our all too unpredictable mental attitude.

On July 28th I was looking forward to playing at Bristol for the first time, envisaging lovely lawns maintained by a well-resourced city club. So it was a bit of a shock arriving to find the two completely brown, patchy and generally very rough-looking lawns we were expected to play on. 

Sure enough, it was a day of playing something more akin to “Crazy Croquet” rather than Short Croquet. It seems I adapted the worst in our team, as I lost all four of my games — which was the main reason why we lost the match.

However, our hosts were delightful and did their best to make up for the dreadful state of their lawns with a cream tea and home-made cake.

The next day I was down at Hamptworth for another SC match. Would their lawns be any better? At first sight, the signs were hopeful; there were actually patches of green on the lawn! However, further inspection and the subsequent match showed that playing on a random patchwork of almost bald lawn and roughly-mown green grass was even more unpredictable than the day before. 

Nevertheless,  it seems I managed to improve my Crazy Croquet skills, winning a respectable two out of four. Blewbury managed to do just enough to draw the match, mainly thanks to Joe King winning all four of his games.

On the Friday I returned with relief to the lovely green, level lawns of Blewbury to play the redoubtable Raghu Iyer of Phyllis Court for an AC C level play match alongside Paul Wolff. Relief soon turned to frustration as, having begun to get the hang of Crazy Croquet, I no longer seemed to be able to play on a proper grass court at all; or maybe it was the change back to a full-size court. 

Eventually my AC skills began to come back to me, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Raghu’s early lead and I lost 17-21. Sadly Paul had a similar experience against Paul Franklin of Phyllis Court and so between us we lost the match.

The next day Blewbury hosted the CqE August Short Croquet tournament. Nineteen players had been entered including some with seriously low handicaps, such as Dave Kibble on four peels, licking their lips at the prospect of playing on our beautiful lawns.

I was somewhat apprehensive after a pretty disastrous week—after all, I had lost seven games out of nine in the previous four days — but maybe it had all been some kind of weird preparation for the Short Croquet tournament, because I played one of my best competitive days in  my four-year croquet career. I won all four of my matches, including beating Andy Evason after he had pegged out my first ball, by taking my second ball all the way round to peg on a three-ball break. I also beat the formidable Dave Kibble. 

Several others had also won four games, but most had lost one or two as well. Only one other, Adam Huby of Watford, had like me a 100 per cent record. Ideally we should have played each other in a grand final, as we had not previously played each other. However, it was getting late after a long hot day and people needed to get home, so it came down to Joe’s tie-breakers, which he had previously set out for all too see. On this basis — by Joe’s formula I had beaten a better-playing opposition — I was declared the winner and received the lovely engraved glass.

A day later we hosted a friendly match against the Watford players who were coming to the end of their summer tour. I joined for the afternoon match and by chance ending up playing a handicap AC match against the one and the same Adam Huby. Needless to say, I lost! 

I offered to give my SC victor’s glass to Adam, but he graciously declined my offer.

The Good Book says that pride comes before a fall. So on the next day with great confidence after my mighty SC victory, I challenged Edmund Shirley to a match on the KMT ladder. I was intending to improve my second from bottom status. Of course I lost! 

I now languish at the very bottom of the ladder. But there’s always tomorrow!

The morning will be devoted to playing some of the more bizarre games that can be played on our courts. None of it is to be taken too seriously. We will start at 09:30.

Around 13:00 lunch will be available for £15 a head provided by Philippa and her team.

The afternoon from 14:00 to 17:00 will be the time when we will welcome non-members to come and see what we have to offer. We will show people the rudiments of GC and AC on half size courts. Members staying for the afternoon are there primarily to look after our guests and should not expect a game. However if we are short of guests members may play, but with guests always taking priority.

We need to know who will be coming for the light hearted morning games – there may be a limit set to around 16. We also need to know who would like to eat lunch and finally who can help in the afternoon with either AC of GC. The reason that we ask for the number of lunches is that members may wish to invite non-members for lunch.

Entries must be made by the 24th August. Late requests for updates may be made by emailing webmaster@blewburycroquetclub.org.uk.

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Nine players arrived at Blewbury on a hot Saturday morning to contest the AC Advanced Weekend tournament. It was a strong field as only Andy Evason and myself had a positive handicap. The lawns were in excellent condition, which was much appreciated by all of the players. I ran the tournament as a flexible Swiss, so that with 9 players, whoever is not playing can start a game with any game that finishes. This keeps the play flowing nicely. Also, with so many top level players, games tend to be quick. In fact, of the 30 games that were played over the weekend, only one went to time.

Nearly half of the games, 14 out of 30, were won with a triple peel, so if you want to see how it’s done, you didn’t need to go to watch the MacRobertson Shield (the World Cup of AC) – just come to Blewbury.

At the end of the first day, Nick Parish (Surbiton) was on five out of five wins (all TPs) – and that was with a mallet borrowed from the club as he had left his at home – so he was the clear favourite, but things changed on Sunday. Nick lost his first two games, presumably because he now had his own mallet and not the Blewbury Blaster! Sunday proved to be kind to Omied Hallam (Nottingham), who won all of his games to finish on 7 out of 8. Omied plays at a pace that has to be seen to be believed. He won his first game on Sunday in about 40 minutes – with a triple peel, of course.

All of the visitors enjoyed the tournament. Andy enjoyed it since, although he only got one win, he got a huge number of points for beating Clive Goode. I was the only player not having a good time as I was ill on the Sunday (no doubt due to too much sun on the previous two days), so I had to sit and watch everyone else having fun.

The lunches were excellent, and everyone gave huge thanks to Philippa, aided and abetted by Deidre and Sandy. The visitors went away with promises to return next year.

Omied Hallam receiving the trophy

The Blewbury Blaster mallet

In the 2000s, as many of our longer-standing members will remember, Jim Bartlett was a prominent Committee member, regularly seen on court with his daughter Katherine.

After leaving our club, Jim saved Goring Bowls Club from development into flats, and helped to re-launch it 4 years ago as the Goring Gap Croquet & Bowls Club. With two small courts (roughly 2/3 & 1/2 size), it now has over 40 croquet-playing members, playing GC only.

Last Wednesday’s Friendly, played at Goring, was their first ever match against another club. Our team comprised the 3 pairings of Peter Allan & Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli, Philippa Turner & Jeff Drummond-Hay, and David Long & David Weston.

Many of the games were very tight: Peter and Avril won all 3 of theirs but, while Philippa & Jeff also got a win, the two Davids lost all 3. Their last game proved decisive: with other games all finished and the match score 4-4, it was fittingly Jim – with a jump-shot on the golden hoop – who won the match for the home team.

The sun was shining, however, and the tea was tasty. The real winner was croquet and the friendly rivalry with which it was played: a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon for all concerned. We look forward to our return fixture in September.

You don’t very often see a Scot with anything to smile about during a World Cup but Carol Jamieson bucked the trend when she won the C Level GC tournament at Blewbury yesterday.

Our picture shows Carol carrying off some engraved glassware after her hard-fought victory in the final of the CqE 7+ event.

Carol overcame Jackie Bryant 7-6 to take the trophy, which she received from the runner-up, who was also the manager of the competition.

The eight-strong field — including four Blewbury players — had to contend with temperatures reaching 29C in an event which was another triumph for our organisation and pristine courts.

Full results from the event can be found at https://croquetscores.com/2026/gc/blewbury-one-day-c-level-turnament-1/competition/ko-1.

This was held on the 28th June – just after the second heatwave of the year. We had twelve entrants and a spectator. All arrived in good time, except for last years winner, Nigel, who had forgotten the trophy and returned home to collect it before setting out again.

The event was managed as a “flexible Swiss” which is not really a Swiss but avoids the delays caused by identifiable rounds. I realised after the first game that it was not practical to play and manage so I just played the first game and the game straight after lunch.

The excellent lunch was provided and served by Philippa, Lainey and Sandy.

At the end of the day (defined by the last game being scheduled before 16:30) we had the position shown below with Edmund and Alastair Scott each having completed 10 games.

Edmund had won 80% of his games, Charles Briggs had won 75% and Alastair had won 70% so Edmund won and received the Armada salver for 2026.

Edmund is in the centre receiving the trophy, Charles is on the right and Alastair is on the left.

A call had gone out to all members to help with planting photonias to mask our new irrigation tanks. It was obviously a ‘many-hands-make-light-work’ plea and it was answered by er…. Bruce Gibson and David Vincent.

Our picture shows the pair getting their hands dirty and putting in the hard graft in support of club chairman Joe King and grounds guru Tim Leverton.

Joe said: “Many thanks to David and Bruce. Without your help we couldn’t have got it done. Battling on in the sun was gruelling. But the end result looked good for the future.”

Hopefully our neighbours in the pink house are happy with the fruits of their labours.

Joe, pictured below making a trench for the plants, added: “The club looked great with the lawns mown, the lines bright and the tanks beginning to blend in. I feel I got the easy job on the digger.”

Having played in the Phyllis Court/Blewbury AC C level tournament on the hottest days of the year just 2 weeks ago, it was a shock to be playing round 2 of the Longman Cup against Kington Langley at Blewbury on possibly the coldest day of the summer! At one point the clubhouse thermostat went down to 11 degrees and with continuous rain and increasing winds, it felt even colder.

In the morning, Avril and Nigel contended in a neck-and-neck doubles match, eventually losing by just 2 hoops, 15-17

Meanwhile, in the singles, KL had brought a super-weapon in the form of one Robert Corbin, who only started the game about 2 years ago and has been rapidly improving, and reducing his handicap accordingly. By the time of our Longman match it was down to 10, which still gave him 5.5 bisques against Andy Evason (4.5)

Robert used his 1st bisque to set up a flawless break of 11 hoops and a good leave, presenting – even Andy – only a very small chance of hitting in at great distance.

Andy failed to roquet, and Robert repeated the process with his 2nd ball, going on to beat Andy 26-0, with poor Andy having only had about 4 shots in the entire game.

Meanwhile, I (Andrew P) had a relatively easy time of it, winning my morning game 26-7. However this meant we were 1-2 down at lunchtime and would have to win 3 of our 4 singles matches in the afternoon.

Fortunately, the rain which had been forecast for the whole day, had eased off by lunchtime, but the wind was gradually increasing to what felt like gale force. At times it made accurate casting impossible.

Andy E, undaunted by his morning defeat (or the wind), comfortably beat Ian Wills (Andrew’s morning opponent) 26-8.

Blewbury 2: KL 2

On the other court, things were much more exciting, with Nigel winning his match by just one point, 20-19. However, unfortunately Avril repaid the compliment, by losing her match by just 1 point, 17-18.

This left me against the super-weapon Robert, who this time had a mere 4 bisques to my 1 (we played off base 6). Robert continued his very high standard of play, if not quite flawless. By full-time, all bisques had been used, 3 balls were on Rover and one on hoop 6. Unfortunately, the hoop 6 ball was mine. Score 22-16 to Robert.

Robert wisely, used his final go to leave his balls in corners 3 and 4. Amazingly, I succeeded in bringing out my best play for the last-ditch effort. I managed to make 4 hoops with just my own two balls (OK, my ball had started centrally in the jaws of hoop 6, so that one was quite easy!).

After 3-back I managed to pick up Robert’s corner 4 ball for a good rush, leaving me with a short approach to 4-back – certainly a lot easier than the previous 3 hoops. At this point, I thought (somewhat flabbergasted) “I might now actually make 4-back and 5-back and force a golden hoop – or maybe even make Rover and win outright!”

However, as so often happens, pride comes before a fall and I over-cooked my approach to 4-back, leaving me a very acute angle shot at the hoop. You’ve guessed it dear reader, I fluffed the hoop and the dream was shattered! I lost to Robert 20-22 and so Blewbury lost to KL 3-4.

Such is the glorious game of Croquet!

It’s probably not very often that the first instruction given by the Tournament manager to the players at the beginning of a tounament is “Don’t kill yourselves!”. However, given the record-breaking temperatures in the last week of May, and the various medical conditions of some of the 8 competitors in the Phyllis Court/Blewbury C level AC tournament, this was not unreasonable advice! It was followed by practical instructions to pause the timer, should any player need to take on more water or just recuperate from the unrelenting heat.

I’m not sure if any availed themselves of pausing the timer, but certainly two were ready to drop out at different times on the first day (Tuesday 26th May), including our own Steve Fisher, recovering from a recent medical incident, and who had bravely taken a long bus journey from Abingdon to Henley, to arrive on time.

Although I had the lowest handicap (7) in the tournament, my expectations were not high, since, counter-intuitively, I also had the 2nd worst D-grade and I had also come 2nd to last in last year’s tournament. Nevertheless, I managed to win my first two matches and so got off to a flying start. I was also very glad for the shade afforded by the beautiful big trees at Phyllis Court, which began to invade Court 2 as the afternoon progressed.

However, as so often happens, my form mysteriously left me for the 3rd match against Colin Spencer, our furthest traveller from Downham CC in Norfolk. Shade or not, I was very glad to reach Peg-down, by which time, Colin had reached 2-back and set up a leave for my lift, while I had one ball still on hoop 1 and the other only on hoop 3 after repeated failed attempts. Score: 2-8

Wednesday was at Blewbury and another baking hot day, without a cloud in the sky. After carefully placing our balls in accordance the the Peg-down ‘map’, the 3rd match continued where we had left off, as did our respective standards of play! Colin was constantly hitting in, while even though I was playing a little better than in the first half, I was making little progress. However, despite Colin’s great roquets, he didn’t seem to be making much progress either! After 30 minutes or so I rediscovered my mo-jo and eventually won the match 16-11

In the 4th match I played Rick Lilley – another gifted GC player from Phyllis Court! Rick is still getting used to changing to the Solomon grip and had only won 1 of his first 3 games. However, he chose his game against me to find his form and proceeded to make a 10 hoop break with his first ball. This gave me a rare ‘contact lift’, but by now my long spell on the side-lines was having its effect, and I only managed to make hoop 2 before breaking down again. From then on I steadily got worse and worse, missing shorter and shorter roquets, while Rick raced to a speedy and decisive victory of 26-2.

By the 5th round only 6 of us were still playing, 3 of whom were on 3 wins: the said Colin Spencer from Downham, the veteran Martin Burger from Aldermaston, and myself. Due to the ‘who-beat-who’ principle in case of a draw, Martin and Colin had not only to win their final match, but were dependent on the result of the other match as well. I was down to play Martin and if a beat him, I won the tournament. I had beaten Martin last year in a handicap match when he was a 6 and I had the benefit of two bisques, but sadly for Martin, who is getting on a bit, his handicap has gone up to 8 in the last 12 months. Anyway, one benefit of losing so quickly against Rick is that I ended up having a very long, restful lunch-hour, waiting for Martin’s 4th round match to finish. Maybe that was what enabled me to beat him 19-11 and win the cup. Just goes to show – I may have come 2nd to last 12 months ago, but there’s always hope!