Water, water everywhere

April 17th proved to be a red-letter day for Blewbury Croquet Club with the first successful running of our new irrigation system.

It proved perfect timing with the courts in pristine condition for the staging of a CqE GC Open tournament just 24 hours later.

The system was programmed remotely to operate from 1.30 to 5am.

Delighted chairman Joe King said: “Each rotor ran for 25 minutes, which is around five complete sweeps back and forth. We used 23,000 litres… and not a penny to pay!

“The soil moisture content went up as hoped for and expected, so it was all good news. Again, all that is observable remotely.”

The lawns are still being mowed at ‘winter’ height as the grass is taking some time to recover from heavy wear after autumn maintenance coupled with dry conditions.

The height of the grass will be dropped over the next few weeks.

Brian had all the bases covered

Brian Jamieson was this week celebrating several jobs well done after Saturday’s GC Open tournament at Blewbury.

Brian’s busy weekend began on Friday evening by helping to prepare new hoop positions for the prestigious CqE event.

He was up at the crack of dawn the following morning to set up the lawns and then manage and referee the tournament before supervising the late-afternoon closedown — with his glamorous assistant — after a ten-hour shift.

And the canny Scotsman still found time on the following day to write up a concise report for our club website.

Brian said: “Generally the eight players were a pretty satisfied bunch and I didn’t hear any adverse comments.

“Refereeing was easy since players at this level know the rules about crushes, bevels etc and avoid these errors.”

His overall verdict? “I would like to be sure that all our members are aware that we organise tournaments that attract top players and have a good reputation in those circles.”

The tournament was won by the Dulwich player Guy Scurfield, seen here receiving his prize from Brian.

Club titles for King and Evason

Here’s a chance to catch up with the early-season competitive action at the club, for those who haven’t been paying attention to our website.

Members have battled it out in a range of codes and in a range of weather conditions, some of which were, er…. not the best!

First up, in a gale, was the AC Hi-Lo Doubles, from which Andrew Petit (Lo) and Claire King (Hi) took home the spoils. Andrew said: “No one was more surprised than me.”

Sadly Joe can’t make the national final next month, so Blewbury will be represented at Surbiton by one from runner-up Nigel Cox or David Long or Andy Robertson.

The long-awaited 2025 Prebendal Trophy was finally contested four months late with Andy Evason capturing the AC crown, putting his seven bisques to good effect to beat Peter Allan 26-14 in a windswept final.

It was his first club title and Andy said: “I played a bit better after I used up all my bisques.”

For those who like an in-depth, comprehensive match report I would recommend the essay penned by the losing finalist … every cough and spit from the horse’s mouth!

Also defying plunging temperatures were contestants in the GC Hi-Lo Doubles. David Long (Lo) and Philippa Turner (Hi) walked away with the fine wines from that one.

And there was a successful start to their GC Advantage League campaign for Blewbury D, Simon and Jackie Bryant both scoring three wins in a 9-7 victory over Caversham.

Blewbury C kicked off their Advantage League campaign with an even bigger win — 13-3 over Basingstoke, assisted somewhat by one of the visiting team doing a no-show. A big shout-out here to Sarah Donne, who won all her matches, as did David Long. A subsequent protest by the Hampshire club — moaning about Philippa Turner’s timekeeping — was rejected by the League management.

Forty-eight hours later Blewbury C pulled off another victory, overcoming some huge Target scores differentials to win 9-7 at Phyllis Court E. David Vincent and Andy Evason chalked up three wins apiece after some lengthy battles against the four generously-handicapped Henley ladies.

Meet the mutt: Our doggone new member

Here’s a picture you weren’t expecting to see in a croquet newsletter! As part of our regular ‘meet the new member’ feature, BCC approached Chen Woodward, who has signed up with us on a three-month contract.

The plan is to make it easy for members to be able to recognise new faces to our courts and make them feel welcome.

But Chen had other ideas. “I couldn’t find a decent picture of myself,” she said, “so I have provided one of my dog Apollo, who is far more photogenic than me.”

Former police officer Chen is also a member of the South West Federation club Bradford-upon-Avon and is staying with her brother in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell while her property in Wiltshire is undergoing renovation.

Besides croquet, Chen’s other hobbies include campanology, calling the faithful to prayer by ringing the bells at her local church.

She has a son reading Finance at Durham University, while Apollo has four sons and two daughters… who are not reading anything.

Go easy with the mallet

Members are reminded not to hammer the hoops in too far when they are setting up the courts before their games. The bottom line is that tops of carrots should always protrude as far as possible without impeding the ball. The hoop positions are now being changed every three weeks but — to prevent the holes getting too loose — it is hoped that it won’t be necessary to move them more often.