A gloriously sunny Bank Holiday weekend saw just 6 competitors battling it out for this year’s Hi-Bisquers trophy: Carol Jamieson & David Long represented Blewbury; against Charles Briggs & Neil George (both Caversham), Colin Carver (Enfield), and Graham Brooksbank (Cheltenham). Apart from Colin (on a 16 handicap) and Carol (on 20), everyone else was on the competition’s minimum handicap of 14.
With time for an all-play-all league, draws were allowed to keep the competition running smoothly. After 3 matches on the first day, Carol had a clear lead with 2 wins and a draw. Three players were behind her on 1 win and a draw (yes, two of the 9 games played had been draws, and others very tight – vindicating the match format of 18-point games played to a base of 4).
Going into the last match, only two players could win the tournament, fittingly the two highest bisquers: Carol was still the player to beat, with one victory more than Colin. But Carol’s previous form deserted her as she lost 11-14 to Charles, while Colin slowly overhauled David to a 13-8 victory. 3.5 wins each – so let’s see, what were the stated tie-break criteria?
First was who-beat-whom… but the first-round match between Colin and Carol had been one of the draws (15-15). The competition result would hinge on total hoops scored: prior to that last round, the pair had been equal on that too, with 62 hoops apiece. In the end, it was Colin’s last two hoops against David that proved decisive, and won him the trophy.
Colin Carver receives his trophy from Tournament Manager David Long
The Founder’s Cup, our AC level advanced play competition, was held this weekend, earlier on in the season to avoid some of the more congested tournament periods later in the year. Six players contested the knock-out format over three rounds.
Andrew Petit was drawn against Paul Wolff in the first round, as was Deirdre Cochrane against Andy Robertson. Andy Evason and Joe King had seeded byes in round one due to their lower handicaps.
Andrew, fresh from his handicap reduction won the opening and set off on his first break which he took round to 4-back (hoop 10). Paul missed the lift shot and Andrew played another good break this time stopping at 2-back (hoop 8), after his ball rolled back into a very tiny rabbit run in the jaws. Paul got in but sadly was hampered by the peg en route to 2-back (hoop 8 again). Andrew soon pegged out 26-9 and advanced to the semi-finals.
In her game, Deirdre took control of much of the early play and built up a fine lead. Andy had a number of narrow misses and couldn’t get going. But with an hour to go, Andy found more rhythm and as time became a factor had a break that would have got him back on to level terms. Unfortunately his approach to 2-back (hoop 8) wasn’t quite good enough and he failed the hoop. Deirdre kept her nerve as time expired to win 24-15.
Andrew faced Andy Evason (also fresh from his handicap reduction) in the first semi-final in a match-up of regular sparring partners over the winter. Both set off with good breaks and soon there were three clips on 4-back (hoop 10). Andy was the first to get a ball to the peg with Andrew on Rover and Rover (hoop 12). Both players had had opportunities to press on to the finish when Andrew left Andy a 13-yard shot which if he hit would likely be decisive. As it was Andy missed by a whisker and Andrew managed to run Rover and peg out 26-21.
In the second semi-final Deirdre played Joe. She took command of the opening and quickly advanced to a seven-hoop lead before Joe had taken croquet. She failed hoop 4, and Joe picked up a break going to 4-back (hoop 10) with a new standard leave. Deirdre then hit the lift but didn’t manage to advance her clips. Joe got in again and tried to set up a triple peel attempt, but was stymied by the peg. So he had to be content with a break to the peg with a vertical spread leave, with Deirdre’s balls in the jaws of Penult and Rover. Deirdre missed the lift this time and Joe finished 26-7.
The final started with Andrew playing the wrong ball on turn five. Joe made hoop 1 from the mistake but then under-approached hoop 2 letting Andrew back in. Shortly afterwards Joe had another opportunity, approaching hoop 1 with a stop-shot approach; but underhit it, leaving a long hoop which he missed, allowing Andrew to get a break going. It looked as though Andrew was in good control until a slightly awkward backward take off at hoop 4 left an angled hoop Andrew failed.
Joe then took his hoop 1 ball round to 4-back with an old standard leave, Andrew missed the lift which followed, Joe got going with his hoop 2 ball taking it round on a three-ball break until he could get the fourth ball into play after 2-back, Andrew faced a cross-peg leave and elected to shoot down the lawn, glancing off the peg and missing his ball by a whisker. Joe finished 26-4.
The weather was cold in the wind but spared us the prolonged rain suggested by the forecast.
One GC game in level, handicap (extra turns or advantage) may be played. Target based handicap games may not be played because of the difficulty of dealing with the different way of recording the scores in one event.
It uses an Egyptian ladder format where beating someone higher up the ladder brings you more points than beating someone nearby.
Games may be played whether or not jumping is allowed.
If jumping is allowed then these are qualifying games so both players must enter them on their handicap cards – otherwise they must not go on handicap cards.
You may challenge any club member with a GC handicap to a game, regardless of whether they are on the ladder already or are yet to play their first game. If you cannot agree on the format of the game then the game cannot be played.
To join in please send an email to dr.s.m.fisher@gmail.com to have your name entered, issue a challenge, play the game and one of you enters the result below. Results should be entered promptly for it all to work properly.
There is some more information on the Egyptian ladder below.
Enter scores below
Sorry, you must be logged in to enter a result.
Results so far
Name
Points
Wins
Games
Your games
Date
Winner
points
to
Loser
Points
to
Details of the format
Each player is initially assigned 100 ranking points. If a player beats a player of the same ranking then three points are transferred from the loser to the winner. However beating a higher ranked player results in more points being transferred and vice versa. Winning or losing a game may change your handicap but this change has no impact on the ranking points
You may challenge any club member to a game, regardless of whether they are on the ladder already or are yet to play their first game. Failure to accept the challenge without good reason and to play the game within two weeks results in a maximum score being recorded for the challenger and 0 for the person who failed to play. Such results do not go on handicap cards as regular results would.
You must play a minimum number of games to win.
A player's position is determined by ranking points, then wins, then net wins (#wins – #losses).
The number of points transferred is given in the table below.
Difference in ranking points before the game
If player with higher ranking points wins
If player with lower ranking points wins
0-6
3
3
7-11
2
4
12+
1
5
The competition will be closed at midnight on the 31st December. Those in the lowest quartile of number of games played will be ineligible to win, otherwise the winner is the person at the top of the ladder.
One game in any form of AC: level, handicap, advanced etc. may be played. One ball is not permitted, nor is SC. It uses an Egyptian ladder format where beating someone higher up the ladder brings you more points than beating someone nearby.
Please avoid 26 point games but use 14, 18 or 22 point games.
Games may be played whether or not jumping is allowed.
If jumping is allowed then these are qualifying games so both players must enter them on their handicap cards – otherwise they must not go on handicap cards.
You may challenge any club member with an AC handicap to a game, regardless of whether they are on the ladder already or are yet to play their first game. If you cannot agree on the format of the game then the game cannot be played.
To join in please send an email to dr.s.m.fisher@gmail.com to have your name entered, issue a challenge, play the game and one of you enters the result below. Results should be entered promptly for it all to work properly.
There is some more information on the Egyptian ladder below.
Enter scores below
Sorry, you must be logged in to enter a result.
Results so far
Name
Points
Wins
Games
Your games
Date
Winner
points
to
Loser
Points
to
Details of the format
Each player is initially assigned 100 ranking points. If a player beats a player of the same ranking then three points are transferred from the loser to the winner. However beating a higher ranked player results in more points being transferred and vice versa. Winning or losing a game may change your handicap but this change has no impact on the ranking points
You may challenge any club member to a game, regardless of whether they are on the ladder already or are yet to play their first game. Failure to accept the challenge without good reason and to play the game within two weeks results in a maximum score being recorded for the challenger and 0 for the person who failed to play. Such results do not go on handicap cards as regular results would.
You must play a minimum number of games to win.
A player's position is determined by ranking points, then wins, then net wins (#wins – #losses).
The number of points transferred is given in the table below.
Difference in ranking points before the game
If player with higher ranking points wins
If player with lower ranking points wins
0-6
3
3
7-11
2
4
12+
1
5
The competition will be closed at midnight on the 31st December. Those in the lowest quartile of number of games played will be ineligible to win, otherwise the winner is the person at the top of the ladder.
Blewbury Croquet Club have launched a damage limitation exercise to put a lid on the affair known to committee members as the Handicapgate Scandal.
A wasps’ nest was overturned when one of our members — no names, no pack drill, careful with the pronouns — deliberately reduced their handicap on the CqE website below its correct level to gain entry to a tournament.
To compound the awkwardness of this situation our member justified their action by claiming that a former Blewbury player had also used similar creative accounting in the past.
The potential disrepute this could bring to the club triggered a welter of letters to the perpetrator of this chicanery, plus missives of apology to the clubs involved as well as relevant authorities.
And we’ve made a suggestion to the powers-that-be that there should be more tournaments for players with 20+ handicaps.
The bottom line is… the figure on your handicap card should always be the same as that registered by CqE and the correct figure should appear on the club website. If you are in any doubt, consult a club handicapper.
Volunteers, your club needs YOU!
A big tidy-up for the club’s grounds is being planned for next month following the successful mass spring-clean of the clubhouse in March.
Volunteers are being sought for a couple of Tuesday morning sessions — June 2nd and June 23rd, starting at 9.30am.
Blewbury projects manager Andy Evason, who is organising the clean-up, said: “The jobs to be done include the general tidying of things around the lawns, repairing the tiles on the gazebos, fixing the gutters on the gazebos and applying preservative to the gazebo supports.”
As ever with these plans, it will be a case of “many hands make light work’. Andy added: “It would be great to have a number of people to speed things up. If we finish everything on the 2nd then we won’t need to go ahead with the session on the 23rd.”
Congratulations to a Joe King on a pretty comprehensive job with the Founder’s Cup; he organised this year’s big AC competition, managed it, played in it and won it and then provided us with an in-depth report on the event .
Our graphic (below) shows all the scores. For every cough and spit from the day’s croquet please see Joe’s report.
Meanwhile, Blewbury were represented by David Long in the final of the National One-Ball Charity competition at Surbiton, although not with any conspicuous success. All he gleaned from his visit to the Surrey club was the knowledge that he needs some coaching on his swing! The tournament was won by Caversham player Gareth Hobby.
Hilary climbs to the top
There was no mistaking the winner of CqE’s May One-Day Short Croquet Tournament at Blewbury… I’m pretty sure that Hilary Bird is the only player around these parts who wears flip-flops on the courts!
Hilary, ex-Caversham but now a member of the Guildford and Godalming club, beat a field of 18 players, including eight of our own.
After a gloriously warm and sunny day of competition Hilary received her prize of an inscribed glass from tournament manager Joe King.
Date fixed for Longman Cup clash
Blewbury’s Longman Cup second round tie against Kington Langley will be played here on Thursday, June 11th.
It’s a chance for revenge over the Chippenham club, who knocked us out of this prestigious national AC competition last year. Indeed, our first round win over Bristol was our first in the Longman for nine years.
As ever, some support would be appreciated by Captain of Croquet Andrew Petit and his team as they contend for a place in the quarter-finals. You might pick up some reflected glory!
Bath get a soaking
Blewbury got off to a great start to their SWCF Short Croquet League campaign by thrashing Bath 10-2 in their opening fixtures.
Joe King and Andrew Petit both won all three of their matches while Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli and Andy Evason both had two wins each.
The match was truncated somewhat by the arrival of a hailstorm; with the result already decided it was agreed to forego the fourth round of matches and our visitors fled.
On the same day there was another wash-out involving Blewbury, this time the start of the club’s 3+ GC League fixtures, which ended with us on the wrong end of a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of Phyllis Court C.
The really bad news was that we were up against the weaker of the two Phyllis Court squads in that division. We will welcome the stronger one to Blewbury next month with some trepidation.
One of the few happier moments from that trip to Henley was our being joined on the courts by a family of goslings (above).
Memorial service for Minty
A service of thanksgiving for the life of the late, great Minty Clinch will be held in Chelsea, West London, on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 24th.
Minty, who passed away last November aged 83, had a packed funeral service at St.Mary’s, Uffington, and next month she will saluted again by former colleagues from the capital’s travel-writing fraternity.
Our club will be represented at the ceremony by Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli, Sandy Millikin and David Long. Anyone else from Blewbury wishing to say a final farewell to their old friend should contact David so that he can liaise with the family.
Tread carefully, Brian!
Here’s a good shot of Brian Jamieson on his way to victory over Edmund Shirley in the semi-final of Blewbury’s heat of the All-England GC handicap tournament.
Look closely and you’ll see that Brian had to be very careful not to kick his black ball as he ran the hoop with his blue. The previously unbeaten Edmund was certainly watching very closely!
Brian was one of two Blewbury players to progress to the area finals of the competition, along with yours truly. We hope to be playing our next round at Phyllis Court in July, rather than Surbiton.
And we hope it will be a great deal warmer than it was for this round.
Many thanks to Carol Jamieson for the images in this newsletter
On a beautiful final day of April, four of us joined battle in the opening heat of the All-England Handicap championships: Joe, Andy Evason, Deirdre, and Andrew Petit. The joy of handicap play is that anyone might win! And so in the first round Andy E beat Joe 14-1 and in the 2nd round Andrew beat Joe 14-0 ! Meanwhile Andy went on to beat Deirdre and Andrew in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, and so now progresses to the next stage (an area final in August). Who knows where this might lead !
Meanwhile, Joe executed a just revenge (or reward?) on Andy and Andrew. Having judged that they had both become bandits over the winter, he had been threatening to reduce their handicaps for the last couple of months. Their decisive victories over him in this contest were the final straw! Andy’s AC handicap has been reduced from 7 to 4.5 and Andrew’s from 9 to 7. Neither know whether to be shocked, delighted, or just resigned !
Here’s Andrew Petit’s report on this week’s Longman Cup triumph…
On Wednesday, April 22nd, we had our first victory in the AC Inter-Club handicap tournament since 2017.
On a beautiful Spring day we hosted the first-round match — and the first CqE AC match of the season —against Bristol, who have often been our nemesis in the past.
We got off to a flying start with Andy Evason and Andrew Petit gaining two comfortable victories in their morning singles matches.
Meanwhile, Deirdre Cochrane and Nigel Cox were battling it out in their doubles match against Bristol’s captain Margot Soakell and Simon Rye. Having got off to a very shaky start, Deirdre and Nigel valiantly fought back to 17-all at full time. Both teams had good opportunities to win the golden hoop, but it was Bristol that finally made it on the third attempt.
So the lunchtime score was 2-1, with four singles matches to be played in the afternoon.
Blewbury managed to win two of these through Evason and Petit, which was enough to bring about a 4-3 victory.
In the next round, we play Kington Langley. They beat us last year — but this time, we will have the home advantage.
We have written into the diary April 30th – next Thursday – as the date for our qualifier heat to the All-England handicap competition.
The All-England handicap is open to all AC players, playing handicap games, and starts at club level, then moves on to area finals played in your region and then the national final.
We have hosted the finals a year or so ago and will do so again in 2028.
If you would like to take part in the qualifier then please let Joe King know. It will start at 9:30 or 10:00am and run into the afternoon, depending on how many entrants we have. We need a minimum of 4, and have 3 signed up already. So if you’d like to play please let Joe know over the weekend. Depending on numbers we may need to postpone.
The format for the regional and national finals is 26pt timed games, played full bisque to a base of 6. Depending on number we’ll use a format ensuring players have multiple games during the day.
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.”
Next there was a healthy turn-out for the Roger Cambray Shield, the club’s annual one-ball championship. Joe King, a man of many talents — gourmet chef, club chairman, AC world finalist — added to his accomplishments by becoming our one-ball title-holder. Former winner Deirdre Cochrane (pictured above) took the honours in the plate event.
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.
Our One-day Open GC tournament regularly attracts a quality field of low-handicap players; people who are drawn by the one-day format and the quality of our courts. This year was no exception; neither the courts nor the weather were disappointing.
We welcomed young Josef Rakosnik, a Czech in the UK for the next week’s European Club League competition. He had arrived in the UK only the day before and was playing his first croquet of 2026.
The all-play-all format involved each player having seven games, so there was no hanging around. After the first few games the field split into a top half, who were winning most of their games and a bottom half, who were struggling against the power play and accuracy of the lower handicappers, notably Ian Burridge (Nottingham) and Guy Scurfield (Dulwich), both playing off -1.
Going into the seventh and final round, there were three on five wins — Burridge, Scurfield and Rakosnik. But the Czech was too far behind on net hoops, and Burridge and Scurfield were drawn to play each other.
In this deciding game. Burridge had the edge for the first few hoops, but Scurfield came back strongly to win successive hoops at the end for a 7-5 victory. Burridge thus ended up a creditable second. Nick Saxton (Cheltenham) finished with a win to edge past Rakosnik on hoop difference for third place
Scurfield had won the tournament in 2024, but last year choose to play in Mauritius rather than Blewbury. He describes his exploits there and in other equally exotic countries in his article in the current (April) edition of the Croquet Gazette.
Our picture shows Blewbury’s Open field, with champ Guy Scurfield third from left.
