Year: 2026

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April 2026

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.”

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.

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Czech mate… Scurfield snatches Open title

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.

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GC HiLo Doubles

The GC Hi-Lo doubles postponed from last autumn was played at Blewbury on Sunday and whilst the players looked forward to spring weather, nature treated them to autumnal  freezing temperatures and rain in between bursts of sunshine.  However, spirits were not dampened and 12 hardy players embarked on a day of hard fought competition.  Ultimately David Long was a worthy outright winner of the low handicap group with five wins out of five.   With three players from the high handicap group tied in first place at the start of the last round, Philippa Turner reprised her talent for winning on the last hoop of the day (as she did at Harwell last year).  This time, on the back of a wonderful approach shot to the 15th hoop, she played the winning stroke and thereby pipped  Bruce to win the high handicap group with 4 wins out of 5 games.  The cold weather meant that plenty of hot drinks and cake were consumed and that the bottles of white wine presented to Philippa and David were chilled!

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The wind doth blow – again

On Saturday 11th April, three of our AC players, Joe King, Andy Evason, and myself, gathered at Blewbury to do battle for the 2025 Prebendal Trophy. Yes, I know it is now 2026, but we were not able to complete the competition last year due to the extensive works we had done on the lawns last autumn.

In the morning, Joe and I contested the semi-final as an 18-point game. The early morning rain had stopped before we got to the lawns and the wind referred to in the title had not yet got up. Joe won the toss and put me in first. I hoped that this would work to my advantage since I left no short shot for Joe’s second ball. However, Joe turned down the ‘short’ shot at the ball in corner 2 (a mere 13 yards away), and instead shot at my ball just south of the peg (I estimate this was 15 yards away) and hit it. This was not part of my game plan! From a somewhat tricky starting position, Joe crafted a break with what I can only describe as exemplary play. This was precision croquet of the highest order. It was not inconceivable that I had already played my last stroke (so much for having one bisque) since Joe has talked in the past about doing a quadruple peel (having run hoop 1, his partner ball is already on 3-back) so I decided to just sit back and enjoy Joe’s play. It was lovely to watch. The one glimmer of hope was that Joe did not manage to get his blue ball down to 3-back, so the quad peel was now very unlikely. However, the relentless precision play continued. Until hoop 5. Joe ran the hoop and had a rush on a ball that was only a couple of yards away – and he missed! I think we were both in shock. I now had a chance. The balls were reasonably placed for me to make a break. I had a good pioneer at hoop 1 so I decided to shoot at it gently from about 7 yards and use my bisque if I missed (which I did). My break was nowhere near as pretty as Joe’s. It was a bit too adventurous (the term is not a compliment!), but it was effective and I ran all 12 hoops. I am sure that some of you are thinking “surely you should have stopped at rover so that Joe couldn’t peg you out”. Against a lesser opponent you would be correct, but Joe is quite capable of peeling me through rover and still pegging me out, so there seems little point in doing that. I made a leave with my two balls near to 3-back (my next hoop), with Joe’s blue ball over by the west boundary and his black ball due north of mine. I had not put it far enough away for my liking and Joe decided to shoot at one of my balls. It was the shortest shot available, but if he missed, I would have an easy pickup. I expected Joe to hit in. It was a longish shot, but Joe is good at these. However, the croquet gods were on my side and Joe’s ball sailed through the middle of mine. I now had an easy pickup, I made the last four hoops on a three-ball break, and pegged out for an 18-5 win.

So, on to the final – a 26-point game against Andy. Andy had seven bisques and I know that he normally uses them well, so I was expecting a tough battle. Then the wind got up, so we were both battling against the wind as well. The play proved to be very ‘interactive’. This is a term used by the top players to describe a game in which each player makes a hoop or two, but then breaks down. It makes for a fun game, but it is not what we aspire to do. In fact, Andy was making the hoops (using some bisques) and I was failing hoop 1 each time. My clips sat there for an embarrassingly long time. However, with Andy’s clips both on hoop 5, I hit in, finally ran hoop 1, and made a break of nine hoops. The interactive play continued. At one point, I was casting to line up the shot and I realised that my mallet head was swinging in an ellipse as it went forwards and backward, going nowhere near the ball. Time to walk away and re-stalk. Which I did – three times! The interactive play continued and I got my yellow ball to rover. Andy’s balls were well advanced on penult and hoop 5, but then I hit in with my red ball with three balls around hoop 1. Making hoop 1 was easy, but I had no pioneer at hoop 2, and no pivot or pioneer at hoop 3. I manage to get a good rush on black up to hoop 2. I made the hoop and got a rush over to hoop 3. (All that 2-ball practice was coming in useful.) I made hoop 3, and realised that I actually had a decent chance of going round and even winning as there was a reasonable pioneer at hoop 4. Unfortunately, I blew it with the next stroke. I played a big split to send black to hoop 6 and to get my red ball down to the yellow pioneer at hoop 4 – and I left it woefully short. This was a missable shot, and I did indeed miss it. There was some more interactive play and some excitement when Andy failed rover with his second ball, but it was too late for me and Andy prevailed to win 26-14. There were only the two of us present at the time, so I had to take a selfie of me handing the trophy to Andy. Well done Andy; a worthy winner and perhaps the first of many.

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Our King Rules

winner Joe King receives his trophy from Tournament Manager, David Long

This year the Roger Cambray Memorial Shield, our annual One-Ball championship, returned to its traditional Easter Monday slot. And the glorious weather made the event a fitting formal start to our summer season.

16 contestants – including our two newest members, Tim Leverton and Chen Woodward – competed in 4 tightly-fought blocks through the morning with the top 8 progressing to the afternoon knock-out. Joe King and Nigel Cox convincingly won their blocks with 3 wins out of 3, but the other two blocks required tie-break rules to determine not only the winner, but also the runner-up: David Vincent and Carol Jamieson progressed as block winners, with Philippa Turner and Andrew Petit just behind them; Deirdre Cochrane and Andy Evason were only narrowly eliminated.

Joe’s traditional Easter spit-roast provided a splendid centrepiece for the lunch that followed, with equally delicious salads and desserts provided by Philippa Turner, Sandy Millikin and Tim Leverton.

The afternoon saw the morning’s top 8 in quarter-final action, while the rest competed for a “plate” event. The four semi-finalists in the main event were Joe, Nigel, and the runner-ups from their two blocks. While David Long went on to beat Andy Robertson in the 3rd-place play-off, Nigel took an early lead against Joe in the Final, using his bisques well. But Joe was on unbeatable form, slowly clawing his way back to draw level, before pulling away to a 13-7 victory. After previous wins in the Founders Cup, Prebendal and KMT, Joe has finally – and deservedly – now got his name on the last of our AC trophies.

It was nearly a clean sweep for the Kings, with Claire reaching the final of the plate event; but there she met Deirdre Cochrane, the reigning champion (and 7-time winner) of this competition: Deirdre might have been knocked out of the main event this year, but she made sure she went away with a consolation prize.

The event acted also as our heat to the National Charity One-Ball competition (to be held at Surbiton on 16th May). Our donations raised an impressive £177.50 for Save The Children, Croquet England’s chosen charity for this season.

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Blown away by Dave

No not the rapper, or by the brilliant play of one of our several Dave’s (or David’s). This was Storm Dave that decided to add an extra challenge to our AC Hi-Lo competition last Saturday (4th April).

The aim of the day was to have a fun, but competitive, day of AC doubles where everyone has a different partner in each round. A high handicap player would be paired with a low handicap player, quite possibly someone they had never played with before. Everyone seemed to have a good time in the morning, despite a little early rain, but then Storm Dave arrived after lunch. Plastic chairs went flying and it was difficult to swing the mallet so that you hit the ball instead of your shins. I reckon I had more bevelled edges in one day (not a fault unless you have a hampered stroke) than in the rest of my 10-year playing career.

I had planned to play five rounds, but by 5pm, most players felt they had had enough, so we stopped the formal proceeding at that point. A few hardy souls (Joe, Brian, Carol and I) played one last game, just for the fun of it. And wouldn’t you know it, the sun came out!

The players with the best results over the day were Andrew Petit and Claire King, so each of them wins a bottle of wine.

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Prebendal Manor Cup 2026

Holder: Andy Evason

The Prebendal is our Club’s annual, internal AC Handicap competition.

It will be played initially as a balanced Swiss format event, leading to semi-finals and final.

The cut off date for playing your four games will be the 26th August.

Semifinals and finals will be held on the 19th September.

Game Format

All matches except the Final should be played as 18pt games (1 and 3-back variation – as per AC rule 51.2.3) with a 2.5 hour time-limit. The Final will be contested as a 26pt game with a longer limit (e.g 3 or 3.5 hrs, dependent on the playing conditions on the day).

Games will be handicap, set against a base of 9:

In games involving at least one player of handicap less than 9, normal bisque allocations apply, subject to the standard reduction for 18 point games. e.g. player A with a handicap of 16, playing against B with a handicap of 4 is allocated 12 bisques reduced to 8.5 for an 18 point game.

If both players have a handicap of 9 or more, each player gets the number of bisques equal to their handicap minus 9, subject to the standard reduction for 18 point games.
E.g. Player C with a handicap of 11 vs. Player D with a handicap 14: Player C is allocated 2 bisques reduced to 1.5 and Player D is allocated 5 bisques reduced to 3.5

Competition format

All your games are predefined in a way that should give all competitors roughly the same strength opposing them.

You need to win a number of games to enter the knockout stage.

Note that you do not play everybody, but that everybody has the same number of opponents

You can play your preselected opponents in any order you wish. After you enter the score your latest opponent will disappear from your list of people to play.

More information on the format is below

Sorry, you must be logged in to enter a result.

Results so far

Peter Allan1
Steve Fisher0
Edmund Shirley0
Brian Jamieson0
Andy Evason0
Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli0
Nigel Cox0
Paul Wolff0
Andrew C Robertson0
Carol Jamieson0
Andrew Petit0
John Harrison0
Joe King0
Deirdre Cochrane0
David Long0
Claire King0
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Competition format – details

We are trying a new format this year, which we believe will provide the fairest possible chance for all entrants whatever their handicap (as it will be based on recent form), a chance to play at least 4 games as part of the opening stages, and greater flexibility as to when the matches are played

Swiss phase:

Each player has been allocated 4 games (opponents in the selection tool above) so they know who they need to play from the outset and can move through those games at the pace they want. There will be no waiting around for rounds to be completed. We will expect at least a game a month from every participant.

Qualification to the knock-out is based on achieving 3 wins (or more) from your 4 games

The target is for at least 4 players to qualify. If more than 4 qualify there will be quarterfinals with some players possibly receiving byes. If less than 4 qualify then those on 2 wins may need a playoff.

Knock-out phase

Semifinal and finals will be conducted on a knock-out basis

These will be arranged with reference to the performance in the Swiss phase, and by lot to resolved tie breaks

Some History

Deciding on the optimal format for a season long handicap competition can be quite difficult when there is an odd number of players or a number that does not neatly lend itself to being arranged for block play with equal sized blocks.

Various approaches can be used such as:

Blocks – need to be determined carefully to avoid ‘bandits’ marring the competition for everyone else, especially if there is only one qualifier per block

Uneven blocks – which can disadvantage players from larger bocks, or blocks were some games are left incomplete

Swiss format – requires rounds to complete before the next one is decided

Double elimination (or draw and process) – can leave some players with two few games and other with too many

Flexible Swiss – Needs to avoid players at the top of the tree not playing each other and can also have significant delays between fixtures

As a club we have used each of these in the past few years and none have been entirely satisfactory.

An new approach

With reference to the Tournament Regulations published by CqE and the discussion at the AC tournament Committee (ACTC, of which Joe is a member), there is no obviously better solution.

In Advanced play this has been addressed by the concept of the Burridge Swiss has been documented and is used in several prestige events. This seeks to even out the strength of opponents each participant meets. It uses as the proxy for ‘strength of opponent’ the DG (dynamic grade) of the entrants.

Handicap per se is not a fair proxy for our need, as in a handicap game both payers should have an equal chance of winning. However there is an approach we’d like to try, and this could also provide valuable information back to the ACTC.

It works like this:

A player has a handicap of N, with trigger point T and handicap index on their card of I

Players who are improving or are in form will likely be above their trigger point, or I  > T

Players who are not doing so well will likely be below their trigger point, or I < T

The difference between I and T, DH = I-T, is therefore a measure of their current strength.

If player one with an DH of +45 plays an opponent with DH of -45 we’d expect the first player to prevail more often than not, regardless of the actual handicaps

Therefore the proxy to a players strength is the value of DH.

The basis of the Burridge Swiss is to pre-draw 4 or 5 rounds of opponents, so that the average of the DH values each opponent faces is balanced and is as nearly equal as possible. Or everyone has an equal number of stronger and weaker players in their draw.

This will be the model for this year

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Kay Memorial Trophy – 2026

Holder: Joe King

On Monday afternoons, from April 13th, court one will be set out for Short Croquet. From April 27th all members are expected to play their games as KMT games. Even if a player is not a premium member they are still eligible to play KMT games and should enter their results for the KMT ladder and on their handicap card.

However, whilst any member can reach the top of the KMT ladder, only the top 4 premium members (who have played a minimum of 6 KMT games) will qualify for the final knockout phase on 17th August to win the KMT Cup.

KMT games can also be played at times other than Monday afternoons.

  • The games are 14 points, with a time limit of 90 minutes
  • 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.
  • These are qualifying games (provided that the courts are fully open and jumping is permitted) so both players must enter them on their handicap cards.
  • To join in please send an email to dr.s.m.fisher@gmail.com to have your name entered, play the game and one of you enters the results below. Results should be entered promptly for it all to work properly.

Enter results below

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Results so far

NamePointsWinsGames
Peter Allan10622
Andrew Petit10323
Joe King10311
Carol Jamieson10024
Steve Fisher10012
Andy Evason9725
Claire King9701
Brian Jamieson9414

Your games

DateWinnerpointstoLoserPointsto
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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 gameIf player with higher ranking points winsIf player with lower ranking points wins
0-633
7-1124
12+15

In the event that two players have the same index, number of wins and net wins then who-beat-whom amongst the tied players, and finally net points will be applied manually at 23:59 on the 10th August to decide upon the four best premium member players to take part in the finals to be held on August 17 at 13.30. Should anyone be unavailable to play, their place will be offered to the next best qualifying participant.

The finals format has been chosen to give an advantage to the two players who have done best.

  • Qualifier 1 – Player 1 vs Player 2 (the loser gets a second chance)
  • Eliminator – Player 3 vs Player 4 (will be played at the same time as qualifier 1 and, as it’s name suggests, eliminates one player)
  • Qualifier 2 – Winner of Eliminator vs loser of Qualifier 1
  • Final – between the two qualifier winners

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March 2026

Oh, Carol! ‘You hurt me and you make me cry’

Blewbury stalwart Carol Jamieson is still spitting feathers over the great Croquet England GC handicap U-turn.

The former club merchandising guru has been the victim of some astonishing CqE indecision.

Carol suffered after CqE manager James Death sent out an edict that “if a player’s dynamic grade is more than one lower than their card shows, their handicap should be reduced accordingly.”

But just a week later CqE chief executive Andy Dalby-Walsh put out an ‘urgent’ message to club handicappers: “Please stop this process now.”

All of which left Carol properly stitched up!

She said: “I was told that I was in the C Level tournament at Budleigh in April but then an hour later I was told that my handicap was reduced by this new rule from seven to five.

“Therefore I was no longer eligible to play in C Levels and had to withdraw from all C levels I had entered for the season. Blewbury handicapper Steve Fisher was informed and had to change my card.

“The next day James Death phoned to say he was not refunding my entry fees as the new rule was being reconsidered.

“With my new handicap of five I entered the B level at Budleigh but at the allocation I did not get a place as my D grade was not good enough!

“Having thought that this was all sorted and that I knew what I was doing for the season, the chief exec of CqE emailed me to say that this new rule was to be stopped and that my handicap would not be changed.

“Back to square one, except that I have missed out on the Budleigh C Level. I have received my fees back for the C Levels I had entered but then had to start again and enter afresh.”

Factor in the aggravation of the concomitant uncertainty over accommodation reservations near the venue in Devon and Carol’s grief ramped up even more.

She said: “It was quite a saga and meant a number of sleepless nights trying to work out each scenario. All told I was not a happy bunny.”

Fortunately Carol was the only Blewbury member involved in the about-face. She thinks she knows who was at fault and said: “I’ll have a word with him when I see him.”

Anyone still confused should read the latest CqE “urgent guidance”

The day we cleaned up our act

Massive kudos to the members who took part in the big pre-season spring cleaning bonanza!

Here’s what the clubhouse floor looks like when it has been scrubbed and polished. Sadly, it doesn’t stay like that for very long when the courts are damp but Jackie Bryant’s army of volunteers put in a great shift.

The chairs and windows got the same treatment and we even had the CqE coaching supremo cleaning the loo. Top job, Ruth!

Our workers also left the club sign gleaming (above) to impress passing motorists on the A417.

Don’t forget that you can sign up to help out around the club.

At last, Spring is sprung

Praise the Lord! The weather’s improving and the start of the competitive croquet season at Blewbury is barely a fortnight away.

We’ve a busy first week planned with tournaments and matches in three codes, kicking off on Saturday, April 4th, with the AC Hi-Lo Doubles.

Next up, on Easter Monday, is the Roger Cambray Charity One-Ball, with Deirdre Cochrane defending her title at the annual barbecue.

At the last look both these competitions had room for about four more players; check them out and sign up.

The Advantage League season opens on Wednesday, April 8th, with Blewbury D taking on Caversham. Club GC champ Simon Bryant leads a side of three 7-handicappers… Carol Jamieson, Jackie Bryant and Bruce Gibson.

The action switches to the AC code on Saturday, April 11th, when last season’s Prebendal Manor Cup is finally wrapped up. Two of Blewbury’s best AC players, Joe King and Peter Allan, will battle to earn the right to face Andy Evason in the afternoon final.

Andy will be clutching a fistful of bisques… seven if he plays Peter and 8.5 if it’s Joe.

On the following day it is the turn of the GC players to contest the Hi-Lo Doubles. Again, there are a few places left.

Don’t forget…if you’re not playing then a bit of support is always appreciated. Also, any photos taken at these events would be a welcome contribution to the April newsletter.

An old friend remembered

Tributes have been paid to former Blewbury member Rodney Calver, who passed away in January aged 85.

Rodney (left) was an Oxfordshire boy who move to the United States 40 years ago but kept a cottage in Uffington and came over to the UK every year and played at our club.

Our member Sandy Millikin said: “When Carol Wadsworth, Minty Clinch and I became members we told Rodney about it and he became a member, but he only played when he was here in the summer. I guess that was from 2019.

“For a while he was quite keen but then his health deteriorated and he did not play for the past couple of years. I am sure some members will remember him. He was mainly an AC player.”

Rodney had been honoured as club president of the year by the USA croquet association for his work at his local club in Maryland.

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