Many thanks for your kindness

A very generous Blewbury member has made the club a donation of £5,000. And the same donor has promised the club that another £5,000 is on its way, specifically to maintain the lawns in their present excellent condition.

This follows an earlier donation of £2,000 from another pair of members, plus other smaller donations plus Gift Aid and it means we have received more than £11,000 in the last month.

Treasurer Edmund Shirley said: “My understanding is that all these donations are for maintenance of the lawns, rather than proposed projects. These donations should therefore cover summer and autumn maintenance for 2-3 years.”

Secretary David Long said: “This means we no longer have an urgent cash-flow problem. But we still need to balance our books going forward.”

Scammers target our coffers

On the subject of money… spare a thought for our hard-working treasurer Edmund Shirley, who has borne the brunt of a fraudulent campaign to target Blewbury’s bank account. 

On four occasions recently a scammer has tried to set up direct debits to withdraw cash from our coffers. Through Edmund’s diligence, however, not to a penny has been lost. “It just causes grief and takes up a lot of my time,” he said.

Dealing with banks on matters like this is never a speedy procedure. Typically you get transferred from the people who deal with direct debits to the fraud department, then to the customer services operatives and then back to fraud department. All this interspersed with interminable waits to be transferred. 

Like all financial institutions, the custodians of our cash, Lloyds Bank, live in mortal fear of breaching data protection. So they will never tell you what they know.

Meanwhile Edmund (above) has plenty of better things to do with his time, such as our 2025 accounts.

“Whoever was trying this on wasn’t looking for big sums of money,” he said, “but if it happens again I will be straight on to the police.”

Say hello to the new members 

Let’s give a warm welcome to the four new members  who have joined our club in the last couple of weeks, as well as huge kudos to Tim Leverton for heading up our recent highly-successful recruitment campaign.

Three of the new signings are from Caversham — Jane Probitts and Anne and Tim Small. Having them on board means we are getting a return on the money we have spent on the new irrigation system; they want to play on very good courts instead of, er… not so good courts.

Jane has stood down from the Caversham committee but will keep her membership of Phyllis Court, where she is a GC doubles partner of Croquet England’s coaching committee chair, Ruth Raunkiaer (pictured right). 

Tim Small joins us as a qualified coach and referee and has already put in a substantial shift with our lawn maintenance team. 

When not on the croquet lawn he sings in the Riverate male-voice choir alongside our treasurer Edmund Shirley. Now we only need Placido Domingo to complete the Three Tenors. Tim’s wife, Anne was — like her husband — a long serving officer in the Thames Valley Police.

Our other new member in August was Howard Arnes, a former Lloyds Bank manager who lives in Cumnor and is a member of the same bridge club as Sandy Millikin.

The club membership has now risen to 57, with more strong prospects in the pipeline.

Victory at last… that’s Andy!

Here’s a happy picture to cheer up those who have been  following our GC teams in the SCF Leagues this season.

Blewbury’s A team lost all their fixtures in the Open League and then B squad in the 3+ League are not doing much better, having only this week’s 4-4 with High Wycombe to show for their efforts.

The top side finished their matches with a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of champions Phyllis Court, Andy Jones grabbing our only win by beating the Henley Club’s international star Chris Roberts. 

No wonder Andy (pictured right) looks happy. He even got a glowing reference in the Henley Standard, penned by the man he conquered!

Those who have been following the club news feed will know that our David Vincent-inspired C team has fared much better, winning the Advantage Central Division. They wait for a date for a play-off final against the other divisional champions. 

One confirmed date for your diaries is September 23rd, when Carol Jamieson’s successful doubles squad, having won the south division, play off against north champions Eynsham for the overall league title. We’ve got the home advantage for that one.

And Blewbury will stage an even bigger event on September 26th, when Nottingham take on Roehampton in the final of the AC Mary Rose inter-club competition.

Don’t be a mug… buy one! 

This tasteful coffee mug is the latest addition to the Blewbury merchandising campaign. On sale at a bargain £9, it can be purchased from the clubhouse.

You can order one through the blue file along with clothing such as polo shirts, zip fleeces and beanie hats for winter croquet.

Tim Leverton, who is heading up the sales pitch, said: “It’s a good time to get your orders in for cold weather gear. Buy now while stocks last.”

Some samples of the clothing will be available at the Fun Day on August Bank Holiday Monday. Tim can be contacted on 07515 955098.

Farewell to a Blewbury hero

This week we mourned the passing of former Blewbury president Coral Richards, a long-serving member of the village’s parish council. A speech therapist, mountaineer and keen tennis player, she was hugely active in village life.

As a parish councillor for 24 years, Coral was instrumental in creating the various sports facilities on both sides of Boham’s Road, including our croquet grounds and the skatepark.

She sat on several croquet sub-committees during the 2000s and her husband, John, project-managed our WC. Coral personally funded the over-run on that project’s costs and officially opened “The John” in his memory after his death in 2011.

Having tragically lost a son in an accident, Coral is survived by two daughters and seven grandchildren.

Sunday roll-ups on the way

We’re starting Sunday afternoon roll-ups from October 4th, with one court each for AC and GC. Keep an eye on the TeamUp calendar for details.

These weekend roll-ups constitute a trial over the winter and are not guaranteed going forward. They will only happen on Sundays when there is no priority booking, such as for proposed winter competitions and coaching activities.

There are also a couple of weekends earmarked for private lawn hire, so members are urged to check the calendar — and sign up — before turning up on this assumption that it’ll be happening.

Also, both courts are likely to be out of action from October 12th to late November for autumn maintenance. An announcement will be forthcoming.

• Stop Press: This week’s other committee decisions include…

• Roll-up clashes: Prebendal matches CAN be played during a roll-up, but only using one of the two courts. GC matches booked to start after a roll-up could be started earlier if a court is available and other players present agree.
• GC bookings: Competition and friendly matches should expect to be double-banked.

Blewbury licensed to thrill

Members should be able to toast their wins — or drown their sorrows — with strong drink from next season now that the committee has proposed we should apply for a licence to sell alcohol.

A vote will be taken on the move at the annual general meeting on November 25th.

The plan to sell alcohol from the clubhouse to members and their guests is purely and simply seen as a much-needed extra revenue stream.

If the move is given the go-ahead by the membership then an application for the licence will be formally submitted to the Vale of White Horse District Council. But first the AGM must agree to a number of minor amendments to the club constitution.

Our application to the local authority is being handled by webmaster Steve Fisher, who has taken on a huge volume of admin to make sure we comply with the Licensing Act 2003.

Some of the red tape Steve has had to plough through is quite laughable. For example, what activities do we plan on the premises… plays, films, boxing or wrestling, live music, dance…?

Fortunately if we do want to stage any Greco-Roman wrestling in the clubhouse we wouldn’t need a special licence so long as there are fewer than 1000 people in attendance.

Oh, and are all our committee members at least 18 years of age? I’m not making it up; there’s 23 pages of this stuff!

Steve has now battled through all of it, so hopefully we will be able to raise a glass to him.

Get well soon, everybody!

I’m sure all members will join me in sending the very best wishes for a speedy recovery to our colleague Simon Bryant as well as others who have recently been absent for health and fitness reasons.

Simon, the club GC champion from last season, picked up a couple of nasty knee injuries while on holiday in China and is unlikely to play again this season.

He said: “Basically my left knee is ****ed. These injuries require 4-6 months rest with minimal weight bearing.”

On a happier note, this week saw the return to our sport — for the first time this year — of Maggie Freund. 

Maggie (pictured right) is still far from being in the rudest of rude health but it was great to see her back on our courts.

At the same GC roll-up there was also a return to the courts after two months out for my wife, Jill, albeit still wearing a protective boot following her ankle op.

On the subject of injuries, apologies are due from yours truly for the absence of a June newsletter. In my defence I would say that it wasn’t easy to write from the operating theatre at the John Radcliffe.

Money’s too tight to mention

Some members may have misinterpreted the most recent committee minutes as a gloom-and-doom scenario.

Admittedly the line “our finances have taken a battering recently” doesn’t promote a very positive nuance.

But fear not, ye of little faith! Our business is all in very safe hands with treasurer Edmund Shirley and his committee colleagues.

They are simply trying to point out that we need more cash… regularly. They are actively addressing the issues and working on ideas to improve the position.

Secretary David Long said:  “Fund-raising ideas may help, but we probably also need a recruitment campaign and to do more of our own maintenance instead of using Avonmore.  Or to find a cheaper contractor. Or to accept a deterioration in our lawn standard. Other ideas welcomed.”

Moving forward, there’s already two bits of good news. Firstly, lawn management guru Tim Leverton has accepted a new role as a lead on club fund-raising. Anyone else willing to take on a similar role would be warmly welcomed.

Secondly, the club has received an extremely kind donation of £2,000 from two members who wish to remain anonymous.

Minty’s memorabilia

A plaque in memory of the late Minty Clinch is to be erected on the gazebo nearest to the irrigation tanks.

Rather than buy a trophy in her name, Minty’s family have agreed to make a contribution towards our “hedge fund” – to cover the cost of the photinias masking the tanks.

Meanwhile Minty’s memorabilia, from her long involvement in croquet, will also be available soon. Her close friends might like to have some of this for a contribution to club funds. Look out for it in the clubhouse.

Anyone keen to acquire some of Minty’s equipment, documents etc should contact Sandy Millikin at sandramillikin@gmail.com

Handicapgate… the sequel

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.”

If you’ve got time to help out please drop Andy an email at andy3210213@gmail.com.

Founder’s Cup: King crowned champ

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

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.

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.