Author: David Long

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.

Croquet England have again selected Blewbury to host the Finals of its annual AC All-England Handicap competition, to be held 16-17 September 2028.

Beating off bids from 6 other clubs, spread as far across the country as Hunstanton, Chester and Ramsgate, we’ve been entrusted with the 2028 competition partly because of our central location.

Other factors in our favour were our new irrigation system and borehole, which should guarantee good lawns even if 2028 brings another summer drought; and the positive feedback from 2024, when we previously hosted that same event.

This year’s Finals will be held in Ealing on 19-20 September, after local and regional heats. Open to anyone with an AC handicap, you can enrol for our local heat via our competitions page.

After pile-driving through a rocky chalk layer, we struck water 6m down below our courts. Having continued a further 18m below that, to install a pump that should still be well-covered even in severe droughts, the borehole team are now tidying up and making way for our replacement irrigation system to be installed over coming weeks. We’re very grateful to Croquet England for the £5k grant we’ve gained towards this work, and even more so to those members who’ve provided donations or loans to supplement the Kay bequest and make this all possible. We hope that our courts will remain playable throughout the remaining irrigation works, though there may be some disruption while trenches are being dug… and when the new system is being tested! Please bear with us.

This year’s AC World Championships are being held in West Palm Beach Florida. Only 72 players – from across the globe – take part. We almost had 3 BCC members there. Robin Brown earned a place but withdrew, Sophie McGlen got on the reserve list, but in the end only Joe King achieved the great honour of being there and representing our club.

The first stage of the competition was played in 8 blocks of 9 competitors. In such august company, Joe struggled but did manage 2 wins; against fellow Brit Stephen Allen, and vs. Jack Rush (USA). There is no shame in losing to the likes of World-ranked #4, Logan McCorkindale (NZ), who has since advanced to the Championships’ semi-finals and now takes on Reg Bamford.

That meant Joe was one of 32 players to enter the Plate competition. Here he enjoyed much greater success, winning all 4 of his block games to reach the knock-out round of 16. Further success, against Australian Michael Gidding, earned Joe a quarter-final place. But his run came to an end there, losing 2 straight games in a best-of-3 against Mexican Brian Lozano.

Well done, Joe. We hope you enjoyed the experience, and wish you – and other eligible Blewburians – even greater success next time!!

Despite an overnight drenching, our lawns passed an early morning pitch inspection for today’s annual AC Hi-Lo Doubles. After a couple of late withdrawals, the field was reduced to 10; half with handicaps of 20+, and half with handicaps ranging from -1 to +10. That split was pretty much ideal for an event as much about providing an enjoyable coaching experience as it was about the competition.

The two AC novices, David Weston and Hugh Coghill-Smith, were paired with Joe King and Peter Allan respectively. Sandy Millikin was paired with Andy Evason, Claire King with Deirdre Cochrane, and Minty Clinch with Brian Jamieson.

The format was 5 rounds of 14-point, alternate stroke AC, played to an hour’s time-limit, with handicaps set to a base of 2.5 so that every pair got 5-6 bisques per game.

After the first 3 rounds, played in a mix of dry spells and showers, Deirdre & Claire were undefeated. And, after calling time in the 4th round – just as Peter & Hugh were walking off court at the end of a break – Deirdre & Claire were able to gain a 9-7 lead against them too. But they mistakenly thought that the end of the match, and left their balls invitingly close together: Peter was able to hit-in, and he and Hugh were able to win the match 10-9.

Although Deirdre & Claire were still the only team on 3 wins, they had now completed all their 4 matches: Peter & Hugh (who had only lost against Joe & David) would now win the tournament if they could win their last-round match against Andy & Sandy.

But alas! That 4th round had been played through heavy rain and – although the skies were now brightening – there was standing water on the courts and the last round had to be abandoned. Rather than using the incomplete blocks method to compute the winners, it was agreed to share the title, with prizes awarded to both the teams concerned, in keeping with the friendly spirit of the day. Every pair had won at least one game, and everyone left with smiling faces; however bedraggled they had become.

A still and sunny day greeted the 4 semi-finalists for this year’s Prebendal Manor Trophy. Joe King, Andy Robertson and Peter Allan (three times) had all won the competition in the last 7 years, and Deirdre Cochrane hoped to add her name to that trophy.

The first semi was all over within an hour. Joe was 11-0 up before Andy got his first break. After Andy then played the wrong ball, Joe quickly completed an 18-0 rout. The other semi was much tighter. Deirdre took an 11-3 lead, but only after using all her bisques. Peter steadily fought back to 15-all, despite a free drop that Deirdre was awarded after a very long scrutiny. The match could have gone either way, until Deirdre missed a shot with all 4 balls on the peg: game over (18-16).

So Peter and Joe met in a re-run of last year’s final, which Peter had won 26-0. Peter had also beaten Joe in last season’s Founders Cup final: Joe described Peter as “my bete-noire, who I’ve never beaten competitively”. Meanwhile Peter seemed bemused by being given 1.5 bisques (“I’ve forgotten what to do with these”): indeed, they were used up quickly as he opened with a modest 2-hoop break. However, at the hour-mark, a 12-hoop break had taken Peter to 17-0, with his red already on the peg; while Joe was really struggling to find his form after lunch.

But Joe finally ran Hoop 1 (at the 4th attempt!), and his confidence steadily grew as another 11 hoops followed: having taken his own ball to the peg, he pegged out Peter’s red. There was over an hour still on the clock, though Joe was 6 hoops down (12-18). Joe played cautiously, making sure each leave minimised Peter’s chance of a long hit-in, and drawing on both his 1-ball and his peeling skills to slowly inch his way back. The tension built. The wind started gusting, and was blamed by both players for a couple of missed chances. But Joe wasn’t throwing any caution to the wind. With nerves of steel, he levelled the match at 20-20 just as the 5-minute warning was announced. That was still the score when the timer sounded, at which point Joe pegged out his rover ball, while putting too much distance between the last two remaining balls for Peter to reply. With this 21-20 victory, Joe could finally lay to rest the ghost of last year’s defeats.