Author: Peter Allan

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.

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.

That was the general comment from all of the players who arrived at Blewbury on the morning of Saturday 23rd August to take part in the AC Super-B tournament. I am used to players commenting favourably on the high quality of our lawns, but this year the bar was lower. Having played in tournaments recently where patches of green were few and far between, the players were happy simply to see green lawns.

The original nine players had been reduced to a field of seven due to a combination of injuries and one late addition. My plan of running the tournament as a flexible Swiss was still valid, and gave some chance of players managing to play against all the other players. In the end, three players managed that. The handicaps of the players ranged from 0 to 3.5, so there were no easy games.

Saturday started a bit on the cool side, but the temperature quickly rose to a pleasant, warm day. Battle commenced. The three hour time limit per game was only reached once due to solid breaks on the part of all the players. At the end of the day, we had a clear leader. Adam Swinton from Surbiton was on four out of four wins. Could someone catch him on the Sunday? No we could not, Adam was a worthy winner with five out of five games. The second closest player was Neil Kingston from Bristol on four out of six.

The play had been of a consistently high standard. Everyone seemed to feel that they had played well and that if they had lost, they had simply been outplayed. Several triple peels were attempted, but none were finished. At a somewhat less exotic level, in my final game. I peeled my opponent’s ball through rover and pegged him out, demonstrating that stopping at rover does not always make you safe!

We all enjoyed the excellent lunches provided by Susan, Minty, and Sandy.

After some good croquet, good food and good company, I am expecting several return visitors next year.

Peter Allan

Blewbury hosted its annual weekend AC tournament over the weekend of 26-27 July. The field was notably high-class, with participants’ handicaps ranging from 1 to -2. Sophie McGlen managed the tournament most effectively, running it as a flexible Swiss with nine player, so that, although there was always someone not playing, they were not sat down for very long. As soon as one game finished, the loser played against the player who was waiting.

The weather was good on both days, with just a surprise light shower on Saturday morning and the lawns were in tip-top condition after spraying and verticutting the day before.

We had excellent lunches provided by Minty on both days.

Games proceeded at a pace on Saturday, with players completing two, three, or four games.

Sophie’s task on Saturday evening was to organise the games for Sunday so that hopefully we would have a thrilling finish on Sunday afternoon.

Two of the games in the final round had exciting three-ball endings.

In my game against Andrew Dutton, we had both made a break to 4-back, when I hit in with my forward ball. I decided to take that ball to peg, set a good leave, with the plan being to take my second ball all the way round. The plan was going well until I over approached 2-back giving me no chance of running the hoop. Andrew had an easy hit in and proceeded to make several hoops, but then broke down himself. I made three more hoops, leaving me on penult and peg. Andrew then took his second ball to peg and pegged me out. After some jockeying for position, we ended up with me for rover and Andrew for penult, with Andrew’s two balls on the east boundary. I could see that Andrew did not have a good rush to penult, so I kept putting my ball in a runnable position for rover, forcing Andrew to move it rather than make penult himself. We did this little dance for four or five times until Andrew did give himself a good rush to penult. Time to take the bull by horns or it would all be over. I shot from the west boundary at Andrew’s two balls just off the east boundary, aiming at the left one and hoping to hit the right one due to the slope of the lawn, and I did! It was now straightforward to get a rush to rover, make the hoop and peg out my ball for a narrow win. Those watching had enjoyed the spectacle, and discussing the tactical choices, which of course they would have done differently.

The decisive final game was between Joel Taylor and Nigel Polhill. The play was of a very high standard, with balls being positioned consistently accurately. Both players made big breaks, with Nigel being the first to take his first ball to 4-back and then his second to peg. Joel, now took his second ball to peg and pegged out Nigel’s ball. This developed into more of a classic 3-ball ending. Joel knew that Nigel was quite capable of hitting his balls from anywhere on the lawn, so he continually put his balls in wired positions, wiring both balls if Nigel was responsible for the position of his own ball, or leaving just one ball visible if Joel was responsible for the position of Nigel’s ball. At one point, Nigel called me to judge if his ball was wired and so could have a lift. It was close. Nigel was clearly wired on yellow, but not quite on red. Nigel shot at red – and hit yellow. Sloping lawns again! Nigel made 4-back, but could not make further progress. Near the end of the game, the position was as shown in the photograph. Joel’s red is on peg and his yellow on rover. Nigel is on the north boundary with blue at his feet. It was possible for Nigel to hit yellow by sending the ball through the narrow gap between the peg and rover, but after much deliberation, he decided to play to the east boundary and hope to get a better shot next time. But there was no next time. Joel cut-rushed red to rover, made the hoop and pegged out his balls to win. Well played Joel, a worthy winner. Both three-ball endings had a score of 26-22, and that is probably the only thing that is comparable between them.

I have been suffering from croquet withdrawal symptoms for the last seven weeks, so I was keen to get back on the lawns to see if I could still play. It was drizzling a little when I got to the lawns around 1.40 pm on Monday, but then the Sun came out and it proved to be a pleasant afternoon. (Yes, the Sun. You know, that big white ball in the sky. I am sure you remember it really.)

But the question was, could I still play, or had my croquet muscles forgotten what to do? I was definitely rusty to start with, but after a decent warm up, it all came flooding back. Admittedly, it wasn’t pretty – more ‘agricultural’ than precision croquet – but it was still effective.

So, it’s definitely time to plan this year’s campaign of practice and tournaments. I hope to see plenty of you on the lawns soon.

Peter Allan

The final of the All-England AC handicap competition was contested at Blewbury over the weekend of 21-22 September 2024. The weather forecast was ominous – thunderbolts and lightning (very, very frightening) – but in the end we had some rain that did not stop play at any point.

Eight players had made it through the first round and the area finals. Their handicap ranged from 2.5 to 22, so it promised to be an interesting weekend.

There were a mixed set of results from the games, being roughly equally split between a crushing win, a strong win, and a nail-biting finish. I have to say that watching one of the final close games between Diana Wilson and Margaret Murray was more stressful than actually playing in such a game (though the players may disagree).

The tournament was played as a five-round Swiss, which is fairly likely to result in an outright winner, but in the end there were three players on four out of five wins. Who beat whom was no help, so the tie was broken by the ‘quality of wins’ of each of the players. This reduced the field to two players, so that finally, who beat whom broke the tie. All of the player acquitted themselves well, but the eventual winner was Sean Doherty from Ealing. This is all the more creditable since Sean forgot to bring his mallet on Sunday and played with a mallet borrowed from Carol Jamieson.

Two players, our own Brian Jamieson and Colin Carver (Enfield) made 10 or more hoops in a turn, using bisques, in a game that they won, and so qualify for a Bronze merit award.

The photograph shows Sean holding the cup as winner, and David Graham (also from Ealing) is holding the salver that goes to the club of the winner.

Reported by Peter Allan

How often have we heard that said? Well it certainly applied to some of the games in the Blewbury Super-B AC advanced tournament held over the weekend of 24-25 August.

In one of the first round matches, Richard Peperell had a four hoop lead over Paul Watson as time went. Paul was just starting his turn and Richard would get one last turn. Those of us watching in the club house thought that Paul would have to play his blue ball in order to have any chance of winning, but he chose to play black. This was an easier hit in, but as it was for 4-back, surely Paul could not score enough points. However, we then realised that Paul could draw level by making three hoops and pegging out his black. Surely a risky strategy as it would leave him with only one ball. Having hit in and made 4-back, Paul appeared to be eyeing up a peel at 4-back. (He was.) Would he make the peel, go round to peg, and peg out to win? This resulted in a big debate in the clubhouse as to the best approach. After much thought, Paul did not go for the peel. He realised just in time (we in the club house were much slower) that his blue was for hoop 3, not 4-back, so the peel was never on. Paul did go round to peg with black, and pegged out to level the game. Richard had one more turn, but failed to score. Paul was the first to score a hoop in extra time, so won a very tight game.

I was involved in the next nail biter. I was playing against Christopher Crowcroft. I got off to a reasonable start, but I missed a short roquet and Christopher made rapid progress after that. I was way behind when Christopher was on peg and penult, but in trying to set up a leave, he accidentally pegged out his own ball! I now had two balls to his one, but I was way behind. Could I catch up? I made steady progress, helped by the fact that if your opponent has pegged out a ball, they can no longer claim a lift after their opponent has run through 1-back or 4-back. Christopher did score the last two hoops, but I managed to keep going to win 26-25. The roar of the crowd could surely be heard as far away as the Red Lion.

All of the players were impressed that we managed to start the tournament on time as it had been raining for several hours beforehand. Fortunately it had not been heavy rain, so our good drainage meant that there was no problem. Some also commented that they had started playing on the assumption that the rain would have made the lawns rather slow. Not so! They were at their usual pace.

We had an excellent lunch, prepared on both days by Minty, but served on Sunday by Sandy.

Once all of the games had been finished, two players emerged with four wins each: Robbie Dodds from Shrewsbury, and myself. Robbie had beaten me, so he was the worthy winner. He said that he had really enjoyed playing at Blewbury and that this was his first tournament win. He plans to come back next year.

The Blewbury AC Advanced weekend tournament was held on 13-14 July and was graced by a selection of top players – five of the nine had minus handicaps, and three were minus 2. (Minus 3 is the lowest AC handicap that exists.)

Sophie McGlen, the manager, organised the tournament as a Swiss, which keeps the play moving along at a good pace. The weather was good, and the tournament was played in a great spirit.

As always, the players greatly enjoyed the lunch, provided on this occasion by Minty. We were especially keen to discover what the various fruits were in the dessert on the first day. They looked very exotic.

With such a high-class field I was expecting plenty of triple peels to be completed. In fact there were ten in the 27 games played, with several other attempts. However, I quickly realised that I had underestimated the top players. My first game was against Debbie Lines (the current women’s world champion). Debbie hit in and was well into a solid break when I realised that the balls were not where I expected them to be. Debbie was setting up to do a sextuple peel! Debbie had made six hoops, cross-wired my balls at hoop 1, and put her ball in the jaws of hoop 2 after placing her other ball north west of hoop 2. The idea is that I don’t get a lift with one of my balls, so I need to make a 25 yard roquet or run away and hide. While shooting and missing would give Debbie an even better position, running and hiding seemed that it would only delay the inevitable, so I tried the 25 yard shot – and hit! I now had a great position and I scored 9 hoops before making a leave. However, to no one’s surprise, Debbie hit in and won 26-9.

Other players attempted sextuples during the weekend, which is a testament to the abilities of the top players, and to the quality of our lawns. You don’t try doing a sextuple on a dodgy lawn. As the tournament was drawing to a close no one had succeeded in doing a sextuple peel, but in her last game, Debbie had completed five of the necessary peels and was carefully lining up her final peel. Everyone was watching by this time. Unfortunately the final peel failed, but Debbie still won the game.

At the conclusion of play, Debbie and Robin Brown were the only players to have lost one game each. Debbie had won one more game, but that was by dint of having played one more game than Robin. It was agreed that the fairest thing to do was that tournament should be decided by what I know as a Nottingham tie-break, where the players in contention play a two-ball break starting from corner 4 and going for hoop 4, then hoop 5, and so on. It is important that the player going second does not know how many hoops the first player has scored, so Robin went first, with Debbie around the corner, admiring our water butt. My experience of these tie breaks is that three hoops is a typical score and four hoops is likely to be a winning score. Not so for Robin and Debbie. Robin made 16 hoops on his two-ball break – a stupendous number. While Debbie did not know how many hoops Robin had made, she was surely conscious that it had taken quite a while. Debbie made six hoops, which is a great score, but a fewer than 16.

Well done to Robin – a worthy winner.

“You really shouldn’t need a degree in jurisprudence and combinatorial maths in order to be able to decide who has won a croquet tournament” were my thoughts around 6pm on Sunday afternoon. But I am getting a head of myself.

On 26 & 27 August 2023, Blewbury hosted the annual super-B advanced AC tournament. Eight players had signed up, but unfortunately Richard Peperell came down with a bad cold so we were down to seven. I will claim that half of the original eight were international players. We have played in Corfu – surely that counts!

An odd number is always unfortunate since it means that one player has to sit out in each round. Robert Upton opted for the lie-in on the Saturday morning and Beatrice McGlen for the early bath on Sunday evening. The rest of us took pot luck. One lucky player would avoid the sit-out and get their fully money’s worth. By the luck of the draw, this turned out to be David Warhurst.

The weather on Saturday was showery with sunny spells and fortunately the showers never stopped play. I got off to a good start by beating Mike Hedge (0) and after an excellent lunch provided by Sandy and Philippa, I beat David Warhurst (-1) and followed this up by beating Ian Draper (1.5). No one was more surprised than me to find that I was in the lead at the end of the first day with three wins out of three games, although I did note that Robert Upton was also undefeated on two wins from two games. Dare I hope that this was “my weekend”?

I had the sit-out slot on Sunday morning, so I spent the time watching my next two opponents looking for any tactical weaknesses on their part. Sadly I found none.

Fortified by a scrumptious lunch from Minty, I beat Andrew Dutton (1). Was the dream really on?

In the last round I played against Robert Upton (2), who I have played several times before. I think we are about 50-50 on wins, but surely I am on form and I would be able to beat him. As the game progressed things were not looking so rosy. I made a good start, but then made a hash of hoop 3, letting Robert in, who took full advantage. For the next two hours, it was mostly Robert making good progress with me making a few hoops here and there. This is where the jurisprudence and maths comes in. It was looking like Robert would beat me and if David won his last game there would be three players with only one loss, but different number of wins, and each of us would have beaten the other. The tournament regulations do cover this situation, but in language that I can only describe as something that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike English. To help the aspiring tournament director, there is a worked example. This is where the maths comes in and it is best not attempt to follow this on your mobile phone in the middle of a tournament when you are desperately trying to win your last game!

As I walked on to the lawn with about ten minutes of play left on the clock I was ten hoops behind. Things looked dire, but I had a reasonably easy hit-in and I decided to just do the best I could in the remaining time. If I could go from hoop 3 round to peg with red and peg out I would be one point ahead. A fiendish leave would give me a win – and no headache on deciding the winner. So that is what I did. A carefully crafted split shot after hoop 3 gave me a crucial rush to bring the pivot into play and after that it was just careful play to keep the four-ball break tidy. Simples! Plus one on time, for a 100% record over the weekend.

It was very gratifying to win my first advanced AC tournament. I will be putting the trophy (an engraved glass) to good use by adding a smidgen of single malt and studying those tournament regulations in the peace of my own home.