Category: News

Blewbury Croquet Club (BCC) returned to its roots yesterday with a splendid fiesta organised and run by Deirdre Cochrane. Such a joy to play on the court lovingly maintained over 30 years by her husband Malcolm in the peaceful grounds of their family home. David Long put in the hard yards to herd 15 entries into three groups of five for the preliminary block rounds – four games, one sit-out per player.

Two blocks were played on half sized courts at Blewbury, with Robin Brown and Edmund Shirley claiming wins that put them in the semi finals after lunch. Robin’s matches were over so quickly, that his block finished all 5 rounds in the morning. Edmund achieved his win despite losing his final game to one-ball novice Philippa Turner: a testament to the ball-by-ball coaching he so sportingly gave her throughout his defeat. Meanwhile, back at home base, David Seed edged Deirdre into second place, but then nobly retired in the afternoon to allow the queen to build on a morning of pinpoint precision.

After drinks on the lawn – thank you, Candida, number two daughter from Australia – the meal was served with appropriate style in the dining room, by Deirdre with a little help from Avril. Coronation chicken, new potatoes, salad and focaccia, followed by roulade and accompanied by red or white wine, slipped down merrily.

Then it was time to regroup for the final shootouts. With four and a half bisques and infinite knowledge of home turf, Deirdre saw off the indomitable Robin in one semi final, with Brian taming Edmund in the other. After a tough contest with Brian, the queen claimed the crown – the Roger Cambray Memorial Shield – for the 7th time; 25 years on from her first such victory. Chris Cambray, non croquista but still resident in Blewbury, did the honours graciously and stayed to tea – currant scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, chocolate brownies – to round off a magical garden party from another age. Close your eyes for moment and you were back there in the 1990’s with BBC in embryo and the shades of champions past. Bravissima Deirdre on all fronts. I’m still reliving it today.

There were extra challenges to holding the GG 7+ level play tournament at BCC on the last Saturday in June. The Travellers’s five handsome caravans had rolled onto Tickers Folly Field with unstoppable right of passage three days earlier. On Friday night, the automatic irrigation system proved too tempting during the heatwave. Padlocks were cut off, giving youths the pleasure of frolicking among the sprinklers in the dark watches of the night.

An enigmatic champion – Bruce holding his first trophy

None of which stopped the Jamieson machine from delivering another impeccable event. It was primarily a Blewburian affair, with Bruce, Chris and the Freunds, eliminating the two visitors, Phyllis Court’s Steven Moreton and Basingstoke’s Liz Rhodes , from mainstream contention during the morning block play. While the travellers’s washing dried on the fence, the Freunds took on each other in the first semi final, with Chris against Bruce in the second. When all was done, Bruce stepped up to receive his first engraved Blewbury glass trophy – and a handicap improvement of 8 to 7. His victory path included four wins against serious contenders, his only loss coming against the ‘making up the numbers’ rank outsider. Funny old game…..

Although BCC is currently underperforming at league level, two of our finest AC players have recently achieved landmark personal bests. Like Carlos Alcaraz, Joe King has only lost one match since March – to Hamptworth firefighter, Tim O’Donnell. The work he’s put into getting his new handicap, -1.5, takes him significantly nearer to the AC World Championship qualifying week in West Palm Beach in September. At the moment, he’s leading the order of merit for the 24 slots on offer. If he were to make the main draw the following week, he’d join Robin Brown whose world ranking puts him in automatically.

When Peter Allan took up croquet nine years ago, he applied the intelligence and work ethic that built him an impressive international career in rocket science to a game that rapidly became an obsession. It took him about two years to recognise his potential and another seven to realise his dream of scratch: he achieved it recently at the recent National Veterans Championship at Cheltenham after wins over minus handicappers, Sarah Hayes and Sandy Grieg. Peter’s magic mantra is ‘no trivial shots’. Two inches , two yards, 20 yards: each must be thought through and executed with the same precision. Currently, he’s ranked 119 in the UK. Double digits is the new goal.

Peter and Joe in celebratory mood

Well, whoever said that got it wrong as the contenders for the regional finals of the GC handicap championship discovered when they stepped onto the courts without their thermals on June 1st. The Blewbury qualifier was run slickly in the familiar Jamieson style: two blocks of five, all play all. And please get on with it. A sensible if largely superfluous instruction as lower handicappers worked their way through up to 11 hoops in biting wind.

Andy E was unbeaten in block one, with Nick Freund second; in block two, it was ladies day, with Jackie Bryant first and Maggie Freund second. The deciding line up pitched Andy against Maggie and Jackie against Nick. To the Freunds, the spoils: Aston Tirrold rocks.

Nick and Maggie en fete

Back in the clubhouse, the knives were out: Nick, a dashingly rapid improver, accepted a 4 stroke handicap cut from 9 to 5, Maggie went down from 8 to 6 and Jackie relinquished her long term 10 for a more realistic 7.

This year’s Hi-bisquers weekend was severely hit by last minute illness and injury, a nightmare for organisers Brian and Carol to sort out at the very last moment. Six players lined up for four 14 point games on a windy Saturday; by close of play, four were still possible winners, among them Blewburians, Carol and Edmond. On Sunday, Fred Williams from Llanfairfechan, showed AC skills above his 20 handicap to take out the home pair.

As they shook hands, he told Carol that their close fought game was the most enjoyable he’d had all year. Although its result meant she’d present him with the engraved glass trophy, she agreed wholeheartedly. This generous spirit marked the whole tournament, so much so that the Jamiesons rounded out a weekend of diverse duties by playing Fred and his wife in a social doubles on Sunday afternoon before the Williams pair returned to Wales.

Fred Williams’ stylish hoop approach.

Thank you Brian for setting up, adding up, stepping in whenever refereeing was required – and everything else.

Dates are listed below for the rota. They are all on the Monday at the start of the seven day period during which the job should be done. Though the mower is quiet, mowing should not be done during tournaments nor matches. I prefer late afternoon towards the end of a roll up session. If there are any dates you cannot do please arrange a swap and let me (Steve) know.

Please see the instructions.

• 19 May – Edmund
• 2 June – John
• 16 June – Peter A
• 30 June – Hugh
• 14 Jul- David V
• 28 Jul – Steve
• 11 Aug – David W

On a day neither too hot or too cold, a treat even in this outstanding May, the first SC tournament of the year unfolded block by block. Some quirks of performance, though certainly not of the lawns which were impeccable, relegated such redoubtable maestros as John Grimshaw, Kingston Langley’s bearded giant, Peter Allan and Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli to lower orders they are not accustomed to.

Carol Jamieson, in command of both the tournament and her game, was joined in the top tier by Caroline Tarran, another member of a strong Kingston Langley contingent, and fellow Blewburians Andy Robertson and Andrew Petit. After David Long’s delectable coronation chicken and Eton mess, they locked horns in matches that resulted in a final between Caroline and Andy. After a tenacious battle to a 5-4 conclusion, Andy emerged triumphant.

Huge thanks to Carol and Brian for bearing their on-going workload so tirelessly and so cheerfully. And to David for gastro-fuelling Blewbury’s dominance in the latter stages.

Applause for Andy as he collects his engraved glass

After their impressive start at Nailsea, the Blewbury Bullets came up a little short against Cheltenham in the northern division of the SC open league. Facing a low handicap team, Andy E’s Bullets, captained on this occasion by Brian, may have benefitted from Nigel Cox’s unexplained withdrawal: Joe, his last minute replacement, won all his games. Sadly his bedrock performance wasn’t equalled by the also rans, but the day could easily have gone the other way. There were only two peg out wins and three of the matches went to the golden hoop. Brian backed Joe up with chutzpah : two victories in this company is straight shooting, but the final score was 9-7 to Cheltenham.

BCC’s C & D teams in the GC Advantage League met at home, as is customary, in the first of their series matches. As they set out on their mission to defend their divisional title, David Dibben’s hardened warriors in D (DDD) emerged as convincing winners. The 11-5 score line , the same as last year, left David Vincent’s C team licking familiar wounds.

With the Bryants as its backbone, Dibben’s gang won many more games than any other team in the regional group in 2024.. On this occasion, Jackie led from the front, with four games out of four; Captain Dibben scored 3, with Simon and David Grinstead on 2. For C, Carol and Susan won two each, with Andy E on one.

The match successfully trialed the new Target scoring system, though David Grinstead had to fight on to the 16th hoop to confront large handicap differentials. Thanks too, to David Vincent, on the sidelines this time, for excellent stewardship and hospitality.

Bravo DDD. The way is clear for that regional supremacy so narrowly denied last September.