Category: News

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

Blewbury Croquet Club opened for business, 2025 style, with a very successful Midwinter Social at the Red Lion last night. 19 members and nine guests gathered for supper – coq au vin or vegetarian – as beer and red wine flowed. David Long and Bruce Gibson surpassed themselves with an outstanding quiz, the questions or answers cunningly related to primary and secondary colours or pieces of equipment – mallets, hoops, balls.

The flag round proved crucial, with the winning team, the Doctors, nailing 12 out of 12 to set up an unassailable lead. Well named though non medical, the great brains comprised Peter Allan, Steve Fisher and Brian Jamieson, though I’m sure they’d never have collected the Quality Street trophy without help from Anne Allan and Carol Jamieson. Second No eyed Deer, third Triple Peel, master-minded by our newest member, Alastair Laidlaw, and his wife Zilla. Thank you David and Bruce for high quality hosting, Annabel and John for cooking and joie de vivre.

Barely two weeks to wait until the re-opening of the courts on Monday, February 3rd. Kick off is elite GC practice on the first morning. Book now to avoid disappointment. And play well….

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.

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.

For a small club like Blewbury to take on mighty Nottingham in the national Short Croquet team final is an heroic achievement. Having won their place 8-3 against York, hopes were high for King’s men as they closed in on Sherwood Forest. As is his custom during his current hot streak, Joe led from the front in the morning games, winning his singles. Brian Jamieson and Andrew Petit were touched off in the doubles by a stand out roll up by Nottingham captain Andrew Beaumont. 1-2

As the sun came out, Joe and Andrew won their afternoon singles. 3-4. All to play for in the final round: 3 wins would clinch the cup. Andy E was the conqueror this time with a convincing 14-6 against Beaumont, but his team mates fell short, leaving Nottingham with a 7-4 margin. Peeling a hoop in the wrong direction may haunt Joe for a while, but he goes home with the knowledge that all his team members were competitive at the highest level. They will be back next year.

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.

Work will begin on the sandstone footings on October 7th, with two permanent wooden gazebos going up shortly afterwards. The whole project should be completed before the AGM on Thursday, October 24th. During the work, players should be able to continue to use the lawns, although the ball catchers may need to be deployed!

The larger gazebo will replace the existing green canvas one on the gate side of the clubhouse, providing a far better space for sheltering, spectating and serving teas and lunches. The smaller one on the other side will have a bench so that spectators can watch in comfort, come rain or shine. BCC thanks the anonymous donor whose generosity has made this ground breaking improvement possible.

David Dibben’s D team, unbeaten winners of their division in the SCF’s GC Advantage league, made the sea voyage to the Isle of Wight to challenge Ryde, winners of the southern division. At the end of play, they were still unbeaten, but 8-8 wasn’t good enough. How come, you may ask? The somewhat random tie-breaker was the result of the game between the two captains and it didn’t go Blewbury’s way. On this occasion, Jackie Bryant was BCC’s star with 3 wins. For the record, Blewbury D finished the season with an outstanding 63 games to Ryde’s 55 and Phyllis Court’s 34. Is it fair to say that the best team was robbed?

Phew! 80,000 steps, 200 hoops. So said Joe King after he’d accepted the 2024 Treasurer’s Tankard, the prize for the Fourth Eight tournament held in Colchester over the past five days. He got off to a flier against some of the top AC players in England, then clung onto the lead as rivals rallied. On the final day, his total of 8 wins and 3 losses put clear blue water between him and familiar rival, David Warhurst from Budleigh Salterton (6-5). When you see a lone figure practising on the Blewbury courts in the rain, it’s often JK.. So that’s how it’s done, plus talent and stamina. BCC salutes you, Joe.

Robin Brown made an equally rampant start against England’s finest in the President’s Cup at Hurlingham, but stalled when the big guns started firing. He’d already beaten England captain Samir Patel and new European champion James Death, but they exacted due revenge as they headed for first and third places, with Gabrielle Higgins in between. Robin won’t thank me for congratulating him on finishing fifth behind Stephen Mulliner, but that doesn’t mean that 7wins, 7 losses in this elite company isn’t a notable result.

Sophie McGlen completed a hat trick of outstanding Blewbury performances with an 100% (6 out of 6) victory in the Selectors’ Weekend Swiss tournament. She went on to beat Guy Hewitt 26-10 in the semis and Robert Dodds 26-14 in the final of the Selector Knockout . Bravissima….

Blewbury’s informal one ball tournament took place as planned, though a field reduced to 8 by sickness and admin error left me wondering why I couldn’t persuade accomplished GC players to give one ball a try. Their specific skills – placing long balls in position to run hoops and striking them cleanly through – are the backbone of a game that also contains a few very simple elements of AC.

Ask Philippa Turner who’d never played it, yet finished second in a field that included such accomplished AC players as Deirdre and Andys R and E. The handicap system favours hi bisquers, with Edmund and Sandy recording encouraging results. After a morning of round robin blocks, Brian and Philippa won their respective semis against Edmund and Minty. In a close final, Brian emerged triumphant.