Category: News

The Oxford University sides are ever talented and unpredictable. There was an astonishing range of handicaps on display when we played them yesterday, from the lowest the to the highest AC handicaps that fit the scale and stay within the SCF’s B-League limits – 0.5 to 24. What was pretty predictable though is that Blewbury’s Peter Allan (0.5) won his game, and Andy Robertson (10) did likewise against the brave 24-handicapper who nevertheless had hopes of playing against Cambridge after a bit more coaching and practice, but had to dash off after lunch for his college’s Summer Ball that evening. I lost to the clearly up-and-coming Oxford captain, whose handicap was only twice mine.

Still, a team win’s a team win, and I found our lunchtime conversation in the Blueberry pub afterwards highly entertaining, though I did wonder what the other customers might be thinking.

AC B-League results so far: played 2, won 1, lost 1. Next, we play Winchester, away.

This morning we began our defence of last year’s SCF B-League title, level play AC under advanced rules. But in contrast to that undefeated 2023 season, East Dorset came to Blewbury and brought us down to earth with a bump. Although Peter Allan competently won his game +16, Avril R-M and I both struggled to find our form, and we two lost -17 and -8(t) respectively. Avril’s opponent gallantly and cheerfully admitted, while tucking into his lunch, that he had played unusually well today. Result: a 1-2 defeat for Blewbury.

Our next B-League match will be against Oxford University, who are coming to Blewbury on Saturday morning, 4 May.

The first of this season’s coaching courses have now been drawn up by the Club’s coaches and are available for members to sign up. Each course has a suggested handicap range. Preference will be given to members whose handicaps fall within the suggested range. Please be realistic when considering whether courses are suitable for you.

Most of the courses are limited to four members, exceptionally more may be accepted at the discretion of the coaches. Places on these courses can only be booked using the Sign-Up facility on the Club’s Team-Up. For those unfamiliar with this procedure, here are the sequential steps:

• Log-in to the Blewbury CC website.
• Select Calendar (Team-Up).
• Select the first date of your chosen course on Team-Up.
• In the next window, select Sign-Up.
• Add your name to those attending.
• Save.

If the maximum of four places have already been taken, (indicated by 4/4), you will be unable to subscribe. You will have to repeat this for each session of the course you plan to attend so that coaches know in advance who will be at each session. One innovation this year is we are offering early evening and weekend courses. We will monitor their popularity. The courses initially arranged are as listed below:

GC Beginners

Coach: Carol Jamieson
A short, two session course specifically designed for new members with little or no experience of croquet. Covering an introduction to Club procedures, an introduction to GC and basic croquet skills.
Fridays 5 and 12 April 2024. 12.30-1.30pm. Two sessions.

GC: Improvers

Coach: Steve Fisher
Covering: Basic GC croquet skills and tactics.
Saturdays 27 April and 4 May 2.00-4.00pm and 18 May 2024 3.00-5.00pm. Three sessions.
Limited to four members; priority to those with handicaps in the range 16 to 10.

Gaining an advantage (GC tactics)

Coach: David Vincent
Fridays at 12.30pm . Three sessions Dates: 12, 19, 26 April 2024
Limited to four members; priority to those with GC handicaps in the range 9 to 6

AC: Bookending the break

Coach: Peter Allan
A two-part course dealing with the key topics of Openings and Leaves
Monday 22 & Thursday 25 April 2024 12.30-1.30pm. Two sessions.
Limited to four members; priority to those with handicaps in the range 20 to 8.
The course will be run more than once if there is sufficient demand.

AC Improvers’ Coaching

Coach: Avril Rangoni-Machiavelli
Covering: Use of bisques, Tournament preparation, etc.
Thursdays 2, 9, 16 and 23 May 12.30-1.30 pm. Four sessions.
Limited to four members; priority to those with handicaps in the range 20 to 12.

Advanced AC Coaching

Coach Robin Brown
Covering: Advanced play, Peeling, etc.
Tuesdays 7, 14, 21, 28 May & 4 June 6.00-7.00pm. Five sessioms. Limited to four members; priority to those with handicaps 8 and below.

The weather was OK in the morning. The lunch was excellent. Then it began to rain…

For details please see the competition entry.

The Blewbury Croquet Club social, held at the Red Lion on March 12, put an end to winter blues as members, old and new, chatted about bisques and breaks and other obsessions. Some 40 people enjoyed John’s beef stroganoff or its mushroom plant based alternative. Most of them splintered into tables of six for the quiz, the questions cunningly devised by David Long and Bruce Gibson., to cover croquet, Thames Valley history and general knowledge. The maverick joke round assigning such sports as coal heaving and black pudding throwing to English counties proved an effective tie breaker, with luck in random guessing the key factor. The exception was tiddlywinks , widely recognised as Norfolk’s finest. The winners were the team who can no longer remember its name comprising Peter Allan, Andrew Petit, Paul Wolf and his very knowledgable .daughter, Stephanie. Also present,Sarah, David’s partner, and Jane, Bruce’s wife, but they took no part, having heard it all before. Many thanks to organisers, David, Bruce and Paul, and mine hosts, John and Annabel, for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Let’s do it again.,

Even the weather gods entered into the convivial spirit of the Hi-Lo autumn series,. As the nation reeled under the impact of Storm Babet, Blewbury players sat out in balmy conditions over two intensely competitive days. First up, GC, with a dozen contenders in varying combinations playing five advantage handicap games a piece.

In the Hi division, three players – Sandy, Bruce and Jill – had four wins each, but Sandy’s superior hoop average won the day. Bravo Sandy – it was a real highlight to see your enduring application and dedication rewarded on merit. The Lo guys were equally locked in combat, with four wins for Brian, Dave Grinstead and David Vincent. To David Vincent, the prize bottle on hoop arbitration. Sincere thanks to the Jamiesons for an impeccably run event.

Deirdre and Sandy in the winners’ enclosure on the Blewbury Riviera, with Joe standing behind.

Over to David Long for the immensely more complex task of creating order out of 15 AC players with handicaps ranging from 24 to -1. For the seven Hi-bisquers, the dream was a nailed on game with Joe. As only four could enjoy that, he elected to play on his own with one dead ball and a load of peels. And to refuse the winner’s prize that was justly his.

David’s other conundrum was to create level playing fields so the Lo players didn’t use all available bisques to get their balls round, leaving the Hi tribe looking on in frustration, as happened last year. His solution, expressed in an algorithm of dazzling complexity, was to award points for games and hoops won to all, but double points to hoops won by Hi-bisquers. This format was tailor made for Carol Jamieson. Playing off 20, she bisque-blitzed her way round to the peg in all four of her games, winning three of them.,

Of course no one can force the Lo players to agree to this strategy . It follows that I’m particularly happy to report that two of those who nursed Hi partners throughout the day emerged at the top of the leaderboard. Deirdre and Steve earned equal points, with Deirdre taking the bottle by winning three games to Steve’s two. Thank you both for the very enjoyable games you played with me; I appreciate how frustrating they were for you! And thank you, David Long. You made madness work. We all applaud you.

The highlight of BCC’s well attended 30th AGM, held yesterday in the Melland Room, was the announcement of Grinny as the 2023 POTY. Outgoing president, Coral Richards, a stalwart from the Jolyon years, presented the shield and engraved glass to enthusiastic applause.

in a year when previous POTY, Peter Allan, won three of the six internal competitions, Dave stood out for his excellent record in GC leagues games, not only for his statistics as a player but as a ever encouraging partner to the less experienced in Philippa’s friendlies. You won’t see him sweeping the John. ‘I’ve never cleaned anything’, he announced in his robust Yorkshire style. But turn up early in midwinter and Dave, watched by the faithful Sammy, can be seen swishing the lawns to make them fit for purpose and to keep them in good condition for the spring. Thank you, Dave. Life is always more cheerful when you’re around.

Edmund presents Coral with a bouquet in recognition for her huge contribution to BCC over its first thirty years.

Blewbury hosted a National Final on 30 September – the prestigious Inter-Club AC team event, with Roehampton up against Nottingham.

Roehampton suffered an early setback when one of their key players, Joel Taylor, a schoolmaster, discovered the event was on a Saturday when he routinely has morning teaching duties. So Roehampton had to concede the singles game he was due to play. However, they won the doubles game and the other morning singles to lead 2-1 at lunchtime.

Joel Taylor arrived breathless from school for the afternoon session and proceeded to overwhelm Nottingham’s Will Gee 26-0, including. a triple peel. Roehampton won two more of the afternoon singles to end up winners by 5-2. Omied Hallam was Nottingham’s only winner after lunch, beating Mark van Loon 26-9.

Our own Harry Fisher had a successful day in Roehampton colours, having contributed to the doubles win in the morning and beating James Death 26-0 in the afternoon.

Both teams were full of praise for the quality of the Blewbury lawns. Tim Russell, the Roehampton Captain, even said they were on a par with Roehampton’s – praise indeed.

A bright sunny day, with lawns looking and playing well, greeted the semi finalists for the Prebendal Manor Cup, our internal AC Handicap competition.

On Court 1, Brian Jamieson took an early 4-2 lead against Peter Allan, but was eventually overwhelmed 18-6. Brian was still recovering from a significant operation on one hand, but made no excuses – it wasn’t his day. In the other semi-final, Claire King used all but two of her many bisques in her initial break to take a 10-0 lead against husband Joe (the first time they’d played competitively at Blewbury: they’d once met about 25 years ago at Caversham). She got another chance when Joe played the wrong ball, but otherwise his play was solid; once she was out of bisques, the match rapidly slid away from Claire. A score of 18-12 gave Joe a confident overture for the final.

But Peter has only lost one AC match since the start of August (to High Wycombe’s Richard Peperell), wins that included defeating Joe in level play in the Founders Cup. With a two bisque cushion, he had cause for optimism in the 26 point showdown. Joe won the toss and went first. Playing the fourth ball, his first shot with yellow, Peter used a bisque to set up a break that took it round to the peg. Joe had only played each of his balls once and he was 0-12 down. A intelligent leave challenged him to hit in from a distance: when the long roquet missed, he never got another chance.

Remarkably Peter played most of his second break with three balls, only picking up Joe’s black from the yard-line as a pioneer when he reached three back. Using his second bisque to avert a breakdown, he completed his merciless 26-0 rout in little over an hour. So it’s the big triple for Peter, who also won the GC level play Championship. Don’t expect an AC handicap reduction to +1/2 to be much comfort to future opponents. Very well done indeed, Peter.

Icknield Cup finals day was the kind of scorcher that prompts losers to say ‘I’m so happy I’m sitting in the shade watching others suffer’. Of course Mick Moore and I were lying to save face after comprehensive defeats by Chris Fairburn and Carol Jamieson respectively. No deciding games required.

Well, it was pleasant watching Chris and Carol go head to head in the final with rarely more than a hoop between them. In both games, Chris led 6-5, only to be rolled over by Carol’s iron will and unfailing precision. So she raised the silverware and we all huddled into to the ever-diminishing patch of gazebo shade for wine and canapés. Cheers Carol. You deserved it.