Category: News

Over the weekend of 27&28 August, eight players met to do battle in the Blewbury Super-B AC Advanced tournament. For the avoidance of confusion, I will note that the “super-B” refers to the range of handicaps that are allowed when entering the tournament (-1 to 6) and not that it is played to super-advanced rules. More than one person has been caught out by this!

The lawns were in excellent condition on the Saturday morning and all the players commented on this, mostly along the lines of “wow, they are green”. The weather was nice and sunny, if a little humid and everyone appreciated the gazebo and the umbrella.

The tournament was organised as a six-round, all-nearly-plays-all arrangement. There is not quite enough time for everyone to play each other. After the first day’s play, David Marsh was in a strong position, being the only player to have won all three of their games, including a triple peel in the first game, but there were three players chasing him on two wins each.

On the second day, there was an extra challenge due to court 2 drying out just south of hoop 1, making hoop approaches rather tricky. I was longing from some tips from Eve Murihead when I failed (again!) to get into a hoop running position for hoop 1.

Once the dust had settled, Beatrice McGlen emerged victorious. Both she and David Marsh had won five games each, but Beatrice beat David in their game.

We had two excellent lunches provided by Susan Tilbrook (on Saturday) and David Long (on Sunday).

As the players were departing, there was much talk of “see you again next year”. This is clearly a “must-do” event on the croquet calendar.

The Blewbury Croquet Club One Ball tournament held on the August Bank Holiday Monday was largely a members’ event though Caversham’s up and coming couple, Charles and Pam, hitched a lift with the Jamiesons to provide welcome variety. Manager Anthony Hardwicke divided his ten players into two groups of five, with everyone in A playing everyone in B. With few games taking up their allotted 60 minute span, he was able to slip in a random teaser round after Susan Tilbrook’s delicious home-cooked lunch.

Duncan cruised through the preliminaries, racking up six wins out of six, but there were six players on three wins needing four to qualify for the semis as the final matches kicked off. Those who held their nerve were Brian, Carol and David Long. With the fewest hoops among them, Brian drew the short straw: a semi final against Duncan, while Carol and David returned to a familiar battleground.

Duncan moved imperiously into a final against David, emerging victorious to receive the BCC one ball highball glass from Joe King. It takes its place in his long line up of trophies for basketball, volleyball, windsurfing and other disciplines. His bonus prize, a glassful of bird seed mixed with materials for filling crow holes, will come into use on Tuesday maintenance morning when he resumes his crusade against the big blacks. Thank you, Duncan, for creating playing surfaces worthy of a champion elect. We also rans enjoyed them too.

This is a national knockout competition (see https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=tournament/caEvents/inter-club/ClubComps&comp=T) The East Anglia federation were unable to put a team together so our first match was in the semi-finals against Nottingham at Nottingham on the 22nd August. Unfortunately we (Joe, Brian, Carol and Steve) were a few games down at the end of the morning and needed to win everything in the afternoon. We didn’t, but caught up a bit, to lose 5-6. It was however an enjoyable day.

For next year, first refusal to represent the federation goes to the winner of this year’s Short Croquet league. If we beat Hamptworth at Hamptworth on the 14th September then we will be able to try again next year.

Players from other clubs were invited to BCC’s first official Short Croquet tournament on Saturday, August 6th. Only Noel from Eynsham and Tony from Swindon took up the challenge, leaving members with the lion’s share of the action. With five or six games each to play, Susan’s delicious pie and sinful ginger dessert provided a welcome interlude. As the scorching afternoon marathon unfurled, Noel and Peter – four wins out of five, – were hard to beat, with Duncan – four out of six – hard on their heels. However Joe, faced with two peels in every game, negotiated a clinical clean sheet. To him, the BCC shot glass and the round of applause.

As Rosemary Balsdon has pointed out in her email to all club members, the BCC car park is degenerating into a high risk zone.. Duncan Sinclair and Peter Allan have returned from play to find theirs cars minus their number plates; mine was robbed, though admittedly by my own fault as I left the door open. Rosemary’s experience – finding a van with its windows smashed in – is a new level of violence. In such a peacefully elite village, it should be simple for the police to identify the vandals. Until they do, best protect your cars, either by parking elsewhere or unscrewing your plates – as Peter does.

On Saturday, given that I was not on the cruise that I had planned to be on due to a bout of COVID (now fully recovered, I hasten to add), I decided to go along to watch the Blewbury AC advanced weekend tournament for entertainment and education, and I got both. It was very enjoyable watching top class players go round the lawn smoothly, putting their balls exactly where they intend to. Except that sometimes they don’t. There was the occasional poorly approached hoop, making it impossible to run the hoop, leaving me thinking “I do that!” Then the education part kicks in, seeing how the player deals with the adversity. Mostly though the level of play was very high with seven triple peels (TP) completed on Saturday plus one triple peel on opponent (TPO).

I found it very useful chatting with the players over lunch to find out how they handle particular situations. The answer is often simple; the trick is to know what that simple thing is!

Just before I left, there was an unconventional opening to a game. The first player played a supershot opening (the ball is played to south west of the peg). That is not so unusual amongst top level players. The second player shot gently at the first ball (mustn’t go through to B-baulk) and missed. The first player shot at the two balls and missed. The second player shot at the three balls (hard this time) and also missed. This left the first player with their two balls in the middle of the lawn along with one of their opponents balls. I have every confidence that they went round to 4-back and made a tidy leave from that position.

In glorious sunshine, Blewbury hosted England captain , Samir Patel, to a fiercely competitive Advanced Weekend tournament on July 16/17. The flexible Swiss event organised by Ian Lines was won by Joel Taylor. On Saturday, Joel lost to Ian and his wife Debbie, but rallied afterwards with six wins out of eight, one of them against Samir.

‘The field was remarkably strong this year, all scratch or better,’ said Ian who won last year’s edition ‘The lawns at Blewbury were playing very well in the sunshine, running at about 11.5 Plummers and set with new Ultra hoops.’ Thanks are due to Joe King for setting up the courts ahead of play and to Paul Wolff for returning from Southampton in time to present Joel with the engraved BCC winner’s whiskey glass. The winner generously helped Paul clear up at the end of the tournament, much appreciated on a very hot evening.

In November, Samir will travel to Melbourne for the 2022 Macs, a four yearly tournament established in 1925 by Australian rags to riches confectionary tycoon, Sir Macpherson Robertson . The venue rotates between eligible nations, England, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Samir will be accompanied by Mac rookie Harry Fisher, a Blewbury member who finished second at the weekend despite only playing on Saturday. He has already booked practice days for the England team at Blewbury in mid October ahead of the three week Antipodean adventure. Worth watching, given an Indian summer

First hurdle, CA registration: thank you Mike Jenkins, David Long and Joe King for making sure everyone was eligible before play began.

As all six of us are Blewbury members, we struggled equally with persistent wind that twisted mallets, deflected balls and threatened to blow us over. Carol Jamieson led the morning charge, but was surpassed after lunch by Carol Wadsworth, on fire as she hooped from every which way.

Her pivotal match with Bruce Gibson on the golden hoop in rain that had turned to downpour sealed her victory. Her four wins with a hoop difference of +13 shaded Chris Fairburn, also with four wins, but a hoop difference of +8.

To Carol Wadsworth, the engraved Blewbury shot glass, to the rest camaraderie in hostile conditions. We all hoped tournament would be back next year.

This two -day tournament was hosted jointly by Phyllis Court (21 June) and Blewbury (22 June).  It attracted a full house of eight competitors, all with handicaps of 8 or more, including Andy Robertson and Brian Jamieson (competing in Caversham colours!).

Brian and Ragu Iyer of Phyllis Court, both with two wins., were leading the field on the first day.  Under the Swiss system, they were due to play each other, but Ragu was called for an urgent hospital appointment.  Consequently, they were out of sync at Blewbury the next day.  They played part of their game early on and the second part after the others had finished around 6.pm, Brian winning by 9 points.

As it happened, this  didn’t affect the result. Both Ragu and Julian Gibson  (Middlesborough) already had four wins but, under  the Swiss system, they hadn’t played each other.  The  outcome was decided on the somewhat esoteric ‘quality of wins’ criterion, with both inheriting the wins of those they had beaten: Ragu was ‘awarded’ nine wins,  Julian  only eight.  So  Ragu was declared the  winner.

Andy finished with one win, but scored freely in all his defeats. Brian ended up with three wins out of five.

Not all the competitors were familiar with Advanced AC rules, but they soon learned the unfortunate consequences of leaving a ball near a baulk line after going through Hoops 1-back and 4-back!

Blewbury won hands down in the catering stakes.  While the sandwiches at Phyllis Court were perfectly decent, they could not compare with a two course meal served under the gazebos at Blewbury. Little did competitors know of the complex logistics needed to prepare, deliver and serve the lunch!  Thanks to Minty,  Carol W and all others involved, with a special mention for Paul Wolff who oversaw arrangements from early morning until late afternoon.

This was a splendid tournament, played on excellent lawns in almost continuous sunshine. Such tournaments, catering for AC mid-handicappers (7 to 14), are not frequent.  This one, though tiring for competitors and organisers alike, was played in a good spirit and enjoyed by all.

Blewbury’s GC All-England preliminary heats were held on Wednesday 1^st June and Saturday 11^th June 2022.  There were six players each day,  with three to qualify for the area finals. The qualifiers would  be decided on number of wins,  then on hoop difference.

Thank you, Bo, for stepping in at short notice when Sue Jenkins withdrew shortly before the first heat. With four wins out of five on day one, Minty made a promising start  but the second heat  would decide which three players would go through.,

On the second day, David Vincent and David Long played just before the lunch break. David V won, but came off the court with  blood streaming down his leg!  He told me David L was so upset at losing he hit him with his mallet! I was astonished, I was sure that David L was not like that.

Well, he isn’t. .While collecting his pegs, David V stumbled into a hoop, peeling back a skin flap against the steel. We used a Savages medical kit to bind  him up:  ours didn’t have a plaster large enough.  He ate  lunch with his leg elevated and carried on in the afternoon. 
After this crisis, the day proceeded smoothly.  Susan  was undefeated with five wins out of five. She  and Minty go forward, along with Carol Wadsworth who was second on  day one with three wins and the best hoop average. Susan and Carol will play in the finals at  Phyllis Court on 10^th August, while  Minty goes  to the Bath competition on 14^th August.