Category: News

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.

On 8 & 9 June, eight players contested the Blewbury midweek AC advanced tournament. This prestigious event attracted players from as far afield as Nottingham, Cheltenham and Hurlingham.

The weather over the two days was rather mixed, with waterproofs coming out at times to ward off the rain and to keep out the wind, while at other times, sun screen was liberally applied.

The play was of a high standard with triple peels being attempted from the off. Nevertheless, I think all of the players blobbed the occasional hoop, so it is worth remembering that next time it happens to you.

The games were all played in a friendly spirit and everyone enjoyed the two days’ play. Those players who had not been to Blewbury before were very impressed with the high quality of the lawns; the rest knew that already.

Deirdre provided a delicious healthy lunch on both days, which was enjoyed by everyone who partook of the feast.

After, the first day’s play, there were three players well placed to win the tournament, with Mark Ormerod, David Marsh and Clive Goode each having won all three of their games. Once the dust settled, David Marsh emerged victorious with six out of six wins. Congratulations to David, who said that he was off to find something to pour into the engraved drinks glass that he had just won.

Blewbury tuned into the national celebration with a fine turnout in the school playground on Platinum Sunday. As the village tucked into hog roast, Paul Wolff, David Long and Deirdre Cochrane  took up their stations in  Blewbury Croquet Club corner, nicely placed to capture passing trade between short tennis and the slide. 

Paul Wolff cast a mandarin eye over his layout, safe in the knowledge that David Grinstead’s gazebo would protect it if the threatened  rain fell. Susan Tilbrook explained  the intricacies of toequet, a GC format game kicking  footballs in primary colours through large plastic hoops, to groups of Salah wannabes. Meanwhile  David demonstrated the bullseye approach to slotting 8 croquet balls into holes in a wooden board:  ball into correctly coloured hole 10 points, incorrect hole 5 points. He claimed 40, but I can’t confirm….

Phil and Margot flew the South African flag with distinction in both disciplines, but the joint ball slot champions were William Elmore-Wickens, who’d demonstrated footballing expertise in toequet, and Ralph Smith, a father of two from Aston Tirrold. Both scored 35 points: each wins an intro session on the BCC courts.

Celebration standouts also included trout racing as part of an exhibit of local chalk stream habitat, glitter face painting, wood carving and archery. After the grand finale, a beefy tug of war, villagers drifted towards the church to see floral tributes to Her Majesty. For croquistas, there was only one winner: Susan’s flowers in patriotic colours set against a white hoop with red and blue balls. A fitting end to a splendid day.

Locked in a windowless lavatory? That was the only glitch in Blewbury’s hi-bisquers tournament,  run and won by Carol Jamieson. She’d introduced Gareth, her Caversham neighbour, to croquet. Now he was showing threatening promise. Time to throw away the key. With the help of a screwdriver and a hoop mallet wielded by a strong arm, he was eventually released to resume play.

By Sunday afternoon on May 28th, eight competitors were far into the second day of conviviality and eating al fresco. Crunch time: there were three possible winners as the final matches in the all play all format got under way.  Carol had five of a possible six wins under her belt, with Paul Morrison on four.  If he were to win and Carol to lose, the tournament would be decided on hoops run. 

No way. Carol’s bold shot making, characterised by long range hitting in, and her steely determination forced a narrow victory over her last opponent; Paul, a charismatic ex rugby man in denim pants and grey crocs, faltered and fell to his. So it was Carol who raised the highball glass engraved with club logo and the name of the tournament, BCC’s  2022 initiative to award  commemorative trophies for external and internal competitions. With bottles from assorted GC victories accumulating in her cellar, Carol needs all the glasses she can get. Many thanks to her and husband Brian from the ultimate also ran for a delightful weekend.  MC

The weather was excellent with plenty of sun and little wind. The eight players came from as far north as Northampton and as far south as Woking and included two from Blewbury. Their handicaps ranged from -1 to 8. The 8 had not realised it was an open tournament, but gallantly stayed on to make up the number, not winning any games but gaining some reasonable scores.

The tournament was run on an all-play-all basis, giving seven rounds. There were lots of good games with results not always as would be predicted by the handicaps. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

The final result was very close. Philip Blake (Kenilworth) and Mike Hills (Northampton) both won six games, but Philip won by a single hoop difference and so received the trophy, an engraved High Ball glass.

David Vincent, Tournament Manager

We enjoyed pleasant weather for our first (and last for this year) match in the Longman Cup. This is a Handicap AC competition which is run as a knockout. Unfortunately we lost 3-4 to East Dorset playing at home. It started well as Deirdre and Carol won their doubles game and Steve won his game. Brian lost the morning game against Chris Weedon who had quite recently moved from 8 to 7 and will probably keep moving in that direction. However this meant we were 2-1 up.

In the afternoon Deirdre defeated David Williams +24 however Carol and Steve both lost their games and finally Brian was defeated +1(t).

I hope we will try again next year

A field of 6 competed in the CA May Short Croquet Tournament held at Blewbury. Tony Mayer from Swindon joined Carol, Paul, Peter, Steve and myself for the all-play-all event. The weather was perfect with clear skies and almost no wind. The lawns were playing well and we completed 5 rounds of 75 minute games finishing at about 6:30.

I ran out the eventual winner with 4 wins out of 5, tied with Carol who also had 4 wins. The first tie breaker was who-beat-who, and in a very close game with Carol earlier in the day I had overtaken Carol by 1 hoop in my final turn of the game. So I just managed to prevail on this occasion.

Paul then presented one of the new engraved ‘trophy’ glasses the Club has procured for our CA tournaments this season.

Philippa and Elizabeth provided an excellent lunch which rounded off a lovely occasion. Many thanks to them both.

The final scoresheet was:

Joe King, Manager