Category: News

Following the recent announcement we are required to close. See the rules on exercise which says that outdoor sports venues must close.

With all of Oxfordshire going into Tier 4, we are still allowed to keep our lawns open, but now they may only be used:

• by members of a single household (or support bubble)
• for solo practice
• for singles games (or coaching sessions) between two individuals from separate households, exercising together while ensuring 2m social distancing.

Currently a booking is required for any use of the facilities. Available slots can be seen on the calendar . To make a booking you must log in first. Access to the courts is subject to government guidance – which is currently here.

Additionally, while we leave individuals to interpret this for themselves, we note that Tier 4 Guidance advises people only to travel a short distance from their home for exercise.

No more than 2 individuals are allowed on the same court at any time (unless part of the same household/bubble), so all club sessions have been cancelled pending further notice.

There are no longer any restrictions on when courts can be booked by individuals/couples/households, apart from the scheduled lawn maintenance windows. Please continue to book the courts before turning up ad-hoc (and to cancel any bookings you have, should they no longer be needed), not least to support “track and trace”.

All other sanitising / distancing measures continue as before.

The Committee are keen to continue to provide members with the opportunity to play croquet as much as allowed, particularly recognising the benefit to people living alone through this almost-lockdown. Please don’t abuse these restrictions, or the Committee will have no choice but to close the courts altogether.

A summary of the relevant club rules has been updated.

David Long, BCC Secretary (07484 360169)

Following the recent lockdown, and a pitch inspection today, I can now confirm that our courts are reopening tomorrow (Dec 2nd) within the constraints of being in a Tier 2 area.

Arrangements will be the same as before the lockdown, with a max of 10 people booked to use the lawns at any time (and a max of 5 on either court). The same precautions must also still be followed with regards to social distancing and sanitising of equipment (as per the Issue 7 rules posted on this site and on the clubhouse windows).

Additionally:

• The yellow swisher should be used to clear the bulk of any worm casts off the court before play (any residual casts can be trodden into the lawn).
• No Jump shots are permitted.
• Hoop carrots should be left partly exposed, to preserve the longevity of the latest hoop holes.

The lawns are currently quite soft, though playable. If they get much wetter, however, we will have to close them again to preserve the turf and to stop the creation of new undulations. I’ll write out further (and post again here) should that be necessary.

16 members attended our AGM Zoom call on Tuesday evening, 17th November. The full minutes have been e-mailed to all members, but a summary of the proceedings is as follows:

1. The Minutes of the 2019 AGM were approved and adopted.
2. The Club’s Accounts for 2019 were approved.
3. Stuart Parks was reappointed, as Accounts Examiner for 2020.
4. The Club’s Annual Report for 2020 was received and briefly discussed.
5. It was agreed to maintain 2021 subscriptions at current levels.
6. The existing Committee was re-appointed, bar David Seed (who had chosen to step down from that responsibility this year). Minty Clinch was appointed in his place, and welcomed into the Committee: her prime role will be keeping this website’s content refreshed.

David Long, BCC Secretary

After a short and bumpy season, we end it almost as we began it – in another lockdown. Here are the personal successes in our competitions and trophies of 2020.

Club trophies

Founder’s Cup: Robin Brown
Blewbury Golf Croquet Championship: David Vincent
The Blewbury Prebendal Manor Trophy: Peter Allan
The Icknield Trophy: John Garnett
The Roger Cambray Memorial Shield: David Long

Club open tournaments

One-day GC B-level, 17 June: Peter Adams (Caversham)
One-day GC C-level, 4 July: Peter Allan (Harwell and Blewbury)
AC Advanced Weekend, 18-19 July: Robin Brown (Blewbury)
One-day Short Croquet, 8 August: Tim Lacey-Hulbert (Kington Langley)
AC C-level Advanced Weekend, 29-30 August: Aston Wade (Hamptworth)

Semi-open tournaments

All-England Handicap (GC): National finalists David Vincent, John Garnett
Berkshire Handicap (AC): Anthony Hardwicke

Club Player of the Year Shield: John Garnett

On behalf of the Committee, while we are still awaiting final confirmation from the CA, we interpret HM Government’s guidance to mean that we will regrettably have to close our courts to all forms of play from Thursday, November 5th, at least for the duration of England’s formal lockdown.

We will, of course, continue to follow national guidance as it evolves. I will post a further news item here, and e-mail all our members, as soon as we become aware of any change.

David Long – Secretary

This year’s AGM will be held on Tuesday, 17th November, starting at 7.30pm.

Unfortunately it will not be possible to hold this meeting face-to-face, given the pandemic. So we will be conducting the meeting over a video conference, using Zoom.

All members should have received an e-mail showing the provisional agenda. This also included notice that David Seed will be stepping down from the Committee at the AGM, after his many years of excellent service to the club. We therefore now have at least one vacancy to be filled (and can recruit up to 3 further members under our constitution).

Please let me know, by close of play next Tuesday (28th October):

1. if you wish to attend (I’ll then ensure you’re sent dial-in details)
2. if you wish to stand for election to the Committee
3. if you have any items beyond the standard agenda that you’ld like to table to the meeting

David Long, Secretary – Blewbury Croquet Club.

All our members are registered for the website. Some make heavy use of it some very little as is to be expected. I thought that rather than writing a long report for the AGM I would post a news item with most of what I wanted to say.

Joe King, David Long, Paul Wolff and I have written most “posts”. Posts are typically news items.

Nick Butler and Peter Allan are the only two non-committee members who have written anything – though any member is able to submit a news item (after logging in of course).

Twelve of our members have logged in at least once during the last week and a further nine members have logged in over the last month.

Eight of our members have never logged in – and therefore never made a court booking. They have also been unable to see the information that is only available to members – such as the results page.

About a month ago I set up monitoring for the website to see how it is used. I have done some grouping to give the following table.

Page or Group of Pages	Count	Comments
Home page	186	Most people’s way in
Login	82	It would appear that around half the users tried to login
Members’ Area	77	… and most were succesful
GC Championship Cup, Icknield Cup, Berkshire Handicap, Prebendal	34	Specific events
Results	33	General page before looking for a specific event
Calendar	25	Some would be logged in and some wouldn’t
List of Members	21	This is surprisingly well used to get people’s contact details
Covid restrictions	20	This is the total for the various Covid news items
News & News Archives	18
Membership	16	It would seem that a number are considering joining us
Contacts	15
Sessions	14
Profile	11	People updating their personal information
Open Days and Introductory Courses	8
Taking Part	8
Register	8
Keeping personal information up to date	6	People preparing to update their personal information.
Using the calendar	6
Association Croquet	5
Mailing lists and aliases	5
GC Ladder	4
Golf Croquet	4
About Us	4

Following the launch of the NHS track and trace App, members with smart phones can now register their presence at the Club – once it reopens after the current maintenance window – using the QR code posted on the Clubhouse doors.

Our full restrictions list has now been updated to reference this, and also to cover sanitising procedures for prospective or new members wishing to try out different Club mallets.

Those are the only material changes to the guidance. In particular, with the virus again on the rise:

• even if some members are able to use the QR codes, everyone still needs to book their intended attendence on the Calendar (so that we don’t have too many people turning up at once);
• everyone must keep 2m (2 mallets) apart, with no more than 5 people on either court at any time;
• it’s as important as ever to sanitise everything you touch (for your own safety before, as well as after use) and to wash hands thoroughly.

David Long, Secretary BCC

On Saturday 10 players contested the inaugural short croquet tournament at Blewbury. The weather was good and we were all tired at the end of 8 rounds of play, having had only one or two byes during the day. The games were each an hour long and were pretty interactive being played to handicap.

The competition was in two phases. The first phase had two all-play-all blocks ranking the players for the finals phase which comprised quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, as well as other games for players out of contention. Tim Lacy-Hulbert from Kington Langley ran out the winner and received a presentation pack of Blewbury Honey.

Our visitors complemented us on the lawns!

We’ve been encouraged to hold a repeat performance next year as this is the only short croquet tournament on the CA calendar. Hopefully next year we will be able to accommodate 16 players!

Short croquet is a good format for all players, from the least experience to those with a low handicap, as it is fast moving, interactive and with bisques helps to develop skills and tactics at all levels. If you’d like a go, then please speak to me and I’ll organise a session for you.