Category: News

The first of the SCF’s GC 10+ level play series took place at Blewbury last weekend.  Eight players converged on Tickers Folly Field from fairly distant Winchester and High Wycombe for the all play all block rounds. Tessa Ford from Eynsham and Julia Green from Phyllis Court were unbeaten at lunchtime, with Blewburians Edmund and Minty qualifying for the afternoon play offs as the next best.

Edmund, the lone male,  raced into an early lead against Tessa, then hung in as she rallied, while Minty set up a home final  by shading Julia. In a one-sided show down, Edmund repeated his front running strategy, roaring seamlessly to 4-0, before Minty took the first of her two hoops. To the much better performer, the spoils: a  certificate (see picture) and a springboard for SCF’s four sister tournaments. Eynsham: Sunday, June 15; High Wycombe: Saturday, July 19; East Dorset, Sunday,  July 27; Winchester Sunday, August 10. Block entries (£10 each): southern-croquet.org.uk/scf-gc10. Staying power, Edmund? Enough to follow Bruce as series champion? My money’s on it.

As always, our sincere thanks to Carol and Brian for the early rising and hard work required to run an impeccable tournament.

Rosemary Balsdon’s first friendly match resulted in a handsome 7-2 victory over Harwell. Sandy and Jeff topped the table with three wins, while Rosemary & Susan, Maggie & Nick recorded two each. Relaxing over tea and Sandy’s carrot cake under the shade of the larger gazebo completed a perfect afternoon against very gracious opposition.

By 09.00, when 16 players gathered for the annual charity One-Ball tournament, Brian and Carol had set up four impeccable short croquet courts and heat was building in Joe’s charcoal barbecue. Not anywhere else though. Not on Easter Monday: competitors shivered in thermals and waterproofs, many with touches of blue out of respect for the Alzheimer’s Society, the national One-Ball’s chosen charity for 2025. Carol’s ultramarine nails were particularly impressive.

The whistle blew, the gloves came off. David Long, the 2024 national handicap champion in this discipline, was asked to start by your over optimistic correspondent. No messing about: he shot through hoop 1 and into the distance. We shook hands at the peg a humiliatingly short time later. DL was on his way.

Steve Fisher stalked meticulously and prospered. Likewise Paul Wolff in a variant that rewards his crisp strokes. And Carol, as ever an implacable giant killer off the maximum handicap. Liz Webb, our guest from Bowden, and Avril struck the ball with attitude as they renewed an old acquaintance.

After four hours, the rain began: it was time for lunch. As smoke from 6kg of prime barbecued topside swirled over the courts, many realised they were very hungry indeed. But not for long. The larger gazebo proved its worth, providing covered seating for a dozen or so, while wimpier folk enjoyed the clubhouse bench. After as much beef as you could eat, followed by strawberry cream meringues and Sandy’s authentic American cinnamon buns, afternoon play yielded winners: 1st DL, 2nd Steve, 3rd Paul.

Donations totalling £255 – way above the £10 a head requested – secured three allocations for Blewburians in regional qualifiers in Nottingham and Surbiton. The sun came out as David accepted his victory wine and hastened home to secure his slot before places run out. With Steve and Paul otherwise engaged, Carol (4th) and Avril will get their chance.

All in all a lovely day. Huge thanks to beef baron Joe, organisers Brian and Carol, sous chef Sandy, ever helpful David Grinstead and the Freunds for courageous skivvying in narrow greasy spaces. Maggie and Nick, you are great new members, but you really should have played.

See you all at the Roger Cambray: for one year only on Deirdre and Malcolm Cochrane’s court at Hall Barn, on Saturday, July 5th. Sign up, sign up….

The new competitive season got off to a good start. Our first CqE Fixture competition, an Open GC tournament on 19 April, attracted a competitive entry from as far away as Nottingham, Bath and Chichester. A combination of warm, sunny Spring weather and timely irrigation meant the courts were in very good condition.

Cool, cloudy conditions gave way to warm sunshine after lunch. The afternoon’s first pairing brought together Ian Burridge (Nottingham) and Peter Tofield (Northampton), both of whom had navigated the morning unbeaten. Peter won that game 7-4 and it seemed all over. But there was an unexpected intervention by Peter Falle, a six handicapper from Phyllis Court. First, he beat Peter Tofield (7-6) in the penultimate round, opening a path for Ian Burridge to win on hoop difference. By a chance of the draw Ian lined up with Peter Falle for his final game. But Ian couldn’t take advantage of the situation. Peter repeated his giant-killing, beating Ian 7- 4, leaving Peter Tofield the overall winner with six wins out of seven games. Ian Burridge and Andrew Willis (Bath), an accomplished AC player with limited GC experience, shared second place each with five wins.

The Blewbury Bullets opened their spring campaign with a convincing victory at Nailsea in the SWF Short Croquet league 6. Both Joe King and Andrew Petit outmanoeuvred  all 4 of their opponents. With  Steve Fisher on 3 wins and Andy Eversan on 2, BCC were in an unassailable position even before the final round was played. A handicap reduction for Andrew. Bravo.

As winner of the 2024 Prebendal Trophy, Joe moved on to Hamptworth for the SCF AC   Champion of Champions  on Saturday, April 12. In a field of 10,  he came a close second with 4 wins,  beaten only by fast improver Russell Robinson. David Long, holder of the 2024 Icknield Cup, and Jackie Bryant fared honourably in the GC equivalent on Sunday, finishing 6th and 7th out of 16.,

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.