Well done to Jonathan and his new partner in their win at Surbiton Croquet Club in the club’s Association Handicap Doubles.
[Words by Jonathan Edwards]
“The match lasted just over three and a half hours!
“I was playing with my new croquet partner, Alison Maughan (-1.5) against Linda (12) and Julian (4.5). Some people may pick up that Alison is the editor of Croquet England’s website magazine.
“After half and hour, Alison peeled me through hoop 1 and then went all the way round to hoop 4 back.
“The next hour and a half, both sides slowly crept around the lawn with a number of blobs by me and our opponents. I finally managed to hit a purple patch and made 5 hoops which got me to 3 back.
“At the next opportunity, Alison got in and went straight to peg, and I played Aunt Sally!
“Make a hoop, split them up … make a hoop, split them up until I got to rover which I ran and, with a lot of luck, my ball ended up in the perfect position to rush to peg and the rest was history!”
Sunday the 4th of August saw Chichester and Fishbourne enter the Carnival Day at the Sussex County Croquet Club, the host of many major international croquet events over the years. In fact, we entered two teams; “Fish and Chips and “More Fish and Chips”, the names being derivatives of FISHbourne and CHIchester.
The whole event was quite relaxed, and many teams had good fancy dress outfits to go with their names – Hove Beach Boys and Lodsworth Hillbillies were perhaps the best. We were more subdued but did have good “I like fish and chips” badges.
The teams consisted of John Effingham, David Milne, Sally Short and me (F&C) and Ann Milne, Chris Fuller and Mike Pudney (More F&C). Unfortunately, Keith Burt, who was due to play, had to withdraw at the last minute, but other CFCC players took his place for his various games. David had just flown back from the USA, where he had been ill, and was still feeling unwell, but thankfully turned out for us despite this, and presumably experiencing jet lag, too.
The tournament was handicapped with extra shots given for the higher handicapped players. This worked well with many close games, and in the doubles games in the morning we enjoyed some good victories. Although David and I didn’t manage to use our extra shots well enough to overcome a Hove Beach Boys pairing including a -2 handicapped player, we gave then a good game – and there’s hope for us all, because even -2 players make mistakes.
The lawns, as you might imagine, were a pleasure to play on, with flatness being the order of the day. Although, despite the smart hoops being high quality and silver, they seemed narrow, and the scoring angle was narrower than we were used to. The seagulls were very forward, too, often walking across the lawns during play, and even occasionally trying to remove the score marker pegs on the hoops.
The singles events in the afternoon, as in the morning, saw mixed results for us, although we achieved a number of pleasing wins, including Sally’s victory over Tudor, the same -2 player who had beaten David and me in the morning.
At the time of writing, I don’t have access to the full results, but we had some good results during the day. We weren’t amongst the winners- with Hove Beach CC winning both the singles and doubles events.
As there were 13 teams of four players on 7 lawns, this was not an easy competition to organise, and it ran smoothly over the course of the day, thank you to the Southwick Club and also to John Effingham who had to cope with not only soring out teams and entries, but also coping with a number of late changes to available personnel for the CFCC teams.
It was a very enjoyable day, backed up with some very nice food and drink, lovely surroundings, friendly but difficult opponents and beautiful weather.
The Magnificent Seven: Chris, Martin, Ann, David, Sally, John and Mike
Top honours were taken by Chichester and Fishbourne Croquet Club teams when they took part in this year’s Littlehampton Centenary Cup.
The club entered two teams, unimaginatively named Fishbourne and Chichester, in the golf croquet tournament which has been running for 15 years.
Fishbourne won for the third year running.
However, it was a close-fought competition. Three teams were tied on eight wins each.
Fishbourne’s players – Tony Elkin, Tony Hicks, Keith Burt and Mike Pudney – won on hoops scored, followed by Chichester – David Russell, John Effingham, Sally Short and Martin Emmett. Third was Chiltington Croquet Club.
The event was opened by the Mayor of Littlehampton Sean Lee, and the cup was presented by the Littlehampton club President.
What a double result!
Both teams (l-r) of David, Mike, John with trophy, Keith, Sally, Tony E, Martin and Tony H
The winning foursome with Littlehampton club President
A team of six of the club’s members played in the “Ladies’ Golf Croquet Teams Day” at the Sussex County Ground in Southwick, Shoreham-by-Sea. The players were: Sally Short, Ann Milne, Judith Russell, Joan Felton, Lynne Lyle and Jenny Currell.
There were 14 teams playing over the 11 lawns at Southwick, the C&FCC team won at least 66 percent of their matches,
The eventual winners were Sydenham, second Hove Beach and third place went to the team from Cheam.
The team: Ann, Sally, Judith, Joan, Jenny and Lynne
An intrepid team of four, David Russell, John Effingham, Chris Fuller and Peter Raper enjoyed the wilds of deepest West Sussex, near Ducton and played in a very friendly, friendly against our adversaries at the lovely Rother Valley ground.
Following nine matches of doubles and singles. the C&FCC team narrowly lost four games to five. Will, Sarah, Robin and John of the Rother Valley team getting the better of us
The friendliness continued in their clubhouse with a gorgeous tea organised by Will and Sarah, the generous helpings of smoked salmon, ham and mustard and egg and cress sandwiches chased down with tea and coffee ended a fun-filled afternoon, as we “waddled” back to our cars for the journey home.
On Tuesday 18 June, the friendship continued at home when the team hosted Rother Valley in the SE Croquet League, Chichester winning a closed matched series of games.
The doubles were certainly “mixed” for the annual Kettle Shields tournament!
Exceptionally well organised by David and Judith Russell, the mix of novices and low handicapped croquet players added to the fun atmosphere. Each player having a different partner for the four rounds.
The title was decided by each player’s joint score for each round.
Sally Short emerged as the winner for the third year running with Lynne Lyle as runner-up.
The 18 Kettle Shield players with organisers David and Judith
Sally (R) with the winning shield with organiser David and runner-up Lynne (L)
The Twelve club members were divided into two groups for the preliminary rounds so that each player contested five matches using the “advantage” system of handicapping.
After the intensive preliminary rounds, the semi finals were David Russell against David Milne, winner David Milne. The second semi final was a tight and hard-fought semi involving Keith Burt and Tony Elkin, Tony being the victor.
The final, again was an intensely hard fought battle between David Milne (12) and Tony Elkin (6), with Tony being the eventual winner of the Simon Parkin tankard.
The picture shows Tony receiving the tankard from organiser John
Thank go to John for the organisation of the event and to Sue and Terri Hicks for scorekeeping.
The Golf Croquet, friendlies, season started with an emphatic 9 – Nil win away to Littlehampton C C on Tuesday 16 April.
They played their first friendly of the season at Littlehampton in extremely chilly conditions, but with a warm welcome. They took a stronger than usual team for a friendly, consisting of chairman David Russell, Tony Hicks, John Effingham and Tony Elkin, as all needed time on the lawns before rapidly approaching external tournaments.
Everyone played well, considering it was literally the first use of members’ mallets this year, and it resulted in a very-friendly but 9-0 win for Chichester. But Littlehampton were gracious hosts, and a lovely and particularly welcome tea was provided, though some very hard-fought matches towards the end delayed the boiling kettle which was to assuage the growing thirsts.
Tuesday 30 April home 6 – Nil win against a team from Lodsworth C C
The second friendly was a home match against Lodsworth. The team comprised David Russell, Keith Burt, David Milne and Chris Fuller. It was decided to play all doubles as both teams had a wide range of handicaps. The away team included a lovely 97-year-old with a handicap of 10. The home team won 6-0. It was an enjoyable afternoon, with play in lovely sunshine, followed by tea.
Thursday 9 May Home friendly vs West Wittering with a 7 – Nil win!
Report awaited
Tuesday 14 May – Away friendly at Lodsworth – an honourable draw!
The Chichester team of David Milne, Keith Burt, john Effingham and David Russell fight back from 2 – nil down to a hard fought 2 – All draw!
