Category: News

The club quartet entertained Lodsworth in the final (?) friendly of the season, both lawns playing much better than in recent weeks.

Home team vs Lodsworth: Jane Gribbon, Ann Milne, Captain Tony Elkin and Keith Burt

The man on the mower that morning was John E who spent four hours on the task, mainly because of the heavy dew causing the wet grass to stick together in clumps. Thank you so much John!

The target advantage handicap system certainly gave each team an equal chance of winning games, and so it proved.

However, in hard fought but fun competition, C&FCC ran out the day’s champions with a winning score of five games to three.

Tea was taken and the Lodsworth team said how much they had enjoyed the visit.

Post match tea with the Lodsworth team

The C&FCC team of David & Ann Milne, Laurie Gilmore and Tony Hicks (C) welcomed the Littlehampton team to our club on this lovely sunny day offering apologies for the condition of our lawns. The teams were well balanced on handicaps as evidenced by all the target scores being 7, except for Tony needing 9 in his singles match. Everyone had problems with the speed of the surface but as us locals were a bit used to it we struggled less and prevailed to win all of the 6 games.

The 3rd round was abandoned in favour of tea as we had already played for 3 hours. The visitors then left for home after complementing us on providing them with a very nice tea.

The C&FCC Team of Martin Emmett, David and Norma Stocks and Marcus Sherwood were beaten 5 games to 3 on a hot and humid afternoon.

There were several very close matches with C&FCC members beating some very good players from Southwick’s lawns

The club’s pavilion was dressed overall for the occasion

A friendly, fun day was held in bearable sunshine and sea breezes on Sunday 16 August.

Unfortunately, there were several late apologists so in the event, a lucky thirteen entrants played in five matches.

There were three games before and two after lunch. Having thirteen meant that secondary contra-play was dispensed with and the games consisted of a series of seven players on the north and six on the south lawn.

Fishbourne players at lunch – mid-game

Congratulations go to Margaret Cooper, the outright winner of this year’s Fishbourne. Margaret won with a total score of 28 points, last year’s winner David Stocks a close second with 22, Peter Raper was third (19) and Janet Mellor forth with 16, Jackie McHardy fifth with 15 points and Tim Wilyman sixth with 14 points.

Chris presenting Margaret with the Patricia Shipman Salver

Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the day, mixing players up in each round does help with fun and (hopefully) friendship!

Thanks to everyone helping out in setting up and, at the finish, putting everything away neat and tidy.

PS – I have a telephone conversation with Brian Shipman the “inventor” of the Fishbourne game. He is pleased we are continuing with the game and sends his regards to all in the club that remember him, and those members beaten by his “Hooping like an Egyptian”! Brian now plays croquet at the High Wycombe club.

The home team quartet of David Russell, David Stocks, Tony Hicks and Martin Emmett prevailed against a strong foursome from West Worthing.

C&FCC players prevailed 6-3 including spirited singles matches won by the four home players.

A friendly encounter followed by, as David reports, “Top Nosh”!

Both teams, excluding photographer DR, enjoying the post-match “Top Nosh”!

[David writes….]

A motley crew of Fish & Chips and More Fish & Chips at the Carnival Day at Sussex County CC

David wearing his special socks in case he lost the toss! The teams won quite a few games including David and Mike versus an ice cream cone (below) Eileen second right …..

The Lodsworth team of 99ers including , third right a lady who is 99 years old!

Unsurprisingly, the Lodsworth quartet won Best Dressed Team Award. They also won the Doubles and Singles Plates.

Our More Fish & Chips came a close second in the Doubles, we told Lodsworth that the silverware is only on loan to them, as we won both events last year.

[Words by Michael Maddison]

I attended the Short Croquet session at the Southwick High Bisque AC/SC event on Thursday 6th August. It was a beautiful day, sunny but cooler than of late and the Southwick lawns were in splendid condition. Johnathan Isaacs was our tutor. Jonathan is a long standing member of the coaching staff and has served with both the Croquet Association and Croquet England. He is the founder of the Croquet Academy at Southwick and is currently President of Croquet England. There were four participants in the SC portion of the event: two relative novices including me and two very accomplished GC players who were new to AC and the short game. We spent the morning practicing the various shots needed in the AC/SC game under Jonathan’s watchful eye. After a welcome break for a packed lunch, we began a tutored SC game with a novice and experienced GC player on each side. Jonathan explained various openings and the key elements of creating a 4 ball break. He quizzed each team on their ‘plan’ at the start of each turn and gave feedback on the execution at the end of the turn. Each team was given four bisques (or extra turns). Jonathan’s theory being that with only a few bisques to play with, everyone would focus on the lessons of the morning and be careful to place shots well to keep our breaks going. We were soon grateful for the considerable skill of our GC partners, who rescued the novices from a number of blunders which (in my case at least) violated the ‘law of least astonishment’ on the court on several occasions. We ended the game at 4.30pm unfinished but with my partner and I a couple of points ahead at the time. Everyone enjoyed the event enormously and there was a universal appetite for more ‘high bisque’ events of this kind to be offered in the future. A sentiment that Jonathan observed was echoed by the AC full court competitors playing alongside us.

[Words by Mary Gowers]

Bob and I attended the High Bisque AC Coached Tournament as did Jonathan Edwards. There were 4 rounds of 80mins singles AC games, each player had an allocation of bisques in line with their handicap but halved to reflect the shorter games. For the first 3 rounds each game was observed by a national standard AC coach who provided coaching feedback at the end of the game, plus in-game help and advice if required. It was a fantastic learning opportunity in a very friendly and positive atmosphere. The handicap level was from 9 to, our, 24 so there was a wide range of skills and experience. The final round was uncoached for those still in contention for the trophy, for the rest plenty more advice and encouragement from the amazing team of coaches. We only started playing AC about a month ago and this was a fantastic opportunity to kick start our progress. If you are already playing AC at a high handicap or are thinking of giving it a try I would thoroughly recommend attending one of these events. My brain, and arms, ached but it was very much worth it and I will be signing up to the next one ASAP. The day was so full that the four of us were never in the same place at the same time so there is no team photo!

We would like to thank Frances Low, Jonathan Isaacs and the rest of the coaching team for a very enjoyable day. The only downside was the ‘murderous’ traffic driving home on Thursday evening!

[(most) Words by Tony Elkin]

Mixed level play competition for 5 handicaps and under was held in blistering sunshine on Sunday 2 August.

The competition was won by chairman David Russell against a strong field.

Martin Emmett came second, with the next four players within half a point of each other.

Keith Burt, last year’s winner presented the trophy to David.

Congratulations to David and thanks to Judith for the SCRUMMY cakes!

C&FCC regulars, Keith Burt, Tony Hicks, Martin Emmett and David Stocks played hosts for this home match.

The quartet played in a league match against Lodsworth Croquet Club on a lovely sunny afternoon in Fishbourne.

After the first two rounds we were tying three-all and in the third round the first two games to be completed went one either way so the result all depended on the last game to finish. Fortunately Martin managed to pull off a win for C&FCC to come out winners 5-4.

We provided a plentiful tea for which the Lodsworth team gave their compliments, especially mentioning Terri’s sandwiches and Norma’s cake.

C&FCC members, Keith Burt, Tony Hicks, Marcus Sherwood and David Stocks travelled to Worthing.

The quartet played in a friendly match against West Worthing Croquet Club.

Despite our best efforts on slow lawns (the groundsman often waters them and the grass was quite long), West Worthing’s players local knowledge of the lawns paid-off even though handicaps were fairly evenly matched!

West Worthing deservedly winning six games to three.

An good tea followed before our return home.