Author: David Guyton

May continues to be a busy month for Chester Croquet Club.

It was a lovely day on Wednesday, 18 May, when a team from Chester played a team from Branston near Lincoln in their first match in the national Murphy Shield  competition on neutral ground midway at Nottingham Croquet Club. The team of David Boyd, Tom Grievson, John Hampson and Jayne Taylor enjoyed some very close games against the friendly members of Branston on the excellent lawns at Nottingham Croquet Club, ending the day victorious with a score of 5 rubbers to 2 .  The rubbers consisted of both doubles and singles level play golf croquet games, played on a “best of 3” basis.  As it is a knockout competition, we wait to hear which team Chester play next and where in the country the team will go.

On the following Saturday, 21 May, Chester played away against Bury Caesars on their home ground at Coronation Park in the NW Federation weekend handicap association croquet league. The Chester team of David Boyd (captain), David Guyton, Paul Watson and Nigel Worthington found themselves facing a strong team from Bury. By lunchtime Chester managed to be  just ahead with David Boyd and Nigel Worthington winning their two singles games but Bury winning the doubles game. The afternoon proved more of a struggle with David Guyton winning his singles game against Bury’s lowest handicap player but the three other singles games were won by Bury, the last to finish being only three hoops ahead of Chester. The overall result was a 4 – 3 win for Bury.

The annual North West Millennium competition for short lawn croquet was held at Fylde on Sunday, 22 May 22. Sally Slater and Jayne Taylor represented Chester but, despite some good play and some very close games, were not successful in bringing home any silverware this year.

 

Richard Smith, a longstanding member of Chester Croquet Club, was one of the players in Shrewsbury’s annual 14 point advanced singles competition for the Silver Salver on Saturday, 21 May. With an association croquet handicap of -1, he is Chester’s highest ranking AC player and takes part in numerous Croquet Association events across the country. He won the competition at Shrewsbury and is shown here holding the Silver Salver.

The NW Federation is holding its Millennium golf croquet handicap competition at Southport on Saturday 28 May.  If you are interested in playing in this competition please e-mail Tom Grievson  or Jayne Taylor at the earliest and before Friday, 20 May. The Club pays the entry fee and the competitor pays for travel and food. Chester definitely has one place but there may be scope for  one or two others.

Millennium events are fun and, being a handicap competition, all entrants are in with a  chance of winning.

John Dawson

The Club’s first NW Federation level play golf croquet match of the season was on Tuesday, 10 May, between the Chester Centurions (Captain Gary Greenwood with Mark Lloyd and John Hampson) and the Chester Chariots (Captain Jayne Taylor with Tom Grievson and Janet Jackson).  It was won by the Chester Centurions 14 – 4.  The weather was windy but dry, with some periods of sunshine.  It was an enjoyable local derby, the result reflecting perhaps that the Centurions were last year’s league winners!

On Sunday, 15 May, a short lawn team of Jayne Taylor (captain), Sally Slater, Pat Wheeler and Robert Jones travelled up to Pendle for a NW Federation short lawn league match. The match was level all the way until the last game when Pendle managed to squeeze ahead, giving them a final score of 8-7 .

Last call for Southport!

This is a reminder that if you would would like to join one of the Chester teams at this year’s Southport Festival over the weekend of 25-26 June), you need to contact either:

For the AC events     Robin Tasker

For the GC events     Jayne Taylor

by this Wednesday, 25 May, at the latest.

Details of the Festival are shown below.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Robin Tasker

23 May 2022

Southport Festival of Croquet, 25-26 June

The Southport Festival of Croquet takes place over the weekend 25-26 June 2022 and the detailed programme has now been released.

The following events are scheduled:

• • Advanced rules AC: teams of 2 players playing doubles games (6 rounds)
  • Handicap AC: teams of 3 players playing 18-point singles and doubles games with adjusted full handicaps played to a base of 6  (5 rounds)
  • Short lawn AC: teams of 3 playing 14-point matches comprising of one doubles and one singles games played with gross handicaps (ie no base)  (8 rounds)
  • Level Play GC: teams of 2 per game doubles pairs 13-point games  (14 rounds)
  • Handicap GC: teams of 2 players per game – doubles pairs playing 13-point games with extra turns determined by the difference in full handicaps (14 rounds)

Chester can enter a team into each event, and can bring larger team squads for each event substituting players for different rounds of the competition. So this gives plenty of flexibility around playing, watching and generally catching up … !

If you’d like to take part on either day, or indeed both days,  please can you e-mail:

For the AC events     Robin Tasker

For the GC events     Jayne Taylor

as soon as possible, and certainly no later than Wednesday, 25 May, stating the event you’re interested in playing and the day(s) you’re available.

Lunch and tea, paid on the day, is available; and if you’d like to enjoy this food then please indicate in your reply.

Many thanks

Robin Tasker

13 May 2022

Early Bird Golf Doubles Competition cancelled

Sadly I have decided to cancel the Early Bird Doubles this Saturday.  We have only 6 contestants, which is not really enough to make a decent doubles competition.  There is a lot happening at the moment, and I appreciate that people have a life outside croquet !  It may be possible to try again later in the season.  I will see if there are any dates available.  If not….there is always next year !

And of course there is a fun day on Sunday;  I hope it goes well and the sun shines.  I cannot be there this Sunday, I am afraid,   croquet calls elsewhere.

Jayne Taylor

20 May 2022

Calling for more players!

The Early Bird Doubles Competition is due to be held on Saturday, 21 May.  This is a GC doubles competition for high handicaps (11’s and above) .  So far we have only seven people signed up for this.   We need a few more !

Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to join in.  You do not need to sign up as a pair.  These are selected randomly on the day.  It would be a shame to cancel it.

Jayne Taylor

14 May 2022

This year’s Early Bird Golf Doubles Competition

Calling all golf croquet players with high handicaps (ie 11 and above).  This year’s Early Bird Golf Doubles Competition will be held on Saturday, 21 May.  Partners will be allocated on the day, so you can sign up singly.  The length of the competition will depend on the number of entrants.  There is a maximum limit of 16 participants and we need to have at least 8 entrants for the competition to take place.

Please let me know if you wish to take part or sign up on the form which is displayed on the GC noticeboard in the pavilion and provides some further information.

This is an ideal competition for the new members who joined last year to take part in , alongside established members with a high handicap.

It’s just a bit of fun really !

Jayne Taylor

24 April 2022

We have three social evenings planned for local groups and need volunteers to come along and help, please.

The first is on Tuesday, 31 May,  with the Chester Deva Rotary Club. We don’t have numbers as yet, but they are coming in the evening at 7.00 – 8.30/9.00 pm.

The second is a big group of 30 guides on Wednesday, 22 June, at 7.30 – 9.00 pm.

The third group is Chester Rambling Group on Tuesday, 12 July, at 7-9 pm. No numbers as yet.

The volunteers are required to welcome the group, fit them with mallets and help guide them through the basics and play a game. We usually finish with refreshments, so servers and washer uppers also helpful.

Please let me know if you can help.

Many thanks

Sally Slater

Chester Croquet Club took to the lawns again on Monday, 9 May, in an enterprising initiative to introduce golf croquet players to association croquet. Like many croquet clubs, Chester embraces both forms of the game and fields teams for both forms in NW Federation leagues and other competitions. However, relatively few members play both forms and many of the more recent members have been introduced to golf croquet and have not ventured into association croquet.

To help  bridge the gap, the aim of the AC-GC Partnership Day was to create doubles teams comprising one association croquet player and one golf croquet player and to have a friendly one-day competition in which the association croquet and golf croquet players shared the shots between them with the golf croquet players learning some of the tactical approaches of association croquet from their doubles partner.

Altogether, sixteen players took part, eight from each form of the game, and each team of two played four other pairs during the course of the day with each game lasting 1¼ hours. It was a grey but relatively mild and pleasant day, and the lawns were relatively dry and fast. The main challenge was the difference in tactics between the two forms of the game and the wider variety of strokes needed for association croquet. Overall, it was a friendly and enjoyable event and by the end of the afternoon the golf croquet players clearly had a better appreciation of the strokes and tactics of association croquet.

Robert Jones (AC) and Ian Shaw (GC) emerged as overall winners of the competition with Elmyr Hughes (AC) and Kerry Dadson (GC) as runners up. As the winning team, Robert Jones and Ian Shaw both received a bottle of wine for their successful endeavours. Thanks are due to Robin Tasker and Sally Slater, who organised the event, devised the playing format, kept track of the scores and also took part in the competition.

 

 

Chester Croquet Club fielded teams in three more NW Federation league matches over the weekend.

On Saturday, 7 May, Chester hosted a team from Crake Valley in the association croquet weekend handicap league. The team was Robin Tasker (captain), Sally Slater, Paul Watson and Richard Smith. Chester was 2-1 up at lunch but struggled in a couple of the games in the afternoon and the final score was a 4 – 3 win for Crake Valley.

On the following Sunday, 8 May, there were two golf handicap matches in the NW Federation league.

A Chester Tribunes team led by Jude Wise with Brian Lussey, Keith Dixon and David Johnson played at home against Llanfairfechan Dragons in the club’s second golf croquet handicap match of the season. All the Tribunes played much more confidently winning both doubles games and each team member achieved more wins than previously, resulting in a victorious win of 12 games against Llanfairfechan’s 5 wins with 1 draw.

On the same day, the Chester Senators team had a much more challenging time away at Southport and lost 13 – 5. The first challenge was to find the delightful club well concealed on Rotten Row opposite Beach Road. Senators were greeted warmly by veteran Terry Dunbar and his team who had had little match experience. However, Southport proved to be a well coached group with excellent position and clearing skills. The Chester team of Edward Baskerville (captain), Liz Baskerville, Sarah Clements and Arnie Banford had an average handicap of 8 against 10 for Southport but were unable to make any significant impact despite running 83 hoops against Southport’s 108.

Sarah Clements did well running out a 7-3 win against impressive newcomer to the game, Paul Greenwood, who had slaughtered Edward Baskerville 3-7! Arnie Banford, for the Senators, also achieved a 6-3 victory over Sue Wilkie. The Senators captain saved face winning three, including the last game of the afternoon against Terry Dunbar 7-5. Despite a number of games won on narrow margins, Southport ended the day well deserved winners with 13 games to 5.

It was a cool, overcast and windy morning as play opened on the extensive lawns at Rotten Row but after lunch blue skies emerged and the match finished in warm sunshine to accompany tea and biscuits.

 

 

I am hoping to take an order into Darts at the end of this coming week.  So if you have any requests  (including those you have already mentioned to me!), whether items from the Dart catalogue or any garments of your own for embroidering the Chester logo, please let me know by emailing me on the link below by Thursday, 9 May, and bring your own items in to the club clearly labelled with your name by that date.  I will not be at the club during the day on Thursday, but will call in early evening to pick up any items.

Jayne Taylor
Mobile: 07810 892311

4 June 2022

 

Now that competitions have begun and some players are playing in a team for the first time  it is opportune to ask if anybody is interested in acquiring white clothing bearing the club logo. Others may wish to refresh their wardrobe.

We have an arrangement with DARTS at Stamford Bridge for embroidering our logo on either garments purchased from them (eg polo shirts and fleeces) or on your own items.  Their catalogue can be viewed on line or last year’s edition is in the pavilion.

Let me know if you want further info when I get back next week.

Jayne Taylor
Mobile: 07810 892311

6 May 2022