Author: David Guyton

The croquet lawns have had a difficult summer and are now undergoing several rounds of autumn lawn maintenance to bring them back into better shape for the new season in 2027.

The lawns were scarified to remove dead thatch on Monday, 28 September. This has been followed by verti-draining, or spiking in everyday parlance, on Monday, 12 October. The next step is application of autumn fertilizer which is planned on Wednesday, 14 October. And then all four lawns are due to be re-seeded over the weekend of 24-25 October to help restore the  many thin and depleted patches across all four lawns and especially on Lawn 4 nearest the car park.

These operations have unfortunately been causing a series of lawn closures and all four lawns will be closed after Friday, 23 October, until the start of the new season to enable lawn seed to germinate and take root.

 

Chester Croquet Club held its final club competition of the season on Monday, 5 October, when ten members took part in an open short lawn handicap competition. It proved to be an enjoyable and well fought contest between players with a wide range of handicaps (and hence a wide range of “extra turns”).

The winner was Roger Brooks, who won all four of his games despite his low handicap requiring him to achieve a number of “peels” (taking two of his balls through the hoops at the same time) as well as running more hoops than his opponents. However most of the games were very close and there were about four or five others who could have won it had they made just one more hoop before time ran out which made for an exciting day all round. By the end, three players had won three of their four games, Sally Slater, Rick Davies and Andy Wilson-Chalon. The final result was determined by the total number of hoops run in their four games. On that count, Andy ran 30 hoops. Sally and Rick each ran 31 hoops. Sally and Rick had not played each other, so couldn’t use that as a decider. So Sally and Rick were joint runners up, with Andy a very close 3rd/4th.

Altogether an enjoyable and successful end to a successful short lawn season.

 

 

End of season dinner and presentations at Chester Golf Club at 6.30 pm on Wednesday, 4 November. Click here for more details and menu.

On Sunday, 20 September, after another busy month and to complete the final fixtures of the year in NW Federation leagues, Chester fielded two more teams.

A short lawn team faced opponents from Pendle and Craven in a home match and it proved to be quite a tussle. The honours were even at lunch time with three wins each, but Chester were a little unlucky in the afternoon, losing in closely fought games, to end the day losing at 3 -6. However, thanks to some more favourable results earlier in the season, the team still secured top place of the 10 teams playing in the NW Federation short lawn league, winning 6 out of the 9 games played. Well done all the team members that played during the season.

Meanwhile, an advanced association croquet team travelled to Bowdon for the final match in the NW Advanced B Level league and secured a decisive 5 – 0 win.

On Wednesday, 16 September, Chester Centurions played at home against Westmorland  in a NW golf croquet level play league match after the initial fixture in July was postponed due to prolonged dry weather and lack of grass.

It was agreed that the start time should be 9.45 am due to the distance travelled by Westmorland. Unfortunately this coincided with the heavens opening and everyone getting soaked. If we had stuck to the original time we would have stayed dry!

It proved a victorious day for Chester with a convincing 17 – 1 win,  just missing out on a whitewash with a golden hoop loss.

On Saturday, 19 September, a Chester Senators team of Arnie Banford, Denise Buchanan, David Johnson and David Mann played away against Bury South at Whitehead Park in the NW golf croquet handicap league. The match had been postponed from Saturday, 29 August, due to heavy rain and it was again beset by a downpour in the morning. Despite that, it was an enjoyable but closely fought match on perfectly flat and green lawns and was enjoyed by everyone ending with a 10 – 8 win for Bury.

Also on Saturday, 19 September, a Chester team players travelled to Tattenhall for a  NW Federation One Ball  league match  (which combines the skills of association and golf croquet), winning 11 games to 7.

 

The Club held its annual Mason Cup tournament on Monday, 14 September.

The Mason Cup is awarded to the winner of the Club’s annual full lawn handicap AC tournament. And this year there were 10 entrants who played a 5-round Swiss format competition to determine the 2026 champions.

On a warm and sunny day the competitors played 5 one-hour duration 14-point games on freshly cut, super fast but consistent courts. The games were played as full bisque games which provided opportunity for players to establish breaks although the demands of the courts limited their success. The games were therefore generally tightly fought low scoring affairs with only one peg-out recorded all day. But the competition was intense although played in a wonderfully friendly atmosphere with much tea and any cakes consumed.

By lunch, and after three rounds, Sally Slater was unbeaten although narrowly so having managed a Golden Hoop victory in her first round match. Close behind were Andy Wilson-Chalon, Sarah Clements and Robin Tasker who all had managed two victories out of three.

The penultimate round saw Andy and Sarah drop back while Roger Brooks with a win over Sandra Cornes moved into third place behind Sally and Robin who both won. And so with all to play for, the final round saw both Roger and Robin win but Sally hung on with a decisive victory over Rick Davies to claim the title and with it the Mason Cup.

Chester Croquet Club is always pleased to welcome visits by local community groups and half a dozen members of Cestrian Ramblers came on Monday, 7 September, for an afternoon of croquet fun! The Cestrians were taken through an introduction to the game, including:

Welcome talk including a health and safety briefing
How to hold a mallet
Hitting the ball
Basic drills to include hoop running, positioning, clearing.

This was followed by a well earned tea break, and a few games to use their newly acquired skills. I popped by at this stage to witness happy, smiling Cestrians, who had clearly mastered the basic skills. They were running hoops with amazing precision and skill!

I personally can think of nothing better than spending time on a beautifully kept, open lawn, surrounded by nature. Here, I am mixing with fellow croquet players as part of the community in Westminster Park, nothing better… than exploring the beautiful surrounding countryside with the Cestrian Ramblers!

Here are some messages from the Cestrians:

“Thank you for an enjoyable afternoon at the croquet taster you kindly arranged. We found it good fun and discovered a sport that is almost a cross between golf and chess!”

“Thank you for arranging the croquet coaching session, which was a very enjoyable evening. I recommend others to give it a go.”

“We had an excellent coach, clearly demonstrating the fundamentals of the game. A particular highlight was a Cestrians’s 20-yard shot, which passed straight through the hoop without touching the sides.”

“I can only echo what everyone has already said, a most enjoyable session, thank you again. As regards my 20yd shot I can assure you was beginners luck!!”

“I enjoyed the session very much, I didn’t realise there was so much to the game, the scoring side of it and also the two different types of games but I’m sure that would all become clearer the more time spent playing, it’s not a game I had ever thought about playing before.”

“A very enjoyable afternoon and I shall certainly be back for another go.”

Elaine Rossignol

Cestrian Ramblers (Chester) Group is part of the Merseyside and West Cheshire Area Ramblers’ Association

 

 

On Friday, 4 September, the Chester Centurions team travelled north to play Pendle in the NW golf croquet level play league,  and faced some strong opponents. However, they fought hard and at close of play ended just one game short of a draw, at 10 games to 8.

On the following Wednesday, 9 September, the  Chester Chariots team similarly headed north, this time to Southport, in the same NW golf croquet level play league where they also faced a very strong team, but managed to hold out for a 9 – 9 draw. Particular praise to Mark Lloyd who managed to win all of his 6 games, inspiring Robin Tasker and Jayne Taylor to play above their handicap level to secure enough of their games to hang on to the draw.  A very enjoyable, and exhausting, match on the lovely lush lawns at Southport in good company.

Meanwhile, on the same day a Chester team of David Guyton (captain), Rick Davies, Sally Slater and Andy Wilson-Chalon played at home against Fylde in the NW association croquet 26 point handicap league on lawns which were now thankfully showing patches of green after recent rain. It proved to be another closely fought match. In the morning, Chester won both singles games but lost the doubles game. Fortunes reversed in the afternoon with Fylde winning three of the four singles games giving them an overall 4 – 3 win in the last match of the season for both clubs in this league.

Chester hosted its first international match, England v Scotland association croquet, over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, 5 and 6 September. Robin Tasker, the Chester Club Secretary (holding the trophy in the picture) was one of three players from Chester in the team of six, that had the honour to wear the red England shirt, and take part in the decisive 17 -7 win over the visitors from Scotland. A large number of people from a wide area as well as locally, came to watch some skilful play from high quality croquet players and also enjoyed seeing the sights of Chester city during their weekend stay.

On Saturday, 8 August, Chester Chariots welcomed a friendly Crake Valley team consisting of Chris Williamson, Paul Galley and John Bowes for a  North West Federation level play golf croquet league match

Chester’s lawns were very brown with no grass on any of the four lawns. The day was hot, with a slight breeze and by lunchtime Chester had taken a 5 – 4 lead with multiple wins by Garry Greenwood (captain), Sarah Clements and Chris Thomas.

After lunch the games remained close with many games going to the golden hoop. Crake took the advantage by going 9 – 8 up with one game left to play but Sarah managed to beat Paul (resulting in six out of six wins for Sarah) and the overall score an amicable draw.

To be fair to Crake they played very well considering the condition of the lawns and the home advantage afforded to the Chester players.

On the following Wednesday, 12 August, Chester Senators played at Tattenhall in the NW Federation golf croquet handicap league on one of the hottest days this summer. On arrival the temperature was already high and rapidly rising. The first half of play was very close, but then Chester put on a spurt and won 10-8. There were some exceptional shots from players on both teams and we were all glad when the match was over so we could relax in the shade. Despite the challenging conditions, excessive heat and parched lawns (just like ours!), we had a very enjoyable day. Tattenhall made us very welcome and at the end of the match we were served delicious homemade cake.

On Sunday, 23 August, Chester played at home against Bowdon Weekdayers in the NW Federation short lawn league.

For this match, Bowdon Weekdayers fielded their “A” team – a very strong team under the captaincy of Nigel Matthews (with a handicap challenge of 5 peels), Ken Cooper (with 3 peels) and Paul Harris (with 1 bisque or free shot).

The Chester team was Andy Wilson-Chalon (2 bisques), Sally Slater (3.5 bisques) and Sarah Clements (5 bisques).

The day started well for Bowdon winning the first round of games 3 to Chester 0. However things got a lot better after that, with Chester winning 5 of the next 6 games to take the final result to a 5 – 4 win for Chester.

Then on Tuesday, 25 August, a Chester team of Sarah Clements, Rick Davies, David Boyd and Robin Tasker travelled to Southport for an away match in the NW Federation 26-point handicap association croquet league. In doing so, the Chester players swapped the brown and super-fast home lawns for the lush greenery of Southport. In many respects it was a delight to be playing croquet on a green grassy surface but the relative slowness of the lawns, and the challenge of adjusting to those conditions probably made the difference.

In the morning session and in cool weather at the start of the day Southport prevailed to lead 2-1 by lunchtime with Rick Davies the only Chester scorer. In the afternoon and in the hot sunshine, Rick again and Sarah Clements both won their singles games but neither David Boyd nor Robin Tasker managed to add to the Chester tally although David did lose by a very narrow margin. As a consequence Southport gained the victory they needed to win the match 4-3 and to secure an unassailable lead at the top of this season’s league table. But no excuses: Southport played well and deserved their victory. And a cool beer was shared with the Southport team to celebrate their victory!

In yet another match on the following day, Wednesday, 26 August, a Chester team travelled to Westmorland for a NW Federation short lawn league match.

For this away match, the Chester team was Andy Wilson-Chalon (handicap 2), Derek Bell-Jones (2.5) and Helen Brophy (3.5). Westmorland fielded their team under the captaincy of Roger Brooks (with a handicap challenge of 4 peels) with Robert Harvey (handicap 3.5) and Phil Hyman (handicap 4).

A pity Roger Brooks wasn’t playing for Chester as his other club for he comfortably won all three of his matches, even with having to make 4 peels, though Helen Brophy came closest to holding him back. Derek Bell-Jones won two matches whilst Helen Brophy and Andy Wilson-Chalon won one each.

The result was a 5 – 4 win for Westmorland gaining 82 hoops compared with 72 by Chester.