Author: David Guyton

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.

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 two 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.

 

 

 

 

On 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 Thursday, 6 August, Chester Centurions played away against Birkdale in the NW Federation level play golf croquet league. The Chester team of Jude Wise (captain), Liz Jordan and David Mann enjoyed the day at Southport. The day was perfect, sunny and gradually became hotter as the day wore on as it has done for weeks now. However, we all found their beautiful green lawns difficult after our parched home lawns. Our balls struggled to reach the positions we wanted them to, and of course Birkdale team had no problem and were very good all round resulting in their victory of 15 – 3. Liz was the woman of the match through securing 2 wins and out of her 4 lost games 3 were at the golden hoop! We did put up a good fight and our scores were ok but not good enough to win.

On the following day, a further Chester Centurions team played at home against Bowdon in the same NW Federation level play golf croquet league. Bowdon sent their strongest players, Angharrad Walters -3, David Cornes 0 and Alan Dix 2 , against our team David Boyd 1, Andy Wilson-Chalon 5 and Jude Wise (captain) 6, so we expected it to be a challenge!  Both teams enjoyed all the games and we did our best and played well considering it was a very hot day and the lawns were running extremely fast. David Boyd won our one and only win at the golden hoop, but we all managed to get some reasonable scores against the strong opposition.

The hoops are early hoops when the game was being introduced in England at the Great Exhibition in 1851. It wasn’t until the 1870s that the current inside width of 3¾ in was adopted. So the set is a vintage set with the prestigious Harrods name.

If you are interested, please reply to John Hemsworth at the e-mail address above.

Following the prolonged sunny and dry weather with peak daytime temperatures repeatedly exceeding 30° C, croquet clubs across the country are now finding themselves playing on lawns which have managed to stay recognisably green or those, like Chester, which are parched and brown. And what a difference it makes to play.

On Wednesday, 15 July, the Chester Chariots team of Garry Greenwood, Mark Lloyd and Sarah Clements travelled to play Bowdon in a NW  Federation level play golf croquet league match.

Bowdon fielded a strong team consisting of Welsh international player, Angharrad Walters, plus Sandra Cornes and Nigel Matthews.

The weather was good and the lawns a lot greener than at Chester so the ball ran a lot slower.

At lunchtime Bowdon were winning comfortably and this continued through the day and although Sarah Clements managed to get four wins in total the final score was 13 games (117 hoops) for Bowdon to Chester’s 5 games and 82 hoops.

As usual Bowdon were very hospitable and the games played in a friendly manner with the added bonus of a magnum ice cream given by Bowdon to each of the Chester players. Thank you.

On Tuesday, 28 July, the  Chester team of David Boyd, Rick Davies, Sally Slater and Robin Tasker travelled to Coronation Park at Bury to play the second round in the national Longman Cup association croquet handicap competition. The team were re-introduced to the novelty of playing on green grass and found the experience mysteriously difficult with take-offs and hoop approach shots falling alarmingly short.

Lunch was reached with Chester 0-3 down although the doubles and one singles game were close calls, Chester going down by a couple of hoops on both games. Bisques, a very accomplished opponent and to an extent the slow paced court mentality the other singles games rapidly completed.

The afternoon session saw little improvement although Rick played extremely well to record our only victory of the day. And so for Chester the 2026 Longman Cup journey ended with Bury thoroughly deserving their 6-1 victory.

On the following day, Wednesday, 29 July, there was a home match against Bowdon in the new NW Federation One Ball League. After their reintroduction to grass at Bury the day before, Rick Davies and Robin Tasker joined with Doreen Curtis to play on the unpredictable straw and speed of Chester’s lawns.

It was a wonderfully relaxed day of competitive but friendly croquet played by both sides with a real spirit of enjoyment. Once the Byzantine handicap system of One Ball had been negotiated and the bisque allocations determined, the games commenced.

And, while there were considerable ebbs and flows during games, the majority were decided by one or two hoops with neither side ever more than one game ahead. It was therefore no surprise that with Chester taking the final game, the match score finished all square at 9-all.

So it turns out the authors of the One Ball handicap system did know what they were doing. Or perhaps the challenges of the Chester lawns represents a great leveller!