Author: David Guyton

Chester Croquet Club marked the end of another successful season with a supper and trophy presentation at Chez Jules on Wednesday evening, 14 November. 2018 saw Chester achieving a double victory in two North West Federation leagues, the Weekend Handicap League and the Level Play Golf Croquet League. Other successes during the year were winning the short lawn section of the Southport Croquet Festival in June and coming second in the full lawn handicap section.

This year’s winners of the the club’s internal leagues and competitions were presented with their awards by club chairman, Sarah Andrew.

Fletton Trophy	Jerry Guest
Mason Cup	Brian Walton
Christine Long Award	James Thomas
Hibiscus Trophy	James Thomas
Hasting Wang Golf Singles	Jayne Taylor
Hermitage Golf Doubles	Maureen Ivens & Sally Slater
Hasting Wang Short Lawn Bowl	Sally Slater
Peter Bingham Award	Brian Hayes
Most improved player – AC	Barbara Jones
Most improved player – GC	Brian Hayes

Individual successes during the year were:

• Jerry Guest was winner of the B section of the NWFCC Millennium advanced croquet tournament at Bowdon over the weekend of 14-15 April
• Jayne Taylor was winner of the NWFCC Millennium short lawn tournament at Chester on Saturday, 12 May
• John Dawson was winner of the C class title at the English Seniors Championship at Budleigh Salterton in July
• Garry Greenwood was winner of the Maggie Cowman trophy and Trevor Farrell was runner-up in the final of the National Level Play golf croquet tournament at Chester on 5 August

Many thanks to Sally and Chris Slater for the photographs.

 

 

 

LAWNS NOW CLOSED UNTIL NEXT SEASON

 

After many months of discussion with the Council about lawn maintenance, work finally started earlier today on Sunday, 4 November, when hollow tining was completed on all four lawns.

The photographs show the start of work on Lawn 4, the solid tining and soil core collector machines, the tining holes which have now been drilled across the whole site, and four piles of soil cores amounting to over eight tons awaiting removal.

Later this week or early next week, depending on the weather, the plan is to apply about 10 tons of top dressing and autumn fertiliser. This level of treatment is recommended every two or three years but has not been done for some years. It will complete the planned autumn maintenance work and the lawns will then be allowed to rest to avoid compaction and to enable the maximum penetration and absorbtion of moisture down to the roots of the turf which became dehydrated during the summer drought.

The annual programme includes further work in the spring at the start of the season followed by regular maintenance throughout the summer playing period. A key objective now is to ensure that the park’s watering system is repaired and made properly operational for next year so as to avoid the lawns drying out in the event of another spell of warm, dry weather. Hopefully this will mean that we can all look forward to the lawns being in a much improved condition next season.

LAWNS NOW CLOSED UNTIL NEXT SEASON

Contributions by two Chester Croquet Club members were recognised at the recent Croquet Association AGM and Council meetings on Saturday, 20 October.

Club secretary John Dawson, who is the NW Federation’s representative on the CA Council, was elected as Vice-Chairman of the CA Council and Chairman of the CA Mangement Committee.

Former club chairman David Guyton was awarded a CA Diploma for services to croquet. David was Chairman of Chester Croquet Club from 2004 to 2015. During this time he oversaw major changes in the club, the lawns and the public park in which the club is situated. David has been an outstanding leading member of the club over many years. His notable achievements are:

• • • Bringing a comprehensive management system to the club during a period of major expansion. Not only were roles managed to meet the needs of the club but he established a culture of willingness amongst members to do “their bit for the club”. As well as chairing the Committee for 11 years with all the normal duties that requires he initiated an annual planning evening where all members can raise issues and put forward ideas for the future of the club in a highly democratic manner. He continues to publish and manage a comprehensive annual calendar of matches and events.
    • New club house and 25-year lease. In 2008/09 we had a new clubhouse which made a huge difference to all the members and potential members. David was instrumental in persuading the outgoing Chester City Council to provide this clubhouse. He then painstakingly negotiated the long-term lease to secure tenure for the club.
    • Liaising with the local authority, a role he still performs for the club. This is probably the most thankless and frustrating task a club member can undertake. David has sent hundreds of emails to relevant council officials not just ensuring that the council fulfils its obligations to the club in lawn maintenance but driving officials to install a lengthy new fence. David tracks down the correct officials and councillors, organises meetings, explains the issues, and forces them into action by never giving up pestering. A prime example this year has been lawn watering. The lawns have been in grave danger from the drought without a sprinkler system. Over months officials have been stalling, giving excuses and doing nothing. David cut through all their objections, organised members to provide a working party to help the grounds-people and finally achieved daily watering of our lawns.
    • Club website. David taught himself the skills required to build a new website for the club. He has completely authored the club website and is still a major contributor to regular updates. This required many dozens, if not hundreds, of hours dedicated to the single task.
    • Contribution to the North West Federation and the CA. David has ensured that the club has played a full regional role. Under his encouragement the club hosts NW and National tournaments each year. David produced a new data protection policy for the club which was then taken up by others in the North West. He co-authored the note on roles within the CA to stimulate a more thorough approach to effective governance.

In their final North West weekend handicap league match of the 2018 season Chester ‘lost the battle but won the war’.

Representing Chester, David Boyd (captain),  Robin Tasker, Brian Walton and Paul Watson played an away match against Crake Valley,  Cumberland, last Monday, 1 October.  The morning session of a doubles and two singles games saw Chester gain a lead of 2 games to 1, but Crake came back with a vengeance in the afternoon winning all four singles games to give them a 5 – 2 win for the day.  However, by adding the two games won in the morning, Chester edged enough ahead  in the league to beat second placed Bury Peelers to give Chester the league championship by a margin of just a single game.

Following an earlier victory in the North West level play golf croquet league, this latest result  gives Chester two championships out of the North West Federation’s six leagues in 2018 – a brilliant success for the club.

 

 

Chester Croquet Club held its annual end-of-season Hibiscus Tournament on Saturday, 29 September, for players with relatively high handicaps. Nine members took part in the event which was blessed with glorious September sunshine. Playing conditions were good though the lawns were dry and still somewhat uneven after the summer drought making hoop approaches and judging the distance of shots particularly challenging. Overall winner of the competition was James Thomas of Penmaenmawr near Conway who won all five of his games. This was his second end-of season victory having won the Christine Long golf croquet competition earlier in the month. Runner-up was Val Sanders who won four of her five games. Last year’s winner, Doreen Leece, managed the competition and presented the winner’s trophy to James Thomas.

In glorious September sunshine on Thursday, 27 September, Chester hosted friendly golf croquet games with two local clubs, Craig-y-Don at Llandudno and Tattenhall.

 

 

After beating the well-established clubs of Bowdon and Nottingham in previous rounds, Chester played against Watford on Tuesday, 18 September, in the semi-finals of the national Mary Rose advanced, level play association croquet competition on neutral ground at Edgbaston mid-way between the two clubs. The Chester team of Jerry Guest (captain), David Boyd, David Guyton and Mark Lloyd found themselves facing stiff competition from a stronger side who won the trophy in 2017 – Watford’s handicap ratings of 0, 1, 1 and 2 were significantly lower than Chester’s at 0, 2, 5 and 5. The weather and playing conditions were good and both teams enjoyed a cordial day’s play. However, Watford gained the upper hand in the morning winning the doubles and two singles games and their lead continued in the afternoon winning three of the four singles games. The final result was a 6 – 1 win for Watford who now go forward to face High Wycombe in the national final.   Detailed results

Chester Croquet Club held their annual Christine Long handicap golf tournament on Saturday, 15 September. Eight members took part in a round robin format and enjoyed a full day’s competition.

There were many closely fought games with James Thomas emerging the outright winner with 6 wins out of a possible 7. Roger Haigh was runner up and Paul Taylor a close third. Taking part were, Mel Hagan, Pat Wheeler, Paul Taylor, James Thomas, Roger Haigh, Chris Thomas, Liz Subramanian, and Janet Jackson.

On the same day, Chester played away against Bury in the NW full lawn handicap league. The Chester team of David Boyd (captain), David Guyton, Brian Walton and Paul Watson faced a meteorologically and metaphorically damp start to the day losing the doubles and both singles matches in the morning resulting in the team being 0 – 3 behind by lunchtime. The weather and performance brightened in the afternoon with Chester winning three of the four singles games giving a final 4 – 3 win to Bury.

Two Chester members, John Dawson and Helen Brophy, took part in the regional final of the All England Association Croquet Handicap Competition at Fylde over the weekend of 1-2 September. Both won three out of five games but narrowly missed qualifying for the national final.  Adrian Apps of Bowdon and Phil Nittall of Bury both succeeded in going forward to the final.

Chester Croquet Club were pleased to welcome a return visit by the Carrickmines Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club of Dublin over the bank holiday weekend of 25-26 August.  The weather was more autumnal than summery but playing conditions on Saturday were agreeable with only brief rain in the morning followed by longish periods of sunshine in the afternoon.   A range of friendly singles and doubles association and golf croquet games were played during the day followed by a convivial supper at Moules a  Go-Go in the evening. However, the rain forecast for Sunday duly arrived which curtailed games planned for the second day allowing only two hasty rounds of golf croquet and one soggy game of association croquet.  A ferry cancellation brought proceedings to a premature end. The overall result of the friendly encounter was that Chester managed to retain the Anglo-Irish Cup.

Alan Looney, the Carrickmines President and captain, presented the cup to the Chester club secretary and team captain, John Dawson, and declared “It’s been a great weekend. No matter how the Brexit discussions conclude the Chester team will be welcome at Carrickmines in 2019” and he presented the Chester Chair , Sarah Andrew, with a signed copy of the Carrickmines Club Centenary book. That done the Carrickmines convoy aquaplaned out of Westminster Park in hot pursuit of the Holyhead ferry.