Westminster Park, Hough Green, Chester CH4 8JQ
David Mann and Gwyn Thomas won the Early Bird golf doubles competition on Sunday, 13 April, the day the weather changed from glorious sun to cold and damp ! But spirits among the participants remained high for our first competition of the season, and the games were hard fought and very enjoyable both to play in and to watch.
On the opening day of the season over 20 people turned up on a sunny Mothering Sunday to play croquet. Prosecco and scones and cakes were available and a good afternoon’s croquet was had by all.
Hello All Members
Our 2025 croquet season opens on Sunday, 30 March, with a Social Sunday when, as usual, friends and family are welcome. We then kick into the full schedule of events in the calendar starting on Monday, 31 March. The calendar is an essential part of our excellent website and I urge you to check it frequently to keep abreast of events and lawn availability.
This season we have a very full programme of league matches, club competitions, external tournaments and national tournaments for GC, full lawn AC and short lawn AC. Please sign up for these; it is the best way to improve your croquet and to ensure that we have a thriving and dynamic club.
The main training and coaching sessions are Tuesday evening for AC beginners and improvers, Wednesday morning GC training for those who have registered to play for Chester, Friday morning for beginners and also a separate session for GC and AC improvers.
A reminder that double banking is the norm when all lawns are in use. We do not mix AC and GC on a lawn. A lawn booking guarantees your game but not necessarily sole use of a lawn. Evenings and weekends are usually little used and are bliss when the weather is fine.
Let us hope we have moderate to light overnight rain three times each week and therefore avoid having to do the lawn squelch test – press your foot into the lawn and if you can see water anywhere on a lawn it is waterlogged and must not be used. I am about to launch a new Lawns WhatsApp which will attempt to broadcast lawn condition information if we get periods of poor weather as we did last year.
A plea that every time you leave the clubhouse you check the rubbish situation and take any home for disposal. If we develop this habit we will cure the problem.
Subscriptions are due now and must be paid by Thursday, 1 May, if you wish to continue your membership. Full membership is £65, second club or country membership is £50 and students/juniors pay £5.
See you on the lawns
Best wishes
Tom Grievson
The Agenda and papers will be posted in the Members only area as soon as available.
You will have received a notification from Robin Tasker about the AGM coming up on Friday, 14 March.
We will be providing cheese and wine to help the evening along, so in order to help with catering please could you let me know if you are coming.
Please reply to me at springboard_sally@hotmail.com .
Many thanks
Sally Slater
I’m writing to give advance notification that the 2025 Annual General Meeting of Chester Croquet Club will take place on Friday 14 March commencing 7:30 pm at Westminster Park Community Centre.
I will circulate the Agenda and associated papers no later than Friday 28 February. If you wish to submit any Resolution to by considered by the meeting it needs to be with me no later than Friday 21 February duly supported by a Proposer and Seconder.
I look forward to seeing you there but please if you cannot attend can you send any apologies directly to me.
Thank you
Robin Tasker
Secretary, Chester Croquet Club
Following a number of enquiries, tonight’s planning meeting is still going ahead as planned.
The room and the curry have been pre-booked and we are committed to paying for them.
Members should make their own decisions as to whether they feel safe to come or not, given the weather. -3 is forecast this evening.
Hope to see you there.
Happy New Year everybody. Hope you had a lovely Christmas.
It’s January and we are looking forward to the new season with our planning meeting to be held on this Friday evening, 10 January, at 7.00 pm at Westminster Park Community Centre.
We will be having curry (chicken or vegetarian), rice and poppadoms with chutney for the bargain price of £5.00 per person (the club will pay the rest).
Please arrive promptly with £5 cash, we will start with the meal before the meeting.
If you haven’t signed up yet, there is still time to do so. I have 37 names so far. Please let me know if you would like me to add your name to the list.
Only 14 sleeps to Christmas therefore only a week longer to New Year!
I’m not wishing the days away, but please would you let me know if you intend to come to our New Year’s Day get together. No croquet I’m afraid, but there will be mulled wine and nibbles, and a quiz. 1.00 – 3.00.
Visitors are welcome.
I also need numbers for the catering at our planning meeting at 7.00 pm on Friday, 10 January, at Westminster Park Community Centre. We have a delicious curry supper – only costing you £5 – and chat and share ideas about the upcoming season. Come and have your say and contribute to the running of your club. Please let me know if you can come.
Have a great Christmas!
A group of members gathered together on New Year’s Day for mulled wine and a quiz. In previous years they have been able to have a game of croquet, but this year the lawns were not only closed but waterlogged again.
Ian Graham, Judith Thompson and Doreen Curtis won the prizes for the quizzes, but really they were all joint efforts in groups.
A good time was had by all.
Chester Croquet Club held its annual end of season dinner and presentation evening at Chez Jules on Tuesday, 19 November, to celebrate successes of the season. About fifty members defied the early winter snow and turned out on a chilly evening to attend the event.
For the second year in succession Chester achieved a series of wins against clubs across the country to reach the final of the national Murphy Inter-Club competition for golf croquet but lost to Sussex County in the final match at Wrest Park. At a regional level, Chester came first in the NW Federation Advanced B-Level association croquet league and second in the Level Play golf croquet league. In the more local North Wales and Cheshire competition for the Snowdonia Cup, Chester’s short lawn and golf handicap teams emerged as overall winner. At the annual Festival of Croquet at Southport attended by all clubs in the north west, Chester fielded three teams, AC handicap, GC handicap and GC level play, and succeeded in coming second in the GC handicap event.
As always, the club held a wide variety of internal club competitions during the year for all levels of association croquet and golf croquet. The club’s chair, Tom Grievson, commended all those who had taken part and presented trophies to the winning players.
Among individual successes during the year, Sarah Clements won the Pendle B Level Golf Croquet Tournament at Pendle on Saturday, 11 May, and qualified for a Croquet England Golf Croquet Silver Merit Award. Then later in the season she was runner-up in the All England Golf Croquet A level competition for the Maggie Cowman trophy hosted by Chester over the weekend of 3-4 August.
Edward Baskerville and Rick Davies achieved third and fourth place in the Chester B Level Golf Croquet Tournament held for the first time on Saturday, 1 June.
Roger Brooks won the Bowdon Short Croquet Trophy at the Bowdon short lawn open competition over Wednesday and Thursday, 24-25 July.
Richard Smith won the Claret Jug for the second year running at Shrewsbury over two days in September severely disrupted by rain in an advanced association croquet competition for the eight highest ranked players from the club. Also in September he won the Plate event in the Welsh Croquet Championships.
The dinner provided another enjoyable opportunity to recognise all these achievements during another successful year. A full list of results can be found in the Members only area.
Meanwhile, back at the lawns …
The Council has reaffirmed their decision to close all ‘fine turf’ facilities under their control to facilitate a ‘robust winter maintenance programme’ and allow time for the lawns to recover. So, sadly, all four lawns will remain closed until the end of March next year. Our winter gloom may however be slightly cheered by the prospect of the first class lawns which we shall be using next season.
Tom Grievson
The lawns were closed to enable a significant autumn maintenance programme, which is now complete. Since then the council has said that the lawns should remain closed until the spring to allow them to ‘recover and rest’. We have replied that the top dressing is now absorbed, the lawns are in good condition and that our usual practice has been to play until the end of the year. We have assured them that we will always have proper regard for the weather and use the lawns far more lightly in the autumn months. We have asked that they review their position so as to allow play to continue as in past years.
I know this is unwelcome news but you can be assured that we will continue to seek a favourable resolution, but in the meantime all four lawns remain closed until further notice.
Tom Grievson
On Sunday, 6 October, Chester played away against Tattenhall in the club’s final match in this year’s Snowdon Cup competition. This is a local regional inter-club competition for handicap golf croquet and short lawn association croquet between four Cheshire and North Wales clubs – Chester, Tattenhall, Craig-y-Don and Llanfairfechan. It started in 2019 with the aim of encouraging newcomers and less experienced players to take part in team events but has become increasingly competitive since then.
The Chester team for this final short lawn match against Tattenhall was Andy Wilson-Chalon, Val Sanders and Liz Rowley. Having beaten Llafairfechan and Craig-y-Don in previous short lawn matches, Chester unfortunately narrowly lost the match 4 – 5.
However, on the following day, Tattenhall beat Llanfairfechan. That coupled with Chester winning two of the three handicap golf croquet matches earlier in the season meant that Chester emerged at this year’s overall winner of the Snowdon Cup after previously winning it in 2023. Congratulations to Chester!
There are some members of our local community who are really enjoying our unseasonably wet weather. They have ventured on to the croquet lawns for the first time this year and are enjoying the lush green turf. They will find it is an active club with the Newbies end of season competition in full swing and they will undoubtedly be attracting a lot of interest from the club’s frequent visitors of seagulls, magpies and blackbirds.
Later that morning on Saturday, 28 September, some hardy members from the beginners group turned up to play in the new members open competition .
The rain held off and the lawns were luckily playable after such a lot of rain. The games were hard fought and the end result was decided by one hoop. The winner was Bob Thompson.
On the same day a Chester team of Nigel Worthington, Andy Wilson-Chalon and Val Sanders played away against Craig-y-Don in the Snowdonia Cup short lawn league. Following an earlier 6 – 3 win against Llanfairfechan the team achieved another 6 – 3 win this time. This result leaves just one further match against Tattenhall which will be played on Sunday, 6 October, at Tattenhall.