Author: David Guyton

On Sunday, 18 August, Chester Croquet Club again welcomed members of Mensa for their annual croquet tournament. This year visitors arrived not just from the north-west but also flying in from Dublin and Scotland, with over 20 people enthusiastically playing both association and golf croquet throughout the day and croquet club volunteers offering tuition and guidance. This was the fifteenth visit by Mensa with many members and their families making a long weekend of the event in Chester’s shops, bars and hotels. A great day was had by all!

Grateful thanks to Dennis Holman who organised this visit and similar recent visits by CAMSOC, the Buckley Freemasons and the Saughall Rotary Club, and to members of the club who helped and provided catering throughout the day. The Mensa participants are looking forward to another return visit next year.

 

Wednesday, 14 August, was a glorious day, and the Chester Chariots Level Play Golf Croquet team rose to the occasion, beating Bowdon Bombers at Bowdon, by 10 games to 8. The team of Edward Baskerville (captain), Kerry Dadson and Chris Thomas, with an average handicap of 5 faced a more experienced team with an average handicap of 3, but were undaunted by the challenge that presented. Kerry Dadson (handicap 5) had a particularly successful day, beating the Bowdon captain (on a -1 handicap) twice. As a consequence, Kerry’s handicap triggered down to a 4. Well done Kerry.

Saturday, 17 August, proved to be rather less successful, when the Chester Chariots travelled north to face Southport. The team of Jude Wise (captain) Edward Baskerville and Kerry Dadson faced a strong team on very fast lawns, and in spite of some very close games, lost the match 17 -1. However the games were enjoyable to play, and the company was good, thus demonstrating that croquet can be fun even when you lose !

Saturday, 10 August, saw the Chester Senators golf croquet handicap team of Sandy Grievson (captain), Gail Thomas, Liz Baskerville and Leslie Newman playing at Llanfairfechan against the Dragons. The day started with a penetrating drizzle and the Dragons established a strong lead. However the sun came out at lunchtime and the Senators clawed back led by a strong performance from Gail, who won all her games. The final result of 9 games all was a fair reflection of the day’s croquet play.

Chester Croquet Club hosted Deva Rotary Club on Tuesday, 6 August, for a fun evening of croquet.

The 15 visitors were welcomed to the club, given mallets and a briefing on basic skills, then split into groups to play three rounds of golf croquet. Each group was supported by a volunteer from the club who also put out the lawns and made drinks.

Scores were kept and the person who ran the most hoops was the winner and received a prize. Third was Angela Williams, second was Alison McGill and the winner was Nikki Taylor who ran 12 hoops.

The sunshine was lovely and it was great to see everyone having fun but also improving their croquet as the evening’s play went on.

End of season short lawn competition

Our annual end of season short lawn open competition will be held on Saturday, 31  August.  The format will depend on the number of entries, so in the first instance please let me know if you would like to play. It’s a great opportunity for all short lawn association croquet players of all standards.

Please reply to

Sally Slater

Arrangements for Mason Cup on Monday, 2 September

Just a reminder that the Mason Cup tournament will be held next Monday, 2 September, starting at 9.30 am, so please arrive by 9.15 am.

There are 8 entrants and the tournament will be run as a 5-round Swiss with the first round pre-drawn.

This is a 14-point full lawn handicap event where handicaps will be reduced as per Schedule 1, Schedule of Bisques from the Laws of Association Croquet, 7th edition; and further modified (reduced by 5/6th) to reflect that the time limit of matches is reduced from 90 minutes to 75 minutes. The matches will be full bisque games, that is played from a base of 0, and all four lawns will be used.

Please don’t forget your lunch!

Cheers

Robin Tasker
E-mail robin_tasker@btinternet.com

A reminder to sign up for the 2024 Mason Cup

Please, a reminder that if you haven’t already responded then I’d be delighted to hear from you if you intend to play in this year’s Mason Cup tournament.

Many thanks

Robin Tasker
E-mail robin_tasker@btinternet.com

2024 Mason Cup on Monday, 2 September

A 14-point AC full lawn handicap tournament will be held on Monday, 2 September, for the Mason Cup.

If you wish to enter please let me know no later than Monday, 26 August.

The precise format of the tournament will depend upon the number of entrants.

All games will be 14-point and time-limited with handicaps adjusted to take account of the shorter game format. Games will be played as full handicap matches (no base).

Scoring will be one point for a win; hoop points scored will be recorded. The winner will be the person with the most points scored. In the event of a tie at the end of the competition, the tied player with the most hoop points scored will be the winner; if that fails to elicit a winner, the head-to-head results of the tied players will determine the winner; and if that fails to elicit a winner, a tie break at the manager’s discretion will be used.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Robin Tasker
E-mail robin_tasker@btinternet.com

Chester Croquet Club hosted the All England Golf Croquet A level competition over the weekend of the 3-4 August. 16 players from various parts of the country met and competed for the Maggie Cowman trophy. The weather and the lawns behaved well, though the rain on Sunday was not in the forecast. However that did not dampen the spirits of a lively and greatly enjoyed competition. The winner was Tony McCann from the Backworth Croquet Club in the North East, who narrowly beat Chester’s own Sarah Clements in the final. It was lovely to be able to welcome players from all over England to Chester, and for them to have a chance to see our City (some for the first time) during their evening stay.

A short lawn team of Derek Bell-Jones (captain), Nigel Worthington, Michael Fletcher and Sally Slater played Fylde at home on Sunday, 21 July, in the NW Federation short lawn league. Derek Bell-Jones was playing in his first match this season following surgery.

The lawns were beautiful to play on, absorbing the overnight rain, and the Chester team enjoyed playing in the sunshine and took the lead of 6-2 by lunchtime. Sally won all four of her games and Derek and Michael won three each and Nigel two, giving a final score of Chester 12 Fylde 4. Overall, it was a lovely day for croquet with a satisfying result.

Summer eventually arrived at Chester this week (and is forecast to last until Saturday when the rain returns). So on Thursday, 18 July, we were able to welcome Croquet Durham in the quarter final of the national Murphy Shield level play golf croquet competition with a gloriously sunny morning, a warm but overcast afternoon, and a small tornado that crossed the lawns making everyone hold onto their hats for a minute!

The morning saw the first two singles matches shared: Chester 1 Durham 1, but the doubles match had only got to one game all by lunchtime; and the captains were getting hungry, so decided to have lunch then play the remaining singles matches, hoping for a decisive win one way or the other without having to finish the deciding game of doubles. However, the players on both sides ‘conspired’ against this plan and shared the four singles matches two games all. So at Chester 3, Durham 3, the final doubles game became the decider. It was a tense final game with a large crowd (more than ten!) and quite a few missed shots in the early part of the game, but both teams settled down and in the end Chester just edged the final game by 7 hoops to 5 to win the match.

Many thanks to Durham for an enjoyable match which, despite the closeness of the games and the resulting tension in the match, was played through the whole (long) day in an open and friendly spirit. We hope to draw against Durham in next year’s competition and visit their lawns at Chester-le-Street.

And a special thanks to Tom and Sandy Grievson for providing a fabulous lunch which kept us all (and most of the crowd) fuelled up throughout the day.

Chester now go on to play in the semi-finals of the Murphy Shield against Watford.

On Saturday, 13 July, Chester Senators played at home against Ellesmere in the NW Federation golf croquet handicap league.  Chester’s team consisted of Jill Foley (captain), David Johnson, Christine Fryer and Rhia Taylor. We had one member with a handicap of 8 and three members with a handicap of 12 and found ourselves playing against opponents with much lower handicaps of 3, 5, 6 and 12. The morning started off rainy, then stopped later. We won one doubles game but also lost one. Highlight of the day for Christine Fryer was her first match jump shot. The final score was a win for Chester with 11 games against Ellesmere with 7 games. Overall, it was a good day enjoyed by everyone and play finished early at 2.45 pm.

On the following day, Sunday 14 July, a full lawn association croquet team played away against Bowdon in the NW Federation 26 point handicap league. On Bowdon’s beautiful lawns but under grey skies and intermittent drizzle the Chester team of Mark Lloyd, David Guyton, Sally Slater and Robin Tasker found themselves struggling to cope with both the number of bisques (free shots) held by the Bowdon players and the skilful manner of their use. Indeed, opportunities to get on the lawn proved to be seriously limited, and most singles games were done and dusted well within the 3 hour time limit. The doubles game in the morning was a tighter affair but a late burst of hoops from the Bowdon team as time was called sealed a close victory. The final singles game of the afternoon was all-square but, with many hoops still to run, it was mutually agreed to void the game to allow an early departure so that both teams could prepare and be suitably refreshed to watch England in the Euro final… Sadly for Chester, the points weren’t coming home and the same turned out to be the case for England’s football team. The final result was a 6 – 0 win for Bowdon and a 2 – 1 win for Spain.