Author: David Guyton

A new six week AC beginners course will start on Tuesday, 11 June, at 5 pm.

It is aimed primarily at those new members who joined partway through the first course and those that wish to repeat part or all of it.

It will also be linked into a developers/improvers course that will run in tandem. The improvers course will focus on one particular aspect each week.

With a short introduction/demonstration followed by a practice session and then rounded off with conditioned games.

Anyone wishing to learn the rudiments of the game or develop and enhance their existing skill set will be very welcome. Just come along!

Robert Jones

The season is proving to be a busy one, with very variable weather !

On the Thursday, 16 May, the Chester Centurions, a three player team, travelled to LLanfairfechan  to play a Golf Croquet Level Play league match.  The day started bright and sunny with a sea breeze, but by lunchtime the Welsh mountains were shrouded in mist and  the rain came down bringing a wet afternoon. The match was a close one, with Llanfairfechan 5-4 at lunchtime, but Chester pulled back to 9-8 in the rain. The last game was won by the closest of margins, closing the match at a draw 9-9. A fitting score for two well balanced teams.

The annual club tournament for the Fletton Trophy took place on Sunday, 19 May, at Chester under blue skied and wonderful sunshine. This is an advanced association croquet competition and Richard Smith, David Boyd, David Guyton, Robin Tasker, Mark Lloyd and Roger Brooks  played each other in five rounds of games, each game limited to 70 minutes. That was a lot of croquet under a hot sun ! The games were hard fought, with a high standard of play, and the final round decider between the two highest seed players saw Richard victorious over Roger at 14 points to 8.

In stark contrast, on Wednesday, 22 May, an all ladies team of Jayne Taylor, Val Sanders and Sarah Clements ventured northwards in heavy rain and very heavy traffic to play a short lawn assciation croquet league match against Westmorland.  The setting of Levens Hall was beautiful, and the host team was very welcoming, but the continuous rain, low temperature and soggy lawns proved physically testing. The final result was very close with Westmorland winning 5 games and Chester 4, Sarah excelling in her first ever AC match by winning all her 3 games.

Then on Sunday, 26 May, an association croquet handicap team of Sally Slater (captain), David Boyd, David Guyton and Andy Wilson-Chalon played Bury Peelers at their Whitehead Park venue in Bury. Unsurprisingly there had been a lot of rain, making the lawns heavy and wet and difficult to play on at the start. The rain came in patches, interspersed with periods of warm sunshine and the lawns got faster during the day. Chester won the doubles but lost both singles in the morning giving a score of 2-1 to Bury at lunchtime. In the afternoon the singles matches were very closely fought and each side won two games, giving Bury a final score of 4-3. The day finished in a thunderstorm and torrential rain!

A week that demonstrated just how much nicer it is to play croquet when the weather is good !

The club’s annual tournament for the Fletton Trophy took place on Sunday, 19 May, under blue skies and wonderful hot sunshine.

The Fletton Trophy is an association croquet competition played under Advanced rules and, this year, as a 14-point, time-limited all-play-all one day tournament.

There were six entrants with a handicap range between -0.5 and 5, and so five rounds of matches each limited to 70 minutes. And that equated to a lot of croquet under a hot sun on excellent lawns, and by the finish some tired croquet players.

The tournament draw meant that the top seeds would play in the final round and, if they had both managed to win in their previous rounds, would determine the winner of Fletton Trophy. And so it proved – just.

In the first round Richard Smith (-0.5) was easing to victory until David Boyd (5) staged a remarkable comeback running 6 hoops and pegging out his front ball to draw level as time was called. In the ensuing Golden Hoop cat and mouse play Richard eventually sneaked to an 8-7 victory. Elsewhere Roger Brooks (-0.5) had swept to a commanding 14-1 win to start his campaign.

Richard continued his progression through the rounds beating Mark Lloyd (0.5), David Guyton (4.5) and Robin Tasker (4.5) but never being entirely convincing without a pegged out game. By contrast Roger sailed through his subsequent rounds failing to peg out on only one occasion and that with a close fought 12-9 victory over Mark.

In the final round decider Richard took his front ball round to peg with a good diagonal spread leave. Roger hit in from the lift and proceeded to go round also to peg and took the opportunity to peg out Richard’s front ball for a 3-ball game. Whilst Roger started well, Richard hit in with his single ball and took that round to peg out for a 14-8 victory to win the Fletton Trophy.

And so after more than 7.5 hours play, and 15 matches, six weary sun-drenched croquet players made their ways home. Congratulations go to Richard for his win, and many thanks to the others for a thoroughly enjoyable day.

The Chester short lawn team travelled to Llanfairfechan on Saturday, 18 May, for their north west league match. It promised to be a glorious day but a sea fret rolled in making it cold and misty most of the day. The Chester team had two brand new players who had never played a short lawn match before, Andy Wilson-Chalon and Ant Fletcher, so it was a fabulous achievement for Andy to win two games and Ant to peg out for a win. The overall score was 11-5 to Llanfairfechan.

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This was the fifth match Chester has played against Llanfairfechan in May with only one win for Chester, one draw and three wins for Llanfairfechan.

Thursday, 2 May     GC Level Play: Chester Chariots (H)       L 5 – 10
Saturday, 4 May      AC 14pt Full Lawn (H)                                   W 11 – 5
Saturday, 11 May     GC Handicap: Chester Senators (A)         L 7 -11
Thursday, 16 May   GC Level Play:  Chester Centurions (A)  D 9 – 9
Saturday, 18 May     AC Short Lawn (A)                                          L 5 -11

A three-player Chester Centurions team travelled to Llanfairfechan on Thursday, 16 May, to play a golf croquet level play league match. The day started bright and sunny with a slightly chilly sea breeze. Llanfairfechan opened the nine-game match with a strong win but the succeeding games were all very close and neither side managed to open a convincing gap. By lunchtime Llanfairfechan led by 5 games to 4 and an ominous mist started to shroud the Welsh mountains. And then the rain came down. In the wet afternoon session Chester edged ahead by winning some very close games and as the last game started were in the lead by 9 games to 8. That last game was played in a cold drizzle and was won by the closest of margins by Llanfairfechan to close the match at a 9 to 9 draw – a fitting score for two well balanced teams.

After a week of fine weather, the weather was again kind to us on Sunday, 12 May, when we managed to hold this high handicap golf croquet doubles competition, with 12 competitors forming 6 pairs, each pair playing all of the other five pairs during the day. There were some very close games, hard fought, with very few going to 7 hoops within the 45 minutes. One of the last two games of the day proved to be the decider, with one pair winning 4 of their 5 games, and three pairs winning 3. The winners were Gail Thomas and Paulette Thomas. Of the three pairs that won 3 of their games, Liz Griffiths and Lesley Newman claimed second place on the basis of net hoop score, having run 23 hoops and conceded 19, whilst Liz Baskerville and Wendy Lord came third having run 21 hoops and conceded 20.

Many thanks to all who took part and made it a very enjoyable competition. But thanks particularly to Jude Wise and Doreen Curtis for their super assistance with the management of the day and the catering.

For those of you who wish they could have taken part, there will be another similar competition at the end of the season, the Hi-Tails. Hopefully the weather will be kinder to us than last year and we will be able to hold it. Look out for an announcement later in the year !

On the same day, a Chester team travelled to Fylde to play a 26-point full lawn association croquet handicap league match. The team of Mark Lloyd, David Guyton, Sally Slater and Robin Tasker (captain) faced a Fylde team on a lovely hot sunny day but also on well-grassed, challenging and bumpy lawns. This made for some entertaining – and some may say frustrating – play, and rather more jump shots than might normally be expected in an AC match.

In the morning session the Chester doubles pairing of Mark Lloyd and Robin Tasker was defeated despite a late comeback that at least made for an exciting finish, and with the singles games shared Fylde took a 2-1 lead into lunch. And a sociable lunch was enjoyed by all under the shade of a convenient tree.

In the afternoon with both the temperature and humidity rising four tight singles games were played and eventually shared to give Fylde an overall 4 – 3 victory. The match was played in good spirit and our thanks go to the Fylde team for their hospitable welcome to us.

At the close of play the sky had greyed over and the first few drops of rain were felt. There were increasing showers on the journey home and by the time the team reached Chester, the sky was black, the rain was torrential, and repeated thunder and lightning were all around. Thus came to an end the longest few days of sunny, warm and dry weather since last summer.

A beautiful day made all the better by the welcoming host team. Plus a gentle sea breeze to cool our fevered brows.

We didn’t win the match, but each game was played with enthusiasm and good humour.

The man of the match was Ray Foy of Llanfairfechan who only started playing this season, and won all 4 of his singles games. Well done Ray.

So it’s congratulations to Llanfairfechan and thanks again for being such great hosts.

 

Another warm sunny day at Chester Croquet Club – perhaps spring has finally arrived –  saw Ashby Croquet Club visiting us for the second round of the Murphy Shield. The Murphy Shield is a level-play golf croquet tournament, but each team is limited to just one player with a handicap of +1, the other players must have handicaps of +2 or more; and the total handicap of all four players together must be 8 or higher. Our team was David Boyd (+1), Mark Lloyd (+2), John Hampson (+2) and Sarah Clements (+4) and we faced Ashby’s team of Andy Sherwood (+2), Mick Haytack (+3), Stephanie White (+4) and Judith Rowe (+4).

The match started well for Chester with the home advantage of sloping lawns “tipping the balance” in favour of the home team. Chester won the doubles and both singles sessions in the morning and so were three-nil up by lunch. By the afternoon Ashby had adapted well to the local conditions, but even so Chester pulled further ahead with wins in the first three sessions. However, Andy Sherwood managed to save match point on the golden hoop of his second game with David Boyd, and then stormed through the final game to win the final session 2 games to 1 and make the score Chester 6, Ashby 1. Thank you to the Ashby team for an enjoyable and sociable day in the sunshine.

Chester now go on to play in the quarter finals, where we will play the winners of the Branston versus Croquet Durham match.

Chester Croquet Club held its first AC/GC partnership day of the season. 8 members who normally play golf croquet partnered 8 members who normally play association croquet for a lighthearted competition of association croquet.

Robin Tasker managed the competition and worked out which pair was to play which pair each round to determine the eventual winners.

With two games each Sarah Clements and Sally Slater played Brian Walton and Rick Davies in the final round to decide the winners. After an hour’s exciting play the two pairs were neck and neck at 7 hoops all, making a shot to the peg the deciding factor. Sarah and Rick played the drives and both made excellent shots inches from the peg, but Sarah’s was a couple of inches nearer so deciding the outcome.

It was an enjoyable afternoon played in warm sunshine, and the members are looking forward to the next partnership day to be held in June.

Now here’s a thought: play GC and AC!

Rachel Gee is a top class player – winning the 2011 Women’s Golf Croquet World championship, representing England in the association Openshaw competition, winning the English National Singles AC in 2019 and 2020, and the 2014, 2018, and 2023 European Golf croquet championships.

Not bad eh?

She was asked what was her best suggestion for development in either code and she said

PLAY THE OTHER CODE

“Playing AC has opened my eyes to a large range of alternative shot options in GC, some of which can be hoop winning almost immediately. Playing GC has given me a better understanding of my % success rate for any given shot (running longer hoops, various length roquets etc) which has given me the confidence to be much more aggressive with my break pick up lines and shooting shot selections in AC.”

Well said Rachel.

Look out for our next GC/ AC partnership day to improve your understanding and skills.

The first beautiful sunny day in the season so far saw Chester Chariots play Llanfairfechan at home in the NW Level Play Golf Croquet League on Thursday, 2 May. It was a very tight match, with many games taking well over an hour and 4 going to the golden hoop. Sally Slater (captain), Jude Wise and Edward Baskerville took on a very strong team from Wales, but eventually lost by 10 games to 5.

Back to an overcast day on Saturday, 4 May, Chester met a different team from Llanfairfechan also at home, this time in an Association Croquet 14pt Full Lawn Handicap match. This was the first match of the season in the new 14pt format introduced this year by the NW Federation. The team of Brian Walton (captain), David Boyd, Sally Slater and Paul Taylor faced a team with a bag full of bisques which made for a challenging day, but all the team had some successes and there was even a golden hoop game. Fortunately, the rain held off and Chester won by 11 games to 5.