Author: Hugh Bray

On Tuesday 1^st May, Chester Chariots level play golf croquet team played their first match of the season against a very strong team from Pendle in the North West federation league. It was an enjoyable day but very much a learning experience. Chester lost the match 6 – 12. The captain was Janet Jackson, with Paul Taylor and Roger Edwards. They each won 2 games. It was Roger’s first level play match playing for Chester.

The next day, the second level play golf croquet team, Chester Centurions, played Bury at Chester. The early rain stopped and the sun shone all day, cooled only by the wind. Chester won 12-8. Team captain was Garry Greenwood playing with Alan Clare and Trevor Farrell.

On Sunday 6^th May, the Chester golf croquet team of Sally Slater (captain), Janet Jackson, Mel Hagan and Chris Thomas travelled up to Bury to play Bury South in the North West federation golf croquet handicap league. The score line of 13-3 to Bury belied the close nature of the match, with many games going to the golden hoop.

Chester croquet teams were in action in three North West Federation matches this weekend.

On Saturday, 28 April, Chester played at home against Southport in the Handicap League. The weather was better than expected. It was the first match of the season for both teams and both sides felt a little lacking in practice after a long winter break and a slow start to the season because of cold, wet weather earlier in the month. In the morning, the Chester team of David Boyd (captain), John Dawson, David Guyton and Robin Tasker won the doubles game by one hoop and one of the two singles games giving a 2 -1 lead by lunch time. In the four singles games in the afternoon, Chester won two of the games giving a final win of 4 – 3 for Chester.

This match was a good example of gender equality in croquet as Southport was represented by an all ladies team playing against an all mens team for Chester, but the result could easily have gone either way, Chester were just lucky to have won the match with that one point victory in the doubles.

In the golf croquet league, Chester was represented by Jayne Taylor (captain), Chris Thomas, Janet Jackson and Jill Foley who played away in the beautiful setting of the Crake valley in the Lake District. The games were hard fought, the final score being 11-7 to Crake. Person of the match was Chris Thomas who won all of her four singles games.

On Sunday, the Chester team of Jerry Guest (captain), Elmyr Hughes and Paul Watson played away at Bury in the Advanced B league. In the morning Jerry and Paul won the doubles but Elmyr narrowly lost his singles game. In the afternoon however, he won his game 26-0, a fantastic result, but the other two singles games were lost, giving an overall score of 3-2 to Bury.

Chester croquet club began the season with a successful taster day on Sunday 8^th April, attended by 16 people who learnt all about croquet. Thirteen of these signed up for the beginners courses which take place in the next few weeks.

On Saturday 14^th April Chester held its first match of the season at home against Bowdon in the North West golf handicap league. The weather was lovely at last, and it was an excellent day’s croquet with Bowdon winning 11-7. The team was captained by Chris Thomas, with Janet Jackson, Mel Hagan and Jill Foley.

Over the weekend two Chester players, John Dawson and Jerry Guest, took part in the North West Millennium Advanced Tournament held at Bowdon. Jerry won all five of his games to secure the B section trophy. Former Chester player, James Hawkins, took second in the A section.

Our volunteers are getting the lawns at Westminster Park ready for the 2018 season, we are hoping for sunny weather to initiate this year’s season!
Last year the club had some good results in NW Federation leagues, winning the midweek handicap AC league and coming second in the golf handicap league and the level play golf croquet league, we hope to do even better this season.
The club is looking for new players to join in the sport. Croquet often gets a bad press, however it is an interesting and challenging game, based on skill, strategy, angles, tactics and guile. It is suitable for all ages and abilities as it is not based on physical strength or ability.
A taster day for potential new members will be held on Sunday April 8^th at the club. Places must be booked in advance so please contact the membership secretary, Sally Slater, on 01244 677645 if you are interested

Sarah Andrew and John Dawson attended the NW Fed meeting on 18^th November.
There was lots of information sharing about current activities in the NW Fed and the CA but the key local outcomes were:
1) Organisation; Paul Rigge and Liz Wilson are the new Chairman and Treasurer
2) Leagues generally went well in 2017; most cancellations / rearrangements related to the weather. Format the same for 2018; 3 procedural improvements, namely
2a) team captains/ managers need to be familiar with the league rules especially on postponements. A summary will be produced
2b) Ivan (league manager) will try to schedule most / all league fixtures before end of August thus facilitating rearrangements in the event of bad weather
2c) Ivan needs the full individual score sheets in all level play matches as the data goes into national rankings
3) For all leagues home teams will no longer provide food as the norm (ie BYO) but teams will sit and eat together. Any club wishing to continue to provide food can do so if they wish
4) There was no support for universal wearing of team colours – this remains an individual team choice under the existing CA Tournament regulations
5) Chester will host the Millennium short lawn event on Sat 12^th May. National croquet day is Sun 13 ^th May
6) Chester collected the mid week AC trophy

The talk at most croquet clubs is of angled hoop running and triple peels but at Chester in the autumn a croquet player’s fancy lightly turns turns to thoughts of loaves. After a couple of quick games of golf croquet to work up an appetite it’s straight into the clubhouse where the merits of rye and sunflower seeds or sour dough toast are hotly contested. Aided by a major investment in a toaster and sunny weather the croquet season has been extended to the end of November. This simple incentive has kept the members playing for longer than usual. ” I don’t know which I enjoy most” said one player ” running a hoop from twenty yards or Frank’s home-made marmalade on hot sour dough toast”

Sixteen qualifiers from 24 local tournaments, countrywide, met at Southport Croquet Club on 7^th and 8^th October to compete in this year’s All England ‘B’ level, Golf Croquet final, including David Boyd, from Chester,  who qualified with his win at Bury in July.

Scoring was based on the number of wins in an all plays all competition, with everyone playing 8 games on Saturday and 7 on Sunday. The start of play was very soon followed by the start of the rain, which lasted on and off all Saturday resulting in 3 of the 4 primary lawns becoming un-playable. Fortunately Southport has the luxury of having additional, secondary lawns, where play continued.

David Boyd finished on Saturday with 5 wins out of 8, trailing the pack leaders by one. Thankfully no waterproofs were required for Sunday and as the day progressed speculation about the eventual winner grew and it wasn’t until late afternoon that David emerged as a ‘contender’. Having lost just one game on Sunday he finished with an overall total of 11 wins equal with the other top scorer, Paul Durkin of Long Eaton, Nottingham. However, Paul took the trophy beating David, into second place, on hoop difference.

 

The NW golf croquet handicap match against Southport played on Sunday 24^th was a crucial one, as it determined the overall winner of the league. The Chester team of Chris Slater (captain), Sally Slater, Chris Thomas and Janet Jackson fought hard against a strong Southport team, but the final score was 10-7 to Southport. At least six of the games went to the golden hoop, and an excellent days croquet was had by all.

Although the top honours for the weekend handicap league this year had already gone to Bury Peelers, Chester still had an outstanding away match to play against Bowdon Firs last on Sunday 24^th. Chester was represented by John Dawson (Captain), Paul Taylor, Brian Walton and David Boyd. The morning doubles and two singles saw Chester sneaking a lead of 2 games to 1 with individual score differences of no more than 2 points. John Dawson was first to complete his afternoon singles match by storming a 26 :0 win so just one more win to seal the result, which did take the full 3.25 hrs. but finally gave Chester a victory of 4 games : 3. This result should secure fourth place in the league (of 9) for Chester.

The Christine Long trophy competition was played on Saturday 16^th, when 10 golf croquet players had an excellent days croquet in the sunshine. Organised by last year’s winner Roger Haigh, they split into two groups and played each other, with the top two of each group meeting to play the semi-final and the final at the end of the day. The winner was Sandy Finchett-Maddock and the runner-up was Doreen Leece.

On Friday 15 ^th September when the early rain cleared and the sun shone, Chester enjoyed a 13 – 5 win against three higher ranking players from Culcheth in their level play match. The Chester team was Pat Clare (captain), Janet Jackson and Chris Thomas. It was a good day of croquet and a fitting end to the first season for Chester Chariots.

On 17^th and 18^th September John Dawson and Jerry Guest took part in the Bowden B-Level Advanced Tournament. John made it to the final but lost to Dennis Scarr of Middlesbrough.