Category: Uncategorized

Dear Members,

Every five years the CA undertakes a survey of all its members so that it can be better informed on the composition of its membership, its needs and wishes, and hence be better informed on the decisions it takes over the following five years.   The email below from the CA explains this further, and contains the links to the survey on the website, and another links which will provide you with further information.  I listened in to a seminar on this on Sunday morning, and hopefully will be able to give further guidance if you need any.  The survey is being undertaken between the 22nd March and the 22nd April,  so you can do it as soon as you like during this month.  The information is treated confidentially, all answers are treated anonymously, and there is no cross referencing to individual clubs. The analysis of responses is limited to Federation level and nationwide.  There is a very strong preference for the survey to be completed on line, for ease of analysis, but hard copies are available on request if you prefer to do it that way (along with a stamped envelope for return !)

The survey is also extended to other people who do not belong to the club, but play croquet on an occasional or regular basis.  So if you know of other players, please feel free to share this email with them.

The majority of our members will be standard members of the CA, because that comes with the affiliation of our club to the CA.  However, some will be individual members of the CA, and may also receive this email directly.  That is not a mistake, it is a way of ensuring all are included.

And as a bonus there is a chance to win a £150 voucher for the CA shop!

Please do try to complete this survey. I dislike doing this sort of thing myself, but it does not seem to be too onerous,  and it is really important for the CA to understand its membership to better inform its decisions.

Let me know if you have any problems with it, and I will try to help.

Thank you

Jayne Taylor
07810892311

Frequently Asked Questions

A link to the ‘2022 Survey of Croquet Players’
is in the Members only area

The Club held its 2022 AGM at Westminster Park Community Centre on Friday, 11 March.

The Chairman, Jayne Taylor, had already circulated her annual report. The club remains keen to widen participation and improve continuity in managing the club’s activities and there is an open invitation to all club members to help as volunteers and to contribute their skills and experience by joining the committee.  She re-iterated the club’s interest in encouraging recent members who been enjoying golf croquet to try their hand at association croquet. There is also continuing interest in options for levelling or flattening the croquet lawns and a working group is being re-constituted to evaluate possibilities. Overall, the club is looking forward to another busy season. There is a significant increase in the number of NW Federation league matches in the calendar and the club is preparing to take part in two more national competitions, one for level play golf croquet and possibly one for short lawn association croquet, in addition to the club’s established participation in an advanced association croquet and two handicap association croquet competitions.

The Treasurer, Trevor Farrell, reported that the club’s finances remained in sound condition. The club’s reserves are enabling it to upgrade its stock of mallets and other equipment and, as the Chairman mentioned, to reconsider possibilities for levelling or flattening the croquet lawns and other improvements. It was proposed that subscription rates remain unchanged at last year’s levels. This was agreed by the meeting and cheques for the new season are now payable. Payments can also be made by on-line bank transfer. For security reasons, bank details are not being publicised but can be obtained from the Treasurer.

The club’s officers – Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer – and other members of the committee were willing to continue in their roles and were re-elected. In order to sustain the club’s vitality and openness to new ideas, and to make the various roles more attractive to newcomers,  there was broad agreement that it is desirable to limit periods in office though without prescribing specific time limits.

Weekly playing arrangements for the coming season were discussed. The aim is to maintain a reasonable balance between playing times for both forms of  the game and between roll-up sessions, when there is flexibility to turn up and play a particular form of the game, and personally arranged games of any form which can be booked using the lawn booking system. In the light of these considerations, some modifications and additions to weekly playing arrangements are being introduced this year and will continue to be kept under review by the committee.

The club is in continual contact with the Council over regular lawn maintenance, the upgrading of the lawn watering system to improve availability and reliability during periods of dry weather, and revarnishing the external wooden cladding of the clubhouse which was ten years old last year.

The lawns are due to be marked out and the hoops installed in week commencing Monday, 21 March, ready for the start of the new season and play to commence from Sunday, 27 March.

 

 

 

 

About thirty members attended a planning meeting on the evening of Wednesday, 23 February, at Westminster Park Community Centre to discuss activities and plans for the coming season. Because of the covid epidemic, this was the first face-to-face meeting the club has held for two years and the first opportunity for newer members to meet members of the committee and to hear about some of the current topics being considered by the club. An informal and wide ranging discussion covered the various roles undertaken by committee members, the importance of volunteers in helping the club to run smoothly and efficiently, playing plans for the new season including roll-up sessions for association and golf croquet and use of the lawn booking system, the recruitment and induction of new members, potential improvement projects, and social activities. The views of all members are always very welcome and are taken into account during committee discussions and decisions during the year.

The next face-to-face meeting will be the AGM at 7.45 pm on Friday, 11 March 2022, also at the Westminster Park Community. This is a more formal event to receive the Chairman’s Report and annual accounts for the previous year, to review and agree the budget and membership subscriptions for the new season, and to elect officers and members of the committee.

Copies of the slides shown at the planning meeting and the agenda and papers for the AGM can be viewed and downloaded in the Members Only area.

 

Dear Members,

We have decided that the proposed Planning Meeting on the 23rd February  should go ahead.  Whilst the pandemic is not yet over, progress is being made to a return to “normality”, and we feel that it will be possible to hold our meeting at the WPCC in a safe manner.  The hall is spacious, and we will be able to spread out chairs to ensure a good distance is maintained between attendees.  Please wear a mask if you feel more comfortable doing so, and it would be helpful if you are able to take a lateral flow test (and test negative of course ! ) before attending.  The meeting is set to start at 7.45pm because there is a pllates class on in the room until 7.30pm. This will give time for the class to clear and the room to air before we arrive.

I do hope many of you will join us and let us have your views on whatever you feel you would like to discuss about the club.  There will be a loose agenda ( covering the topics I referred to in an earlier email ) but please feel free to raise any issue you feel is pertinent to the club.   We have received a few comments already, which will be part of the discussion.  If anybody else wishes to email me their thoughts before hand, or if they are not able to attend but wish to contribute, they would be very welcome.

I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.

Regards

Jayne Taylor
Mobile:  07810892311

Click here to view and download Jayne Taylor’s original e-mail dated 19 November 2021 describing the aim and scope of the Planning Meeting.

 

Dear Members,

Sadly the playing season has drawn to a close, and whilst we did not end the season with our usual New Years celebrations, a few of us did risk the weather and had an enjoyable few games of croquet (GC and AC) in lovely warm sunshine and under a clear blue sky !   Let us hope that was an indication of a bright future ahead for all of us in 2022.

The new season should start as usual at the end of March. I know that some of you would like it to begin earlier than that, but we are very much dependant on the Council to complete the winter maintenance activity and to cut and white line the lawns. A commitment to begin earlier than the end of March is difficult to secure.  Experience has also shown that the weather can be very unpredictable.  However,  I understand that our club volunteer  “groundsmen” are going to try and mark out the lawns early in March in the hope that the Council will be prepared to white line, and thus enable us to undertake the hoop layout.  If the weather is appropriate for play and we can start earlier than the end of March we will endeavour to do so. So watch out for emails and website announcements !

Meanwhile, as you know we are hoping to gather members together for an open discussion about the club. However, in view of ongoing concerns over the transmission of the covid virus,  your committee felt that it would be safer to delay the meeting originally intended for the 14th January.  Therefore a new date has been set for Wednesday, 23rd February, at the Westminster Park Community Centre, starting at 7.45pm.  It would be nice to gather a large number of our members together on that evening, for your committee to hear your views on the club and to discuss ideas for the future.  I sincerely hope that we can go ahead with that meeting in safety. In the meantime I look forward to receiving any comments on the topics suggested for discussion. The planned date for the AGM of the club has also been delayed until March 11th.

The Planning Meeting will also be an opportunity to celebrate the achievements  of the  2021 Season, and present  trophies as appropriate.  On that matter, it is my pleasure to announce that the winners of the trophies for most improved players in AC and GC are Sally Slater (for AC) and Paul Cronin (for GC).  Well done Sally and Paul.  The winner of the Peter Bingham GC Trophy ( based on the cumulative results of the Tuesday morning progressive doubles sessions) is John Hampson.  Well done John. Other competition winners were announced earlier, and if you missed any results at the time, you can find them on the web site.

All the best for 2022

Jayne Taylor

Dear All,

I am sorry that I have not been able to be at the club recently, and therefore have not been able to pass my festive wishes etc to you personally.  I hope you all have a very Happy, Peaceful and above all Safe Christmas and New Year break and I look forward to seeing you all in 2022.  Let us hope the season, and the year as a whole is a good one for you all.

Meanwhile   –   About 2022 ….

You will recall that I recently sent out a rather lengthy email about the Planning Meeting which we hope to hold on January 14th, in the evening at the Westminster Park Community Centre.    We still hope to do this, but we have to recognise that given the resurgence of Covid with the Omicron variant,  we may have to reconsider. Your committee will be meeting (electronically) on Jan 3rd to decide on this, and I will email you all with our decision immediately afterwards.

However, your comments on the topics referred to in my earlier email, or any other issues you wish to raise will still be welcomed by email. As of yet, I have not received any comments, but I live in hope.  Those topics and some background on them can still be found on the web site, Members Only section, but as a reminder they covered:

• • The organisation of the club
  • Weekly playing arrangements
  • Matches, tournaments and events
  • Recruitment
  • Club facilities
  • Club funding
  • Social activities
  • Raised topics/issues

We have decided that the lawns should be closed from Monday January 3rd for their winter rest, and to allow any ongoing maintenance by the Council to proceed.  Until then of course you are welcome to play, weather and lawn condition permitting. Please book on line and record attendance in the register as usual.  Also be aware that maintenance might occur before January 3rd, depending on the Council’s programme, which sadly we have not been informed of.  So please be prepared to give way to the grounds maintenance staff if they are operating on the lawns, and be circumspect about playing if treatment has been undertaken.  And of course do not play if the ground is too wet, or frosted.

Hopefully we will be able to hold our usual gathering at the club on New Year’s Day, weather permitting.  Further information to follow.  I look forward to seeing some of you then.

Merry Xmas !

Jayne Taylor
07810892311

It was with some trepidation that the club’s short lawn open tournament was planned so late in the season, but in the event the competition was played on Monday, 1 November.

It was a day of two parts weatherwise with constant rain in the morning, but clearing to dry and occasionally sunny weather in the afternoon. The lawns were fine despite heavy rain during Sunday and stayed fine to play on.

Ten members joined in the competition, with 3 having to pull out on the day, so 7 members each played four matches during the day. It was a really fun day, played in exceptional good humour. The eventual winner was Sally Slater who won all four of her games. Three others fought it out to be runner up by winning three of their four games and David Boyd managed to cross the line by a margin of just one hoop.

Thanks to a spell of reasonable autumn weather, croquet is still being played at the club until the lawns become too wet or frosty and therefore open to damage.

Chester Croquet Club held its annual full lawn association handicap competition over the weekend of 23 – 24 October. The Mason Cup competition, organised and managed by Robin Tasker, was decided on an all-play-all format. The players were so lucky with the weather at this time of year, as they were often bathed in warm sunshine.

The overall winner was David Boyd, who won all 5 of his games. In second place was Sally Slater. The other participants were Jerry Guest, Robin Tasker, Richard Smith, Brian Walton and David Guyton.