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The season has begun.  You will have noticed that the lawn booking system is up and running and includes information on the roll up sessions and the various activities and events (league matches, taster sessions, beginners courses etc etc ) that might be taking place on the lawns each week.  Similarly the web site is a font of all knowledge about what is happening both at the club and on the croquet scene generally.  It is worth a regular visit.

I thought I would just give a gentle reminder that when you book the lawns, you should stick to 1½ hour or 3 hour slots, starting at the following times…..10am 11.30am 1pm 2.30pm 4pm and 5.30 pm…..during the day.   Also please could you identify, where possible, all the players who are due to play on the lawn.  If this is not possible when you book, please ensure that you identify if the lawn is going to be occupied by 2 people  or 4 , and then add the names of the players later. For those of you yet to use the system please remember that you will need a ID reference and a password to enter the system. Contact myself or one of the other administrators who will set one up for you. And after playing, don’t forget enter all the names in the attendance register on the shelf in the storeroom.

As I am sure you will all appreciate, there will be times when the lawns are more heavily used than others, and in order to ensure that they are used to full capacity, it will sometimes be necessary to double bank games.  This is a normal, recognised and acceptable practice, and indeed  occurs regularly in the regional league matches and in tournaments.  We would encourage people playing to be prepared to share their lawn to enable two games to be played at the same time if there are no other lawns available.  If there is another lawn available then of course it should be used.  If you book a lawn for two people to play singles, please be aware that you might get a request from other players to double bank for a game if there are no other lawns free.  I am sure you will all be helpful in this respect.

We are also hoping to reintroduce  a number of internal competitions that have been missing during the recent past.   The first of these is the Early Bird Doubles which will be held Saturday 22nd May.  This is a doubles GC competition for players with high handicaps (usually 11 or above).  So perfect for beginners !  I will send round information shortly and there will be a notice in the pavilion for you to sign on if you wish to play.   Watch your emails for details of other competitions during the season.

I hope you enjoy the 2022 Season.

Jayne Taylor

The new Rules of Golf Croquet 6th Edition issued by the World Croquet Federation have been approved by the Croquet Association and come into effect from Sunday, 27 March 2022.

Rules of Golf Croquet 6th Edition
Commentary and additional guidance

Copies of the new rules booklet are available for a modest £5 from Jayne Taylor.

Chester’s elite hoop-setting squad were in action on a gloriously sunny and warm spring morning last Thursday, 24 March, measuring out and installing hoops for the new season. They were back in action completing the task on a similar gloriously  sunny and warm spring morning the following Saturday, 26 March. Meanwhile, a dedicated housekeeping squad were hard at work doing an annual spring clean of the clubhouse. With both tasks accomplished, clocks going forward an hour on Sunday, 27 March, and mallets at the ready, the club is now all set for another busy year.

Three North West Federation league matches are scheduled during the coming month and on Sunday, 24 April, the club will be holding its annual taster day for newcomers who are interested in trying their hand at croquet.

 

 

Chester Croquet Club has reason to be grateful to former Lord Mayor of Chester, Richard Short, who died on 22 March 2022 aged 88. As local Councillor for Westminster Park and portfolio holder for culture and recreation in the newly formed Cheshire West and Chester Council in 2009, he supported and gained approval for the clubhouse now occupied by the croquet and bowls clubs in Westminster Park. The new clubhouse was opened in 2011 and replaced a dilapidated ‘temporary’ portacabin which had been installed fifteen years earlier after the original wooden clubhouse next to the bowling greens was destroyed by arson in 1996.

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