Fundraising Day for Prostate Cancer UK 21st September

The fundraising day, delayed after the deluge of the weekend before, proved to be an incredibly successful event raising over £2500 for Prostate Cancer UK. The charity can claim another 20% in Gift Aid from most of the donations that we have received through our Just Giving page, which alone topped £2000. Not only have we raised money, but I hope that we have raised awareness of this insidious cancer.

Members, families and friends turned up to have a go at croquet-with-a-difference. What did everyone think as they wielded their mallets to play bowls, skittles, racing croquet, the Game of Cards and of course the completely bonkers obstacle course?!  Prizes of chocolate, wine, and smiley or sad faced wooden spoons were handed out for good shots, bad shots, triumph or disaster.

There were some fantastic prizes taken home from a very successful raffle, and of course lots of tea and cake was consumed.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to the team who helped to plan and then pull everything together, and to the wider team of volunteers who helped to make everything run so smoothly and successfully. I’d also like to record a particular thanks to Vincent who amongst other things, set up the Just Giving page that has made all the difference.

Jo Crosby

Secretary's Shield is ours!

Congratulations to Sussex County team for their 5-2 win in the final of the AC Secretary's Shield. Here is Jonathan Isaac's report:

The Sussex County team battled their way round the M25 to Watford to play a very strong Peterborough team in the final of the Croquet England Secretary’s Shield.

Watford Croquet Club gave us a very warm welcome and supplied us with 2 very pleasant lawns situated in an attractive parkland setting.

The morning session consisted of one double and two single handicap games. Gabrielle Higgins & Simon Fenn-Tye won their doubles match. In the morning singles Jonathan Isaacs beat the current World Women’s Champion, Debbie Lines +11 and David Dickins narrowly lost -3 to scratch player Adrian Kirby.

The afternoon session consisted of 4 singles matches with wins by Simon Fenn-Tye +21, David Dickins +9 and Jonathan Isaacs +17, giving us an overall win of 5-2.

Watford Croquet Club were superb hosts supplying us with an excellent lunch and a glass of bubbly (non alcoholic) to celebrate our success at the end of the competition. They even had their own laser engraving machine enabling the Secretary of Croquet England to present us the Shield engraved with Sussex County as 2025 Champions!

This is the first time that SCCC have won this prestigious competition and praise must go to all the members of the team, not only in the final, but in the knockout rounds leading to this victory

Results:
Gabrielle Higgins & Simon Fenn-Tye beat Ian Lines & Stephen Cornelius
Jonathan Isaacs beat Debbie Lines
David Dickins lost to Adrian Kirby
Gabrielle Higgins lost to Debbie Lines
Jonathan Isaacs beat Ian Lines
Simon Fenn-Tye beat Adrian Kirby
David Dickins bea Stephen Cornelius

The club team: Simon Fenn-Tye, Gabrielle Higgins, Jonathan Isaacs and David Dickins

GC Singles competition 20th September 2025

Congratulations to the four division winners: Douglas Shand, Andrew Fall, Jo Crosby and Tim Bick.

The results can be found on CroquetScores and will be published here in due course.

Thanks to Richard Ellis for managing the event.

GC Half day singles

Despite the heavy weekend rain and a morning shower the lawns were in tip-top condition for the twenty players who entered this half-day Singles tournament.

There might not have been any rain but the players had to battle against a very strong wind which several times caused them to withdraw from their stance and start again.

There were five divisions of 4 with a range of handicaps from 1 to 12, evenly divided.

Division A was won comfortably by Morgan with 3 wins and an impressive +14 net hoops.

Division B was tighter with Stephen Collett (Compton) and Phil Harrison each with 2 wins but Stephen prevailed with +4 net hoops against Phil's +3.

Division C was even closer, Kathy and new member John Bartlett tied on 2 wins and +3. As Kathy had beaten John she was declared the winner.

In Division D, Tony Marjoram was the clear winner, 3 wins and +8 net hoops.

There was also a clear winner in Division E, Sue Kilby winning all 3 also with +8 net hoops.

Thanks to everyone for entering and battling through the wind and congratulations to the winners.

​Vincent

And thanks to Vincent for managing the event 

Morgan Case

Stephen Collett

Kathy McColgan

Tony Marjoram 

Sue Kilby