Short Croquet Interclub Competition

There was so much enthusiasm for playing in SCCC’s first ever match in Croquet England’s Short Croquet Interclub competition that playoffs had to be held to pick the team.

It was impossible to find a date that everyone interested could make, but on 14 April 10 hopefuls were blessed with fine weather and enjoyed three rounds of closely contested games.

Some were experienced Short Croquet players while others were playing their first game of Short Croquet, so help with the rules was on hand and a few coaching pointers were offered at the end of the day.

Steve Chapman was undefeated and so secured first place in the team. Nigel Billingham, David Dickins, Tony Marjoram and Kathy McColgan all won two of their three games, but Nigel was unavailable for the first match date and David Dickins very honourably stepped aside in favour of Bob Clark; Gabrielle as manager had made a handicapping error at the start of the day by failing to check if anyone’s AC handicap had reduced since their SC handicap was set, which resulted in David having more bisques than he should have done in his game against Bob, and David also has more external AC tournament experience than Bob.

The resultant team of Steve, Tony, Kathy and Bob will be taking on Chichester at home on 2 June. Spectators and supporters are welcome.

Meanwhile, there was enthusiasm for another day of Short Croquet later in the season, and if anyone is interested in joining the group, do let Gabrielle Higgins know.

Many thanks to Ben for setting out lawn 10 for Short Croquet for the day as well as lawn 11.

Thanks to Gabrielle for organising the event.

Big clubhouse clean-up

Thanks to Linda for organising the cleaning and re-filling of our new clubhouse with all the tables, chairs, kitchen equipment etc. And to everyone who helped.

And it was a great day for croquet!

2026 Annual General Meeting

The very first use of the newly refurbished clubhouse. It looks brilliant!

GC Doubles 20th March 2026

The weather was set fair for the Open Doubles competition on Saturday 20th March with non-stop sunshine and a light breeze. The lawns were in superb condition and because the ground was firm, with no rain for a few days, jumping was allowed for the first time.

With 12 pairs there were two divisions of 6. Division A and Division B.

In Division A there was a fairly tight contest with two pairs fighting it out to the last game for top spot. In the end Richard Brooks and David King prevailed against Simon Ancell and Vincent L’Estrange with 5 wins and net hoops of 10. Bridget Goodman and Jane Powell were in third place.

It was a little different in Division B with Beryl Hughes and Sue Nicholas building a commanding position, winning all their games with net hoops of 10. Francis Ainley and Kathy McColgan were in second place and Les and Christine Ardley in third.

I think everybody had an enjoyable day not only playing croquet but relaxing in the lovely spring weather.

Andrew Stewart.

Thanks to Andrew for managing the event.

Full results