You can now enter our summer club competitions (club members only!)

Full house for GC Winter Doubles

By dint of a little gentle arm-twisting the last place in the competition was filled on Thursday to make a full complement of 40 players. The day were a bit drear and chilly but sensibly the Manager Frances Low had cut the final round from the blocks and it seemed players were content to finish when they did.

Three blocks were organised, a 'top' block of 8 teams of the lowest handicapped players and two approximately equal blocks of six teams each.

The top block was convincingly won by Jane and Neil Humphreys, winning 4 out of 5 games. 

Block B1 was won by Anne Bolland and Fran Box with 4 out of 5 wins and +10 points; Paul Green and Francis Ainley also had 4/5 wins and +10 points but had lost to Anne and Fran so came a very close second.

Block B2 was won by Di Langridge and Sue Rice, also with 4 out of 5 wins, the only pair to do so in their block.

Thanks to Frances Low for managing, aided by Roger Sutton, and to Angela Avis and Judith Peek for organising the excellent soup lunch (very welcome after the cold play) and to the soup makers, of course.

Full results

Some pictures of the event

Manager Frances Low

Play in progress

Thanks for the game

Lunchtime

Angela and Judith serving lunch

A happy Manager!

Top player Crunchy

Prizegiving

Steady on Di!

GC Singles Competition 3rd February 2023

This was the first competition of 2023 and, unlike earlier winter events, was played on a pleasant day with some sunshine in the afternoon after a chilly start.

Block A was won by Richard Brooks, who won 6 out of 7 gsames, as also did Morgan Case; Richard beat Morgan by 1 point on net hoops to take the winning slot.

Block B was won by Steve Chapman who won all his games with a massive +22 points (Handicapper, please note!!)

Block C was won by Alan Grundy with 4 out of 6 wins, beating Paul Green on the same number of wins but with 2 net hoop points less.

A mention for Mark Hamilton who took a vacant place in Block C at the last minute and won all his games, but declined the winning place as he should have played in a higher block.

Thanks to Linda for managing the event so efficiently and to Angela and Martin Avis for organising the lunch (and the cooks who made it).

Full results follow and a few more pictures.

Full results

Sussex members in Women's GC Championships

Gabrielle Higgins

Liz Farrow

Congratulations to Gabrielle Higgins and Liz Farrow for their selection to play in the 2023 WCF Women's GC World Championships which take place this year here at Southwick in August. Gabrielle and Liz are currently ranked 6th and 8th best UK women players of Golf Croquet.

We wish them every success.

Extra One-day Competition on 3rd March

The competition on 4th March is over-subscribed so we have added an additional competition on the day before - 3rd March 2023.

If you have already entered please follow the instructions sent out by Roger by email. New players can also enter on-line as normal.

AC Short Croquet competitions in April and June

There are two additional one day competitions in the system for next season. Both are AC Short Croquet events, AC alternate stroke doubles on short courts (14 point handicap games) on 24th April 2023 and AC Short Croquet singles on short courts (full bisque, 14 point games) on 2nd June 2023. Entry fee for members of £5.

All handicaps welcome; if you don't have a short croquet handicap, don't worry, ir can be calculated from your AC handicap.

If you wish to take part in either of these events you probably need to enter quickly as places are very limited.

Entering club open tournaments

I have made some changes to the open competition entry form and you can now enter more than one competition at the same time. On a desktop computer, hold down the Ctrl key (Cmd key on Apple) to select more than one event; on a smartphone tick the check for the required events.

This change  represents a substantial re-coding of the form so if anything appears wrong, please email me.

Webmaster

Season ends with Festive Cheer

Still one event to go (The Christmas GC Doubles on the 30th December - two places left!) but the Club Christmas Lunch was a good way to (nearly) finish. The canteen was filled with two rows of tables (better than three as we have had sometimes in the past) and the result was a colourful and enjoyable meal.

Thanks to Fran Box, a raffle took place between main course and pudding and there was a succession of prize winners visiting the prizes table.

The main event, the three course meal, was unsurpassed: lovely soup choices for starters, followed by Turkey or Ottolenghi’s Mustardy Cauliflower Cheese and choice of puddings. All excellent - your correspondent had extra helpings to make sure!

Club get togethers with meals like this couldn't happen without the expertise and dedication of our members who take on the huge task of preparation and cooking: the Working Party decorated the Canteen the Tuesday beforehand and prepared the furniture; all the food had to be bought and stored; a whole team was present on Saturday to do laying of tables and preparing the food and again on Sunday for the final stages of cooking, presentation and serving (and clearing up afterwards). A huge thank you to everyone involved.

Compliments of the Season to all Club members and best wishes for 2023.

Croquet Academy Programme for 2023 released.

Next season's programme of courses is now available on the Academy website and course are open for bookings.

GC one-day competition 25th November 2022

After a lot of rain and squally winds this week, players in today's competition found they could ditch the scarves and coats and play most of the day in very pleasant sunshine.

As usual, play was in three separate blocks. Congratulations to Richard Brooks who won the A Block, winning all of his 6 games; to Ian Stewart who won the B Block with 4 out of 5 wins; and to Graham Tucker who won all his games in the C Block.

Thanks to Fiona for managing the competition and to Rachel and Richard Pointon for providing the lunch. 

Full results