Newsletter July 2010
Dear Member,
In this short newsletter I have summarized our year to date, outlined our future social events and most importantly have asked you to seriously consider taking on a key role in the club albeit for a limited period of time.
The Year to date
After some terrible weather in early January we managed to host our first meal in the revamped canteen, namely the postponed Christmas Dinner. Held at lunchtime, many members stated a preference for this rather than an evening event. This winter we plan to hold the Xmas Dinner on a Sunday 5th December 1.15pm for 2pm.
The opening day of the season heralded the official opening of the new bar and kitchen by Quiller Barrett, President of the Croquet Association. Comments received by members and visitors have been most encouraging and have certainly made working in the kitchen and bar easier for our helpers.
The Croquet Academy has hosted a number of courses and in spite of the economic climate numbers attending have been similar to last year. However tournament numbers have been slightly down which is understandable in these difficult times.
We held our first theme dinner on 26th June An Irish Evening. The event was attended by club members and competitors attending the British Open Golf Croquet Championships. The evening was greatly enjoyed and has maintained SCCC’s image for its excellent hospitality.
The committee gave their approval to the purchase of a new barbeque as the previous one loaned by a member had past its sell by! This has been purchased and will be used at the Summer Barbeque later this month.
FUTURE EVENTS
We have a number of social events coming up during the rest of the season. Full details will be published on the notice board. All these socials will be open to members, visitors, their partners and guests:
Friday 16th July A 60’s evening
Thursday 29th July Summer Barbeque
Saturday 4th September Gourmet Barbeque
Saturday 11th September End of season theme dinner
LOOKING AHEAD
Next year we will need a number of new volunteers on our Committee. The vacancies that will have to be filled are:
CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN CATERING COMMITTEE
BAR MANAGER
The reasons why the 3 current officers are stepping down are as follows:
CHAIRMAN
I have now completed 12 years serving croquet as either a CA Officer, SCCC Committee Member or as your Club Chairman. When I took on the role of Club Chairman I made it clear during my first year that I could only stand for a maximum of 3 years. My reasons are that I believe it is unhealthy for a club or voluntary organization to be under the same leadership for too long a period. In addition I owe it to my family to spend more time with them having spent the last 12 years immersed in the world of croquet management.
My main aims during my time in office have been to put the club on a sounder financial footing and to further develop further as one of croquet’s best clubs. I hope you feel that we have achieved those aims.
CHAIRMAN CATERING COMMITTEE
Chrissy has chaired the Catering Committee for the past 3 years mainly to support me during my time as Chairman. She has a number of family commitments which now need to take priority. However both Chrissy and myself intend to remain active members of the club but need to reduce the time that we are committing to the club.
BAR MANAGER
David Gaitley took over the bar 3 years ago on the understanding that he would serve for a maximum period of 3 years. The results of his efforts are there for all to see and it is now time for a new volunteer to take over the running of the bar. David has offered to continue to help especially with the management of the draught beer and its procurement.
I would ask that members who are prepared or interested in taking office, discuss it with myself, Chrissy or David now. I do not want the club to be in a position where the key positions remain unfilled at the beginning of next season as Chrissy, David and myself will not be available to continue in those roles and it would be a very serious situation for the club if new Officers are not in place.
Jonathan Isaacs.
I suppose we could call this a portmanteau tournament. Two in one. Not only a handicap but also a B-level. Common enough to have concurrent events in a week-long tournament, but unusual (unique?) in a weekend. Unfortunately, the number of entries was disappointing overall, and particularly in the handicap event, which attracted only five entrants, and the event was played, as you would expect, as an American block. There were 14 entrants for the B-level event, which manager Chris Constable had split into two blocks of 7, the winner to be decided by a play-off between the two block winners The alert amongst you will have realised two things: that the Handicap block wouldn't generate enough games to fill three days of competition, and that with an odd number of players in each block there was going to be a certain amount of sitting-out. Chris had planned to solve (partially) the second of these issues by having the B-class players who had drawn a bye in each round play a cross-block game. I'm not sure how she was planning to solve the lack of handicap games, because any plans she had were overtaken by events when one of the B-level entrants withdrew on the eve of the tournament due to injury. Ingeniously, she introduced two byes in place of one in each round of the depleted block and had the extra "sitter-out" play a cross-block handicap game. There were a few mutterings from players who "hadn't signed up to play handicap" but the plan worked well and kept everyone occupied, at least until the morning of the last day. Day one (Saturday) was a good day for croquet. A bit of sunshine, just a hint of a shower in the morning, but overall an enjoyable day to spend out on the croquet court. Because of all the byes it was difficult to get a clear picture of who was showing promise in either of the B-level blocks, but in the Handicap block Sam Murray was creating waves of consternation by two good wins. On the sartorial front, only Tudor Jenkins was creating waves; apparently unaware of the use of a peak to shade the eyes from the sun, was creating a dead-end kids look by wearing his baseball cap back-to-front. Definitely not PC (Preferred for Croquet). A discussion at teatime referred to one of the players "Rolling all over the court". A sight to be seen, you may imagine, but his opponent was only referring to his roll-shots. Kevin Ham has gone down in legend at Colchester as the player who took one of his shoes off during a Mary Rose match some years ago. Why? To remind himself that he had a lift of course! If he had had a contact he would have taken both shoes off! It was good to learn that both practices are still going strong. The forecast for Sunday was for heavy showers for most of the day. In the event, this proved to be wildly optimistic. A wall of heavy rain rolled in from the North East and just kept on rolling. All day. It briefly hinted at lifting just after lunch but as soon as we were all on court again it came back with even more ferocity. But we were British. And we were Croquet Players. So we carried on. It took some doing, mind you. Pauline Davey pulled her hood close to her head to keep out the wind and rain, resembling the Egyptian croquet-playing ladies we have all seen photographs of. David Gaitley, realising that his shower-proof jacket wasn't up to this sort of punishment, went for the Beano look, and was briefly seen in a large plastic sack with holes cut out for his arms, before going home to find something more suitable and returning with a high-visibility workman's jacket with the London Underground logo emblazoned on it: ask no questions. Tudor, having terrible trouble with rain on his spectacles, persevered with the baseball cap, but still back-to-front, and blissfully unaware that a secondary use for its peak can be to keep rain out of you eyes and off your spectacles. Kevin was wearing his Crocs. Very comfortable, of course, and ideal for slipping off to remind you of your lifts and contacts, but since they have about a dozen half-inch holes in the top of each one not the best choice for the pouring rain. But despite all the punishment that the players (and the courts) were taking, all the games were completed, and at the end of the day, Sam Murray had already done enough to assure a win in the Handicap event. Block A of the B-level was between Paul Miles and Colin Hemming, both having won all four of their block games, and due to play each other the following morning. In Block B the situation was far less clear-cut. Kevin Ham was the front-runner with four wins out of five, but with Anthony Dix, Jonathan Isaacs and Pauline Davey all on three wins and breathing down his neck. Everything to play for the following morning, with Kevin due to play Pauline and Anthony vs Jonathan. A potential managerial nightmare. It was a dry forecast for the Monday, so imagine the players' dismay when it started raining shortly after the morning games had started. It was short-lived, however. "Thank goodness for that" we all thought. And then the wind veered (or should that be "backed"?) and started to come from the North. Straight from the Pole. It was very, very cold, especially for May. But we were British. And we were Croquet Players. So we carried on. In Block A, Paul Miles progressed to the final by destroying Colin Hemming +25 in little over an hour. So your intrepid reporter ventured boldly forth and took up residence in the lawn 5 hut, which occupies a central position and from where he could watch the two games which would decide Block B, meanwhile keeping a sneaky eye on how his wife Georgeen was faring against Sam on lawn 6. It was still cold, even inside the hut, and the way it was rocking in the stronger gusts made me imagine I must be in the wheelhouse of a trawler battling through the North-Sea. (Clearly a fantasy: there aren't any North Sea trawlers any more are there?). The first of the B-level games to finish was Jonathan vs Anthony: Jonathan won +15, with very careful and accurate placing of pioneers. The game between Pauline and Kevin was a much closer affair: Kevin took an early lead But Pauline fought back and gained the upper hand with only minutes to go. Kevin made a valiant attempt to overtake her during the turn in which time was called but had only pulled level when he failed 3-back. Pauline (still sporting her Pashmena look, incidentally) was able to run only one more hoop in her final turn, but it was enough to win +1 on time. It was all for nought in the end, though, because with Jonathan, Pauline and Kevin all on 4 wins Jonathan was adjudged the block winner on the first differentiator, which was the number of wins within time (3 for him, 2 for both Kevin and Pauline). Meanwhile, Sam beat Georgeen to make it a clean sweep in the Handicap block. The final of the B-level, then, was between Paul Miles and Jonathan Isaacs. The plan had been for the manager to arrange additional games for those who wanted them. In the event, though, the only other players to brave the Arctic conditions were Tudor and Kevin who played a (quick!) game of Golf Croquet. (The holes in Kevin's shoes were now letting in freezing cold air rather than water and Tudor still hadn't worked out that the peak of a cap belongs at the front not the back). The other competitors (those who hadn't already left) gathered to watch the B-level final. This turned out to be a very one sided affair, Jonathan destroying Paul just as efficiently as Paul had destroyed Colin earlier in the day, by playing very precise croquet and winning in four breaks (albeit with a bit of to-and-fro between his breaks). So in the end, a very enjoyable tournament in spite of the fearsome conditions on the last two days. It is unfortunate that there were so few entries in the Handicap event, but the manager coped well with that. If the weather had been better, it would have been sad that most people would have played only one competitive game on the last day, and be left only with meaningless games in the afternoon. It may have been better to play the B-level as a Swiss, keeping the event alive until the end. Better still, from my personal view, it could be played as a flexible Swiss to enable more than three games a day for those lucky, or unlucky, enough to have a short game. But that format doesn't fit very easily with an event that styles itself as the "Southern B-level Championship". (Hmmm -should it?) Thanks are due to Chris Constable for managing, to Frances Low who stood in for Chris on day 2, and to the army of Southwick volunteers who kept us well supplied with (hot!) lunches and teas throughout the weekend.
This year is the 17th running of what is now the CA Charity One-ball
Championship. It is being held a month later than usual, with the advanced
level event on Sunday, 9th May. Not only will this be a little warmer but we
are also hoping for a larger entry since it clashes with few other major
tournaments.
The advanced level event is a best-of-three KO, with a consolation swiss.
There are fine prizes for the winner, runner-up and swiss victor. The entry
cost is just £13, a large proportion of which will go the Macmillan Cancer
Support.
So, please do consider joining us, entering in the normal way (see the
Fixture Book). If you wish to make a weekend of it there is also the
handicap championship event on Saturday, 8th. Most places go to heat winners
but there will be a few places left for direct entries and these are being
reserved for those also entering Sunday's advanced level event.
Accommodation can be provided/recommended.
Kevin Carter
This year's Golf Croquet Intercounties Championship, hosted at Southwick, was won by Surrey, beating Kent and Oxfordshire to first place.
