Finals Week Programme

SCCC lose 3-4 in a tense Final of the CA GC Federation Shield

South East Croquet Federation - GC Handicap League (West)

The Club participated in the GC Handicap League (West)
 run by the SECF. The draw included matches against  Compton, Guildford & Godalming B, Hassocks (withdrew) and West Worthing. Each team comprised 4 players with 3 rounds played - Round 1 (2 Doubles), Round 2 (4 Singles) and Round 3 (1 Doubles and 2 Singles).
 Games were best of 13 points with extra turns allocated against player handicaps. The matches were played between July and September.

The Club performed reasonably well with very narrow
 4 - 5 losses against West Worthing and Guildford & Godalming B. Our best was saved for the last match when we beat Compton 7 - 2. 

Thanks to Sandra Towner (+9), Francis Ainley (+8), Mike
 Akester (+6), Nigel Barton (+6) and Phil Harrison (+5) who represented The Club during the campaign.

Phil Harrison

As a mark of respect at the news on Jane Rimmington's death we are postponing this tournament.

Further news in due course.

SCCC GC Open Championship

Full results

Championship Knockout

Other Results

 Cross-block matches

For those competitors who did not make the cut there was a consolation event with plate and bowl awards.

The plate was won by Paul Durkin who beat Andrew Dymond 7-3. The bowl was won by Keith Pound.

Full Consolation Results

SCCC beat Reigate Priory 7-0 in the SECF "R" League.

SCCC followed up their two previous 6-1 victories with a convincing 7-0 win against Reigate Priory at Southwick (Fri 9 Sept). The SCCC team was Tony Jolly (2), Andrew Fall (3), Phil Harrison (5) and Graham Tucker (6)

In the morning doubles, Tony & Andrew took on John Bristow (2) and Phil Davies (3). Tony & Andrew won the first game 7-5, and went 5-1 up in the second, but John & Phil D made a great comeback to take the game 5-7 and level the match. SCCC got ahead in the third and at 6-3 up Andrew took a hard hit shot from 17 yards that struck the upright very hard, spun into the jaws and trickled through the hoop to clinch the match. Both singles also went SCCC's way, with Phil H beating Lorna Jenkins (9) 2-0, and Graham beating Freda Knight (7) by the same score.

After the lunch break, SCCC continued as before with 2-0 wins for Andrew against Phil Davies, Phil H against Freda, and Graham, in his first competitive match since returning from NZ, against Lorna. Andrew was pleased to avenge previous defeats to Phil D this season. Meanwhile Tony and John were still battling away in their match, for their second decider of the day, after Tony took the first game 7-4 and John the second 5-7. This final game went to the wire, with Tony managing to squeeze through by 7-6, to give SCCC a clean sweep.

One match remains for SCCC in this League, a difficult away match at Ealing.

Report by David King

SCCC reach Final of CA GC Federations Shield

SCCC followed up their win against Broadwas, with another good win in a close handicap match (2 Sept) against Crake Valley (Lake District) by 3-2 in the Semi-Final of the CA GC Federations Shield, where they will now travel to play Phylis Court in the Final.

In order to schedule the game, despite the distance between the teams, the clubs had agreed to play the match with 3 players a side, rather than the usual 4. Crake Valleys's captain, David Cornes, was already coming to Sussex to play in the B Level Final at Eastbourne on 4th & 5th Sept supported by 2 team mates, so agreed to play here while in Sussex.

In the morning games, Linda Gavigan (7) fought hard to beat Frank Sharps (5) 7-6, 7-6, while Tony Jolly (2) and Simon Ancell (6) lost a close encounter to David Cornes (1) & Sandra Cornes (6) 7-3, 5-7, 6-7, .to break off with a 1 - 1 scoreline.

After a pleasant, light lunch and a friendly chat, play resumed with the remaining 3 singles matches. Tony Jolly gained some revenge for his doubles loss, by holding on to beat David Cornes, 7-4 7-5 , while Linda Gavigan lost out to Sandra Cornes 3-7, 5-7. As these two games ended, with the match result delicately poised at 2-2, Simon was still battling with Frank - Simon had won the first game 7-5, but Frank was fighting back in the second and at 6-6 the possibility of a final deciding game loomed, but Simon held his nerve on the golden hoop to win 7-6.

Congratulations to the team for another good performance.

Report by David King

Another win for our Federation GC R League team

Our SCCC Team followed up their first GC Level Play Restricted League win. with another good 6-1 home win over Littlehampton (Friday 20 Aug).

The team - Tony Jolly (2), David King (3), Frances Low (5) & Phil Harrison (6) - led 3-0 at the lunch break, with Frances and Phil each winning their best of three singles matches,, while Tony & David gained a very hard fought 7-6, 7-6 win over Cathy Kirkby (2) & Robyn Clark (3) . After lunch three more singles wins, secured a good victory.

Well done to Phil, winning both his matches 2-0, bringing his handicap down as a result.

David King

(With apologies from the Webmaster for the late publication of his report)

Two groups of 6 players - handicap and advanced - played in pleasant weather this Friday. Groundsman Ben and his team had cut that morning and set the hoops for the GC Eights this weekend, so the lawns were fast and the hoops challenging.

Handicap Competition

In the handicap competition three players stood out from the rest with 4 wins in five games. As they had all lost one game to each other the winner was decided on net hoops. Congratulations to Robin Wootton.

Advanced Competition

There was no difficulty in deciding the winner of the advanced competition as Jonathan Isaacs won all his games!

All in all, an enjoyable day's croquet. Thanks very much to Frances for managing the competitions for the Club.

Winter local and members only competition program published

Details are now on the website of the Winter Competitive Program for 2021-2022.

Local competitions are open to all croquet players in the area (eg members of local SECF clubs) and SCCC club members of course. The 1 day competitions sidebar has the dates and details.

Three members-only competitions are taking place: A GC Drawn Pairs Competition and two GC level play doubles competitions in separate divisions with joint minimum handicap limits. Entry is on the Internal Competition Entry Form and you can see all entries in the Winter Competitions page.

Please note all these new competitions will be 'Pay on the Day'.