The AC Spring Weekend Tournament

The Southwick Salver Advanced (AC) Tournament (11-12 Apr 2026) at Sussex County Croquet Club A near-full field of 29 players entered this year’s Salver from far and wide, hoping for an early glimpse of some spring sunshine by the sea and of the newly refurbished clubhouse. Phase 1 of the redevelopment was recently completed, and both club members and visitors are highly impressed. All those who have donated so far were duly thanked, and a sense of anticipation is already building for Phase 2 and the finishing of the job. With a number of events this season in both codes, further visitors from the UK and beyond will have a chance to see the progress for themselves shortly.

On day one, Nigel Polhill was involved in drama at both ends of the day. As the evening spectators looked on through their drinks with a mix of intrigue, entertainment and slight concern about supper timings, Nigel edged out Ged Smolskas for a +1(t) win. However, he had been declared winner of ‘shot-of-the-tournament’ by lunchtime for his bombard peg-out from distance to finish an already adventurous triple peel.

Elsewhere, the players seeded 1 (Dom Nunns), 2 (Debbie Lines), 5 (Gabrielle Higgins) and 6 (Annabel McDiarmid) had progressed to the semi-finals. Sadly, by start of play on Sunday it was apparent that Annabel’s wrist injury was going to prevent her from playing, after she had played so well - particularly in defeating the event’s joint top peeler, Ian Lines. Dom claimed his place in the final against Debbie with a +25tp win against Gabrielle.

By the time the final reached its deciding game, The Egyptian consolation event had bubbled up to one of its most exciting conclusions yet. With large numbers of points available for any upsets, there were several contenders at various stages, including club members Liz Farrow and Jonathan Isaacs, as well as visitors Matt Cook, John Greenwood, Peter Payne and Guy Hewitt. The event is ferociously difficult to win as a minus player, so the fact that Thomas Cullis came so close was hugely to his credit. However, the eventual winner of the red wine was Tim Luke, with three determined wins from five, all against stronger players on paper.

The opening stages of the final were more interactive than either player might have wished, but from a certain point in game two the quality of play went up several notches. Dom, game up, had completed two peels and pegged out Debbie’s forward ball before showing good patience in progressing the 2 v 1 ending. However, one slip was all that Debbie needed to pounce for a decisive three-ball break. Undeterred, Dom won game three with a 7th-turn triple to claim his third Salver win. Whilst early peeling opportunities were spurned, the eventual key was an accurate rush of peelee after 2-back to five feet straight in front of 4-back, allowing an immediate jawsing and a subsequent straight double peel to finish.

Congratulations to Dominic and thanks for also managing the event.

Full results

Salver knockout

Egyptian Plate

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!