Sussex County Annual AC Tournament 2026

This year we had a full complement of 32 players competing for the three trophies on offer. The weather was fine and the lawns were fast and playing well.

At the top end there were 8 minus players to whom were added a scratch and 0,5 handicap player (by D Grade) to make 10 players for the prestigious Abbey Challenge Cup. This was played as an unseeded knockout and consolation Swiss, with single games until the final which was best-of-3 games.

Top grade player Nick Parish lost to Thomas Cullis in the quarter-final, and Thomas went on to beat third placed Nigel Polhill for a place in the final where he was joined by Gabrielle Higgins.

In the first game Thomas (who had won the cup the previous year) made all the running and looked set to take the match until an error let Gabrielle into the game at hoop 3. She took her first ball round past one back when her approach to 2-back rolled sideways to give an angle of about 40 degrees. In a display of supreme confidence she took the hoop hard, running to the boundary and recipient ball. From then on it was plain sailing to the peg where she pegged out Thomas’ ball and went on to win the game.

The second game was an efficient display of controlled play by Gabrielle who won the trophy 2-0. Just as Thomas Cullis was a first-time player in the event last year, so (perhaps surprisingly) was Gabrielle this year.

Gabrielle Higgins with the Abbey Challenge Cup

3rd place went to Nigel Polhill and Nick Parish won the consolation event.

Nick Parish A-Class Consolation event winner

At the other end of the tournament, six players took plart in an American block to play for the Daldy Cup. This was convincingly won by Margaret Page, despite being the second highest handicapped player at 10 handicap, with 4 wins out of 5 (in what was also a level advanced event).

Margaret Page and the Daldy Cup

With 16 players in the B-class competition for the Scott Cup, a knockout competition would have given a definitive winner but only 4 games, so the competition was played in strict Swiss format.

By the end of the first day Richard Peperrel had settled at the top of the ‘ladder’ together with Timothy Luke, on 3/3 wins each. Sadly, Tim had to withdraw injured and Richard lost his fourth game so that by the end of play there were 3 players on 4 wins: Richard Peperell, Adam Newbould (who had beaten Richard) and Paul Castell. Since they had not all played each other, They agreed the winner would be decided on net hoops. In the end there was only 6 hoops between them and the winner was Adam Newbould with +56 points.

Thanks to our catering teams for excellent lunches, cakes etc and our barman for some interesting beers!

See you all next year I hope.

John Low
Manager

Sussex County v Surbiton

Report by Mike Akester

Sussex team met at 8.30 at The Robin Hood pub. Jo drove us to Surbiton for our final R League match.

Jo & Davide won the doubles, Kathy beat their "tricky" Margaret. Korky got a "Brucey Bonus" beating their Bruce.

0 -3 at at splendid lunch.

They came back at us in the afternoon under some hot sun.

Jo "Bing" Crosby could not hit it "Straight Down the Middle".

Korky lost too many of his nine lives against Margaret 7-6...7-6.

Davide demolished Eddie Grundy (from The Archer's) and Kathy went 3 rounds to win.

Result 2-5.

Sussex played 4 WON 4 this summer.

Sussex County & Surbiton teams at Surbiton

Sussex County v Ealing Croquet Club

On 26th August a team from Sussex County CC travelled to Ealing CC to play their fourth and final match in the Croquet South East GC Level Play League. Ealing’s Captain, Bridget Goodman is also a member of Sussex County and was therefore welcoming familiar faces to her home venue.

With the long spell of summer drought coming to an end, the weather forecast was for possible heavy showers but, miraculously, they skirted around Ealing and the match was played in warm, dry conditions.

At the lunchtime break Sussex County had taken a 3-0 lead and, following a delicious lunch provided by the home team, continued their success to run out 6-1 winners. This victory made it four out of four wins for Sussex County in this league and, although unconfirmed, means that they will be overall winners as none of the other teams in the league has a 100% record.

The same team of Brian Aikens, David Dickins, Simon Ancell and Douglas Shand played in three out of the four fixtures with Rob Harper and Konstantin Yudintsev replacing Brian and David in one of the matches.

Thanks go to all of them for their help with catering and transport in addition to putting up with endless requests for availability dates.

Brian Aikens

Sussex County v Guildford & Godalming

On Monday, 24th, Sussex County made it 3/3 wins in the R league with a hard-fought 5-2 victory against a wily Guildford and Godalming team.

Five of the seven matches went to the third deciding game.

G&G had already convincingly won their first two matches in the league, so the SCCC team knew they were up against it. They showed a lot of grit to get through.

Surbiton (A) await on Thursday. Let’s hope we adapt to playing on their lawns pretty quickly!

Jo Crosby