2021 Finals

Finals weekend has come and gone. Paul Pristavec beat Sarah Melvin in the Peter Salter, on Friday. On Saturday John and Sally Evans beat Sarah Melvin and Jay Dyer 7/3, 7/5 in Golf doubles. In the Afternoon Peter Balchin beat John Evans 7/6, 7/5 in the Golf Level. On Sunday the association doubles took four and a half hours for Julian Langston and Chris Tuthill to beat the Evanses plus 9.

Earlier in the week, John Evans beat Chris Williams in the association advanced open. And Sue Mackay won both halves of one ball.

To complete the competition listing.
Chris Williams beat Sarah Melvin in the Dyffryn Cup. Robert Upton won the B class association. Peter Balchin beat James Beach in the Golf Vase.

And on an historic round up Kevin Ham won the Grimshaw Cup, with Julian Langston the Chairman’s Bowl.

Chairman’s Bowl 2021

Paul and I set the hoops for half lawns on Friday morning.24 hoops two hours. No cores it was hard work for the Townsend hoops.

I arrived at 8:30 today Saturday 26th June, to set up the lawns. Helped later by John C, Julian and Ian. We started as planned at 9:45. Later Adrian arrived then the Evanses. Clive made an appearance for the last round of games.

The weather forcast was incorrect. Though we christened one of the new shelters it was not needed. It rained at 9 o’clock on the way to the club. But the rest of the day it was dry, and the afternoon ended with tee shirt weather.

The subtleties of Egyptian Hands scoring were not needed. Julian Langston, played five and won five to win the Chairman’s Bowl.

A Better Year

April 2021. Covid 19. Is still around and restrictions to combat its effect are still in force. For some time rules set by the Welsh Assembly has prevented play. However In March there was an easing of restrictions.and the Tennis section was able to open to a limited extent. The Croquet season would have started on 27 March but as expected the grass was not quite ready. It is on schedule to be ready for 1 May.
A full set of internal completions have been arranged, as have competitors against other clubs in the South West and Wales. . The club will also host the Welsh Championships.

2020 A year to forget

2020 will be rembered as the year of Covid-19. For most of the season we were in lockdown or a time of restricted activity. We played no games in the South West Federation.
The garage doors were replaced, and in the process the headroom was increased.
We were able to run two club competitions. The Dyffryn Cup 8 entrants. And the Golf Vase 12 entrants. The rounds were played in double quick time. From late June to finals on Saturday 8 August. Garry McElwain won the Dyffryn Cup Robert Upton the Golf Vase.
The following weekend Ian Emmitt won the Chairmans Bowl on a very wet day. On Sunday it was nice and fine when John Evans won the Grimshaw Cup.
Finals were early this year as we took up the old lawns and relaid them, and they are now level.
Initially the weather was too wet. Then when the seed was down it was too dry. But a host of members volunteered to to do watering duty. The grass is looking very good.
The gravel carpark has been replaced with grasscrete..

23 March 2020 Good News And Bad News

In the past week or so a lot of work has been done on the lawns. A contractor has cleared all the large stone. The last of it was cleared at about four o’clock today.

Both lawns have been mown with rotary mowers and surface pea gravel has been scooped up in the process. A fingertip clean has been undertaken and a 12 yard swath is toro ready. The toro works following an oil change or three.

The lawns have been white lined, hoops set, and we played a game or two. The first games since early January,

Since then coronavirus has has been intruding more and more into our lives. Competitive croquet with large groups has been cancelled. Small group casual croquet has been permitted as exercise, providing one maintains 2 meter social distancing.
At eight thirty pm all this changed. As part of more stringent measures, Exercise can now only be alone or with family members. This will last three weeks and be reviewed, some hope of it being relaxed.

I speculate that next croquet will be in June.

Trouble with storm Jorge

Storm Jorge (Spanish pronounced Horhay.). Sent lots of rain. The River Ogmore was at 2.4metres at 3 pm on 28th February. Low tide was at 2:40. This causes problems.

29th mid afternoon had a look at things following the heavy rain.  

We now have fresh stone on lawn two, that said it is probably the same stone cleared previously.  There is about 20 square yards on lawn two and 10 square yards just off the lawn.  The better news (all things are relative,) apart from erratics no new stone on lawn one.

Water got into the pavilion.  There was no firm flood line but there was a possible tide mark at six inches.  Mud not as bad as last time on the floor again.  No problems with the mechanical toro.

Regarding the flesh and blood toro. I think he was on the lawn when the flood came.  He was trapped and took refuge on the bund.  

Storm Dennis part 2

Today Friday 21st we hired an electric generator and Kevin Ham, Jim Beach and Mike Parry power washed the floor of all the pavilion .  We also washed and dried the old white and green tent, inside the croquet boxes and any thing else that caught our eye.  We left the central area part filled awaiting the drying out of the floor and wooden bits.
Jim inspected the toro.  It looks like the flood line was below the points of entry into the engine. But there seems to be more oil on the dipstick than is proper. Though no signs of water. Jim will drain the engine oil and refil also change the air filter.
Thanks also to Mary Margaret and Pat V who worked on stone clearance.
Robbie from the tennis club was there and concentrated on the fencing to keep out the bull.
The next get rid of the stones session on the lawns is planned to be on Wednesday 26th.

Storm Dennis

Storm Dennis on Saturday 15th February, dropped alot of rain onto the Ogmore Valley. This had nowhere to go but down, and the river, burst its banks up stream of the croquet lawns. For a while the lawns were flooded. The flood was transient. The water arrived and the water left. I cannot say the same for the muck and the mire held in suspension.
Everything in the pavilion up to twelve inches from the floor has been covered in brown slime. Mike and Kevin hosed down and brushed out the worse elements from both end rooms.
Unfortunately not so easy to put right are the many stones scoured from the car park. They cover around a hundred square yards to a depth of two or three inches. On Monday some of this was returned to the car park, by Mike and Kevin, before they started on the hut. Also on duty were Garry, John E, Sue and Rod, and a particular thank you to Marilyn and her grandson Jacob.
Lawn two may be playable before the end of the month. Lawn one will take a lot longer.

The end of Dyffryn Croquet Club

At the AGM on Saturday 7th February. The club changed its name and is now the croquet section of Glamorgan Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.. at their AGM on 8th February the tennis section agreed to the join.

Any residual identity as Dyffryn Croquet Club.will come to a close on 2 April 2020.

January Workout

Saturday 4th January saw nine members of the club at at Merthyr Mawr to play a five round Swiss competition in Golf croquet.

Kevin and Jay arrived at nine o’clock to line and switch the courts. Later Mike assisted by setting new hoops into lawn 2. With eleven iron hoops and one wire hoop, play got underway at ten o’clock as planned.

We played handicap golf croquet 30. Minute time limit 7 points (first to 4.) With nine participants manager Kevin played Mr Bye in the first round. The random draw for opponents, saw Mike Parry beat Peter Balchin 4-0 inside 15 minutes. This match proved decisive as at the end both Mike and Peter had four wins. A Swiss completion is decided on who beat whom. So Mike was victorious.

We left at one o’clock to have lunch at the Watermill on the Ogmore road it was a very convivial meal. I think a new tradition has been born.