Monkmoor Recreation Ground, Racecourse Crescent, Shrewsbury SY2 5BW
Shrewsbury Croquet Club will be running a beginner’s course starting on Tuesday May 6th from 6-8pm with a taster session so that you can find out if croquet is for you. If it is then there will be 4 further sessions to teach you the basics of the game, the strokes and the tactics.
Please contact Phil Extance at croquetshrewsbury@outlook.com or call 07909 906917 for further details.
These are now available in the Member’s Area of the website – only Members who have registered for access to the website can view this Area.
The likely match dates arranged for the 2025 season are:
Home: Broadwas – 11th July
Home: Church Stretton – 28th July
Away: Kenilworth – June 3rd
Away: Eardisley – to be arranged
A49 competition
against Church Stretton – 27th June
Itching to play in April 2025? Bored with jigsaws? House fully redecorated? Still too wet to mow the lawn? Have a look at how really good players fight for the World Championship.
If you have never watched a top quality game, have a look at some examples at the 2023 Final – the first game has an impressive 3-ball break. But be careful that you don’t get hooked and watch all 5 games (8 hours) of the Final at once. The first game starts 23 mins 30 secs into the video.
The 2025 AGM will be held at the London Road Campus of Shrewsbury Colleges at 7pm on Wednesday 5th March 2025. Agenda, Papers and location details will be sent to Members in advance.
Phil Extance
28 members and guests were able to attend the lunch this year, with 6 people unable to attend at the last minute. We all missed Graham Colclough who was unable to attend for health reasons. Many thanks to Margaret E for organising our booking. The Corbet Arms put our party in the conservatory (which allowed a more convivial atmosphere) and once again served us some excellent food.
Phil had concocted a quiz requiring people to identify 50 locations in the UK where croquet clubs exist from “iconic” photographs of the places. The maximum score on the day was 29! Alan R had scoured the website to identify the current members who won the most trophies, asking us to identify and rank the top ten. Some people were most surprised to be in the top ten!
Sadly a number of our trophy winners were unable to attend but those that could are pictured below:
Thanks to everyone who made it a great occasion
Phil Extance
With three players in the running for the Matrix going into the last month of the season, the prestigious competition could hardly have reached a more dramatic conclusion as autumn conditions descended on the croquet lawns of Shrewsbury.
Phil Extance, one of the candidates and seeking his first ever Matrix title, kicked off the drama by playing his matches early in the month. After a thumping win over Alan Ridley, he was the first with a chance to reach the magical 32 point mark. However his final opponent, the evergreen Julian, was in sensational form and snatched victory from the recently announced most improved player.
The result left Mike Long and David Hart with a chance to claim the prize, but like a good ‘Roy of the Rovers’ story, they had to play each other. After both winning their first matches, it came down to a final showdown. Previous head to head results dictated that Phil could no longer be the outright winner.
On a damp morning, on a worm cast infested lawn, during the last week of the season, the showdown took place. It felt like there was tension in the air, but actually it was the smoke billowing from Julians pipe on the adjacent lawn. Mike raced into a lead, protecting his three bisques and at one point was 16-4 ahead. It looked all over, but David gradually whittled away and drew level with eight minutes left on the clock. A final effort from David, combined with an agonising near miss from Mike, saw him scrape home plus 2 and thus retain the trophy.
It was a fitting end to a excellent season and congratulations to the lucky thirteen participants who took part over the summer.
FINAL LEAGUE TABLE AND POINTS – LEADING POSITIONS
1st – David 32
2nd- Mike 30
3rd- Phil -30
4th- Alberto- 25
5th – Julian, Tim and Robert -24
8th – Margaret E – 23
Other positions available on request!
Best wishes,
David
The President’s Cup is a season-long advanced singles competition where competitors play one or two games each month. This season’s winner is Alan Ridley with six wins out of seven.
In the battle for the runner-up spot, three players have finished on four wins, Phil, Alan Smith and Robert. In the games played between the three, Phil beat Robert, Robert beat Alan S and Alan S beat Phil. The runner-up, with the highest net plus score is Phil on +21. Alan S has +18 and Robert +4.
Julian and Brian have three wins. James and David have two wins.
Many congratulations to the trophy winners. Well done to everyone for playing their games promptly throughout the season, especially to Alan S, who managed to fit in his games despite having a cataract operation.
Alan Ridley
The West Midlands Federation of Croquet Clubs organises an annual league competition.
Thanks to a number of our members playing some great croquet, in 2024 we came second in the league, narrowly beaten by Broadwas. Thanks to all players who competed on our behalf.
| P | W | D | L | Match points | League points | ||
| 1 | Broadwas | 4 | 3 | 1 | 19-9 | 13 | |
| 2 | Shrewsbury | 4 | 3 | 1 | 12-14 | 12 | |
| 3 | Kenilworth | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11-11 | 9 | |
| 4 | Church Stretton | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10-16 | 6 | |
| 5 | Eardisley | 4 | 1 | 3 | 12-14 | 5 |
We had hoped to have 8 players this year but sadly Francis had to withdraw because of a wrist problem.
The weather forecast for the day was appalling at the beginning of the week, and not promising on the day before, but a glimmer of hope that we might at least play some games encouraged us to go ahead.
We had two completely new starters, Yvonne and Sarah, and five folk who had yet to reduce their handicaps below 18 (Max, Tina, Caroline, Jane and Clare).
Phil, Margaret, Alan R and Alan S acted as referees in order to avoid loss of time caused by inexperience, important because each 14pt game was only 50 minutes long.
We were actually blessed by dry weather and indeed some sun for the first five rounds of the competition, which was all-play-all. Some great croquet was played, some shots went astray and some very odd decisions about what shots to take were also made. But until the end of round 5 an enjoyable day was had by all and much was learnt and some interesting challenges arose, notably here for Tina.
Clare and Yvonne’s fan club were riveted by the competitive play between the two friends!
Excellent cake and snacks helped everyone and by round 6 we were ahead of the planned time – because we had all seen the weather forecast for the end of the afternoon! Margaret’s implementation of Sue’s gluten-free almond and jam cake and Margaret’s cheese scones kept the energy levels up!
And so it was that we began round 6…..
By this time Phil had determined that the outcome of the match between Yvonne and Tina would determine the overall winner and that round 7 was not needed for that purpose. And so a few minutes into round 6, the sky went black, the rain started and thunder sounded. Play was suspended, one match was conceded, one was abandoned but Tina and Yvonne decided that the elements would not prevent them completing their game which had only 20 minutes left to run. And so they fought on, with most of the audience squinting through the torrential rain from the clubhouse. Alan R, as referee, was exceedingly grateful to James for the new shelter on Parkside. The conclusion of the match was a win (14-7) for Tina but, because Tina had beaten Yvonne, Yvonne could not be the overall winner even if she had won her round 7 match.
Tina was therefore the winner of the Founder’s Competition having played very well all day. Yvonne, as runner-up, did extremely well given this was her first season.
Thanks to everyone who played their part in making the day enjoyable and very dramatic!!
Phil Extance