Category: News and Reports

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

In a delayed final to The Eight competition, played at Chester CC, Richard Smith beat Alan Ridley to recapture the Claret Jug.

The competition had been scheduled to be played on the 7th and 8th of September. The games played on the Saturday were completed with an extra one brought forward after Brian had looked into his crystal ball and had correctly predicted a washout the following day, which turned out to be the second wettest day on record.

The highlight of Saturday’s play was a Triple Peel attempt by Richard, which just failed when his Rover peelee hit an upright, forcing him to jump striker’s ball through the hoop.

As only half an hour’s play was possible on the Sunday, the final was postponed and played at Richard’s home club, Chester CC on the 12th. Torrential rain in the morning meant the game was played in very difficult conditions, the highest break being only three hoops, with Richard triumphing +9. 

Congratulations to Richard and many thanks to the other competitors, and to Phil for marking the lines.

Alan Ridley

We hold an annual competition between Shrewsbury and Church Stretton, the winner holding the A49 trophy. On 29th August 2024 the teams played at Shrewsbury, playing 7 singles games. Most games were very closely fought with everyone playing some really good shots of which they could be proud and, of course, some we would all rather regret! Several wrong hoops were run (or almost run) but in general very few events required a referee to adjudicate. Everyone enjoyed the event and the weather was kind to us. Many thanks to all those who played, to all those who provided cakes and biscuits, to anyone who helped in the practical tasks that running a competition needs and to those who just came to watch.

And so to the results:

Shrewsbury wins:
Robbie beat George 26-22
Margaret beat Claire 26-11
Phil beat Ian 19-15

Church Stretton wins:
Ian beat Alan 19-13
Claire beat Alberto 11-10
Shelley beat Julian 25-23
George beat Robert 26-12

So overall it was a close competition with Church Stretton winning the trophy 4-3. Congratulations to Church Stretton!

Phil Extance

Ten people took part in this season’s 18-Point Handicap competition, which took place on the 24th and 25th of August.  With rain in the forecast, some disruption was expected but the weather gods were kind enough to arrange for most of it to fall during our lunch break, ensuring that we kept mostly to schedule.

Two blocks of five played ‘all play all’.  Block A was decided in the final round of games, where the winner of David v Mike would go through to the final.  David booked his place with a +8 win, leaving him unbeaten.  Block B was not as clear-cut.  Going into the final round, it was possible to have a five-way tie depending on the results.  In the event, Alberto and Phil both won their final games to have three wins out of four.  Alberto qualified for the final on the ‘who beat whom’ rule, having beaten Phil by +10 in the opening game.

Max also deserves special mention for a superb display of hitting in and hoop running to beat Brian 18-0 in a Block B game.  Brian was very impressed.

And so to the final, where Alberto slowly built a nine hoop lead only for David to come back in the last half hour to draw level and take the game into a Golden Hoop.  A very exciting passage of play followed, with the crowd on the edge of their seats.  Twice, David set himself a simple rush to his hoop only for Alberto to hit in from distance to save the day.  Alberto also had a shot at a hoop but hit an upright.  After the second long roquet, Alberto was able to rush a ball near to his hoop, take off and run the hoop to win the match and the competition.  The Golden Hoop play had taken about 20 minutes, surely worthy of an entry in the Guinness Book of Croquet Records!

So, many congratulations to Alberto and commiserations to David, who came so close to retaining the trophy.

After the trophy presentation, everyone went home for a well deserved lie down!

Alan Ridley

A great result for Shrewsbury today in the WMF league. Fuelled by a tin of gorgeous flapjacks provided by Sue, we beat Kenilworth 3-2, which means we finish as runners-up to Broadwas. Well done to the team – Robbie, Alan R, David and Mike. The highlight of the day, which your correspondent didn’t actually see, was Robbie coming within a whisker of completing a delayed triple peel.

Alan Ridley

On 10th July Alan Ridley organised a doubles welcome event with the new members (who had done the beginners course) paired with an experienced player. We played alternate stroke so the new members received coaching while playing with the experienced member explaining the strokes that should be played.

5 new members were able to attend, with two “one hour” games played.

A previous member had donated a trophy which we awarded to the new player who won the most games. Our winner, Yvonne, was therefore awarded the 2024 Rector’s Teapot trophy.

The evening was a great success. Many thanks to Alan for organising the evening, to new members being willing to have a go and to experienced members for their helpful coaching and welcome to the new members.

Dr Phil Extance