Category: News and Reports

If you would like to learn how to play Association Croquet, we will be holding a taster session in April so that you can get a feel for the game and then we will be running a course in May over a number of sessions to teach you the basics of how to play.

Taster Session / Open Afternoon

Sunday 26th April: 2-4pm

If you would like to express an interest please email the Club Chairman on philip.extance@btopenworld.com.

This will be held at the Corbet Arms on Sunday 18^th October 2026 at 1pm

Provisional dates for 2026, so far, are as follows:

Wednesday 3^rd June – against Kenilworth – to be played at Shrewsbury

Tuesday 14^th July – against Eardisley – to be played at Shrewsbury

Thursday 20^th August – against Broadwas – to be played at Broadwas

Thursday 30^th July – against Church Stretton – to be played at Church Stretton

Thursday 6^th August – A49 Annual Competition at Shrewsbury

If you would like to learn how to play Association Croquet, we will be holding a taster session in April so that you can get a feel for the game and then we will be running a course in May over a number of sessions to teach you the basics of how to play.

Taster Session / Open Afternoon	Sunday 26th April: 2-4pm
Beginner’s Course – Session 1	Tuesday 5th May: 6-8pm
Beginner’s Course – Session 2	Tuesday 12th May: 6-8pm
Beginner’s Course – Session 3	Tuesday 19th May: 6-8pm
Beginner’s Course – How to start a game!	Sunday 24th May: 2-4pm
Beginner’s Course – Strategy (use of Bisques etc)	Sunday 14th June: 2-4pm

We can arrange for you to practice between sessions if you wish.

If you would like to express an interest please email the Club Chairman on philip.extance@btopenworld.com.

Congratulations to all our club winners this year (David Hart not in photo).

I needed my calculator to work out the results of our final two competitions of the season.

The Shrewsbury Hooper is new this season.  The winner is the player with the most  recorded breaks of 10 or more hoops, with or without bisques, in a competitive game within or involving our club.  There are also prizes for the players with the most 8 and 9 hoop breaks.

There were 28 recorded breaks in total.  Robert Parsons, with five breaks of 10 or more hoops, is the competition winner.  He will receive the Shrewsbury Hooper trophy and a prize.  James Handley and I won the 9 and 8 hoop prizes respectively.

The Llew trophy for the most improved player is awarded to the player whose handicap index has increased most over the course of the season.  There is also a runner-up trophy.

Four players have achieved an increase of 100 points or more.  The winner by a ‘short head’ is Dave Meredith, with a 130 point increase.  The runner-up is Phil Extance with +125 points.

Thank you to everyone who took part in our competitions this season, as well as everyone who helped in any way.  Roll on next season!

Alan Ridley

The Matrix is over.

After almost 80 matches, which between them amounted to 234 hours on the lawns, over 3,100 hoops were run and hundreds of bisques were deployed, except of course by Robbie! 

Eventually it all came down to the last match, with Robbie Dodds and David Hart playing a ‘winner takes all’ head to head match at the end of September. It was a tense affair, but David, armed with 7 bisques, held off a strong mid match rally from Robbie, to claim the win and the Matrix title.

The competition was extremely close throughout the season, illustrated by the fact that there are three runners up. Sporting drama at its absolute best!

Thanks to everyone who played and kept to the monthly timetable, which made my administrative role, ably supported by Tina, considerably easier.

Here are the final points totals.

1^st – David – 32 points

Equal 2^nd  – Robbie, Phil and Robert – 28 points

Equal 5^th – Julian and Mike – 26 points

Equal 7^th – Margaret E, Gerraint and Max – 22 points 

Equal 10^th  – Alberto  and James- 18 points

12^th  – Sean – 16 points

13^th – Malcolm – 14 points 

Report by David Hart

Four people were able to play in this years Founder’s competition, a fifth had to drop out at short notice for medical reasons. One player, Nicky, had done the beginner’s course this year so this was her first competition. Max, Clare and Dave were more experienced but all with handicaps of 18 or over.

The lawns were quite wet, but the weather did not prevent play, except for a few shower intervals. Alan R and Margaret E “refereed” the two lawns to explain rules but not to advise on shots!

In the first round, Clare beat Nicky 3-2, given Nicky had only learnt to play this season, it was a great start for her. Dave beat Max 8-2, demonstrating a great understanding of strategy.

In the second round, Clare beat Max 6-3, a great result for Clare. Dave beat Nicky 11-1, making few mistakes so Nicky could do little to fight back.

In the third round, Max beat Nicky 7-5 but he was a great sport, effectively coaching Nicky for most of the game as he could not win the overall competition. Thank you Max! The remaining game was effectively a final as both Clare and Dave had won two games each. In a great game, with some fantastic shots by both players, Dave eventually triumphed 11-6 but Clare was very pleased to have fought well and to have won two previous games.

Congratulations Dave on your first trophy.

Gilly, another new learner this year who had been unable to play, generously provided delicious cake and enthusiastic support to Nicky.

Thanks to Steve (Gilly’s husband), Tony (Clare’s husband), Dave and Tina, and Alan Smith for coming to watch some of the games.

Phil

This year’s Eight competition was played over the weekend of the 30th and 31st August, in changeable but generally favourable weather conditions, rather than the deluge that disrupted last year’s comp.

The eight competitors were split into two blocks of four, with an ‘all play all’ format.  Block A comprised Richard Smith, the defending champion, Alan Ridley, Phil Extance and Brian Christmas.  On Day 1, in two of the biggest upsets in living memory, Richard was beaten by both Brian and Phil.  Meanwhile Alan R beat Brian and Phil, so booking his place in the final regardless of the result of his game against Richard.  On Day 2, Richard beat Alan R and Phil beat Brian to finish second in the block.

Block B comprised Robbie Dodds, Robert Parsons, Julian Remfry and Barbara Edwards.  Robert and Julian had played their game on the Friday, with Robert winning.  Robbie won all three of his games, to qualify for the final.  Robert beat Barbara and Barbara beat Julian.  Robert therefore finished second in the Block.

The final was a ‘game of two halves’.  Alan started well, reaching 4-back and 1-back while Robbie had only run a couple of hoops.  Robbie then took over, reaching 4-back and Hoop 6.  With seconds left on the clock, Robbie had a chance to run 4-Back but missed.  Alan R then sent the balls far and wide and Robbie was unable to make progress on his final turn.  So, Alan R won by a single hoop.

Congratulations go to the winner and to Phil, Brian and Barbara for their wins against stronger opponents.

Many thanks to everyone who took part in a very enjoyable weekend.  Also thanks to Margaret Extance, Jacqui Dodds and Frances Haigh for coming along to support the final.  Special thanks to James for marking the lines beautifully despite not being able to compete in the competition due to other commitments.

The league was very close as you will see from attached – in fact if Church Stretton had beaten Broadwas and prevented Broadwas from getting a bonus point then all teams would have been on 9 points with 2 wins and 2 losses.

In the matches involving the 3 teams on 9 points, all of the teams won one and lost one, so I had to then go on ‘net match points’. This makes Kenilworth second and Eardisley and Shrewsbury third equal.

Thank you to all who played for Shrewsbury!

Phil