Shrewsbury v Church Stretton – 18/5/2023

Congratulations to Shrewsbury on beating Church Stretton in their West Midlands Feb match. The Shrewsbury team comprising Margaret Extance, Phil Extance, Julian Remfry and Alan Ridley won by four games to one.

The day started in a very strange fashion.  I arrived at the car park to find the police questioning a youth and combing hedges.  I wondered if that was where all of our ball markers had disappeared to.  I opened the gate to find the gardener standing next to a dead lawn mower in the middle of Park Side lawn.  It couldn’t be pushed off the lawn, so we faced the prospect of playing on a single lawn.  Fortunately, two mechanics arrived and fixed it in time for play to start.

How could the games live up to that excitement?  Well, we felt very excited at 2-0 up by lunchtime, having won a doubles and a singles game, the latter on a golden hoop.  In the afternoon we won two of the three singles games to run out 4-1 winners, which had the virtual champagne corks popping!  Julian was the star player as he was the only one to peg out.

The next game is at home to Broadwas on 14th June.  If anyone would like to take part, let Sean know or put your name on the sheet in the clubhouse.

Alan Ridley

14 Point Advanced Competition – 14/5/2023

The 14 Point Advanced competition was held on Saturday, May 13th, in perfect conditions for croquet and with the lawns looking in fine condition and the lines freshly marked (thank you to the line markers). The Eight players were divided into two Groups of four. Richard and Sean, with three wins each, qualified for the final.

In the final, both players took their first balls to Rover. Richard then took his second ball to Rover and attempted to run it with both balls in the same stroke. Although both balls ran the hoop, striker’s ball wasn’t sufficiently through to make a roquet, however this only delayed the result for a short time, with Richard eventually pegging out shortly before time ran out, to retain the Silver Salver.

Congratulations to Richard and thank you to all of the players and spectators for contributing to an enjoyable day’s croquet.

Alan Ridley

New Website

If you are on this page then you have found the beginnings of a new website for Shrewsbury Croquet Club. It is an incomplete work but should be up and running before the 2024 season starts.