Category: News

Congratulations to Phyllis Court, representing the SCF, for their 2023 Federations Shield victory beating Chichester & Fishbourne 4-3 in the Final. By also winning this season’s Advantage league they will now have two teams in the Feds next year.

In the league Phyllis Court D beat Eynsham 8-8 on tie break in the final after Eynsham had beaten Bransgore Reds 12-4 in the semi final.

The Southern Croquet Federation inaugural 10+ competition came to a close on Sunday 1^st of October at Blewbury Croquet Club. Unfortunately the final of 8 players took a bit of a hit due to the recent resurgence of everybody’s favourite communicative disease leaving only 5 players. However, all was not lost and an all-plays-all format was adopted.

Close matches were the order of the day with the biggest margin being 7-4 and with a number of wins ending 7-6. 

With the final round of matches left to play it was all to play for with 3 potential winners. Mike Parker having played all his games was on 3 wins and hoop difference of +5. Both Jill James and Liz walker were on 2 wins with the opportunity to catch up and played each other in the final match of the day.

 Jill got off to a flyer winning 3 of the first 4 hoops, the next 2 hoops were shared so it was 4-2 at the turn. Jill jawsed her ball at 7 and promptly played through to leave her ball 2′ short at 8. Jill ran hoop 8 for a 6-2 lead. However, Liz wasn’t having that and run hoop 9 followed by a superb approach shot to hoop 10 jawsing her ball which she the run next time round: 6-4. Jill approach to 11 was spot on at 3′ out and Liz with one ball wired only had one clearance shot which was unfortunately missed. Jill then took the win with a somewhat nervy running of 11. 7-4. 

With Jill winning that gave her the same number of wins as Mike, 3 and same hoop difference at +5. As Mike had won the game between himself and Jill, Mike was declared the first SCF GC 10+ champion, Well done Mike. 

Although the competition as a whole got of to a slow start it finished with some very intense croquet played to the individuals best possible level and it was a pleasure to watch.

SCF would like to thank Hamptworth CC, Eynsham CC and Blewbury CC for supporting this new endeavour as well as the players who took part, without both it would never have happened. 

It is planned that the competition will be played again next year therefore, I would like both clubs and competitors to give it go. More info soon, as they say “watch this space”.

Neil Stewart (SCF 10+ Co-ordinator)

This event attracted 15 entries – unfortunately Carol Jamieson had a problem with her shoulder and had to drop out rather early on. The rest played a Swiss with six rounds. It was slightly disappointing that the entrants were all local, with High Wycombe as the most distant club represented.

Deirdre Cochrane provided an excellent lunch and the rounds continued.

Duncan Sinclair (Blewbury) won all six games and so won the tournament. David Long (Blewbury) was just behind with five games and then Rick Lilley (Phyllis Court) with four.

Duncan received the Armada trophy which he will keep for the year and yet another Blewbury glass to add to his growing collection.

Ryde LTCC had the pleasure of hosting this doubles competition on a lovely sunny day with a gentle breeze. The competition was contested by 8 pairs, four from the “North Island” and four from the Isle of Wight (“South Island”). Combined handicaps varied from the allowed minimum of 6 up to 24. The preliminary rounds consisted of two blocks of four, North & South, all-play-all.

These results determined seeding for the Knockout rounds, which took place after lunch. Unexpectedly the top seeds both fell at the first hurdle, leaving the way clear for a North v South final between the two second seeds Johannes & Mark Hamann (East Dorset) and Joan Grove & Jim O’Keeffe (RLTCC). A close final ended with a 7 – 5 victory for the oldest pair in the competition, Joan & Jim.

CONGRATULATIONS TO
Advantage League winners Phyllis Court D
on beating Ryde C (11-5) and Phyllis Ct C (9-7)

Doubles League winners Eynsham
beating Thames Valley (6-2) in the Final

The A-Level league has been won by High Wycombe. They had the same points as Aldermaston and had won the same number of games but High Wycombe won the match against Aldermaston.
The B-Level league has been won by Hamptworth. The runner up was Oxford University with the same number of points but less games.
The Northern Handicap league has been won by High Wycombe with Caversham as runner up and the Southern Handicap league has been won by Ryde with three wins and a draw. The second place goes to Winchester with the same number of points and games as Hamptworth but Winchester won the match between the two teams. There is one result yet to report between the two lowest placed teams: Littleton and Aldermaston. The final, between North and South, was played at Blewbury on Sunday 24th October and was won by Ryde.
The Short Croquet league was only contested by two teams. Blewbury won. Unfortunately neither club was able to send a team to the national finals because of the rather extreme handicap limitations. It is expected that these restrictions will be eased next year.

The Armada reborn: for Drake read Pegrum!

After an enforced one year delay, the SCF Armada Trophy tournament took place at Winchester CC on 15 June. Previously an AC doubles event, the Armada has been re-cast as an AC “one-ball” tournament with the aim of attracting more players.

Sixteen players from nine clubs participated, ranging from experienced players to “first-timers” at this variant of AC. In a busy day of five rounds of handicap one-ball in “Swiss” format one player won all his matches – five out of five and so became the first winner of the re-born Armada: Chris Pegrum (h’cap 12) from Caversham CC is a recent graduate of Lincoln College, Oxford but has learned his croquet under College auspices rather than as a member of OUACC. He will be changing jobs shortly and moving to Amersham, so will come within the orbit of High Wycombe CC – a talent to be watched!

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The runner-up with 4/5 wins was Ian Harrison (-2) of Basingstoke and Winchester who was pipped at the peg by a stunning 12 yard peg shot by Glynis Hassell (15) of Dogmersfield and Winchester. Just to prove that it was not a fluke, Glynis repeated the feat in her following game against Artur Da Costa (10) on the other court!

The weather was glorious and the day was greatly enjoyed by all the participants, including those for whom it was a fairly steep learning curve. Hopefully, Armada one-ball is here to stay.

Ian Harrison

This event was held on the 13th April at Hamptworh in fine, sunny but chilly weather.

It was organised as two blocks of seven competing for the annual GC Champion of Champions Trophy on the 14th April at Hamptworth playing seven point handicap games.. These were winners or representatives of their club handicap GC competitions.

The final had two players from Hamptworth both of whom had 5 wins. Tim O’Donnell beat Dudley Blundell at the golden hoop.

Twelve players competed for the annual Champion of Champions Tropy on the 14th April at Hamptworth. These were winners or representatives of their club handicap AC competitions. They played four rounds of 14-point games on an unusually cold day. Ten clubs were represented with handicaps ranging from one to fourteen .

Congratulations to Blewbury for providing the winner in Peter Allan. Peter also won the last time, in 2019 though on that occasion as the Harwell champion. Roger Barnacle was the runner up.

The league tables are all set up on the website for 2021