Ealing Croquet Club

The field in the Grand National the day before may have reduced in size, but the entry for the annual Charity One-Ball Heat at Ealing was the biggest yet, at 15 runners.

Competitors were rewarded with warmish sunshine and lawns in excellent condition, with lawn 3 in particular becoming impressively fast in the afternoon. Frequent were the cries of frustration that could be heard as another approach slid past the hoop.

The format was a flexible Swiss, with players having as few or as many games as they fancied. By lunchtime the leader in the clubhouse was Julian Berry, with a perfect 4 wins out of 4. Only Lindy Jordan had a chance to catch him, with 3 wins out of 3 and one game to play.

At that point Julian and a few others needed to leave, so a provisional prize ceremony was held, involving a splendid new trophy – The Choco-One-Ball – designed and created by John Hutchinson using his 3-D printer.

In the end Emma Bowen-Docherty overcame Lindy to snatch second place, with 4 wins out of 5.

A very generous £170 was raised for the British Heart Foundation, giving us two places in the final at Surbiton on May 5^th, where Julian and Emma will represent the club. Players sported a variety of red items of clothing – the BHF house colours – and the huge cherry tree by lawn 1 put on a superb display of white blossom.

Many thanks to everyone who played for their generous fundraising and for making it such a pleasant day. It was great to see some of the less seasoned tournament players doing so well.

Simon Tuke

Photographs: David Whitestone

Note: David will supply copies of individual photographs on request.