Ealing Croquet Club

There were four Ealing players represented in the Open Handicap One-Ball Tournament held at Hurlingham on 13th October: Tony Elliott, Simon Turner, Margaret Page and Fred White-Overton. Tony managed third place, while Margaret and Simon took one of the four equal fifth places. For a full report see here.

The AC All-England National Final was held at Blewbury Croquet Club in Oxfordshire on 28-29 September, in which Ealing was represented by Sean Doherty and David Graham (see News dated 18 August). There were eight contestants, each playing five games to a handicap base of six, with player handicaps ranging from 2.5 to 22 (see here for results). The club is in a delightful rural setting, with two lawns that were in excellent condition. The play was made more enjoyable when the forecast heavy rain was not as bad as predicted.

Sean Doherty, who was one of three players with four wins out of five, was eventually declared the overall winner after lengthy deliberation based on who beat who and ‘quality’ wins*. Sean can be seen in the photographs looking very pleased with himself, as well he might. He not only won an impressive trophy, but also a plate for the winning club.

Report: David Graham

*Quality Wins: The three players on four wins had all beaten each other, so the criteria went to ‘quality’ wins; a system where you aggregate points based on how many wins your defeated opponents had (eg. Sean beat Peter who had beaten two other players so gets two points. Tallied up Sean and Margaret were still equal but Sean had beaten her so became Champion – Sean Doherty).

Photographs: Carol Jamieson

Trophy & Plate

For the second year running, Ealing will have two members playing in the AC All England Final to be held at Blewbury Croquet Club on the weekend of 21 to 22 September. Sean Doherty, David Graham and Colin McKenzie progressed from the club’s internal competition to the area final held at Surbiton on 24 to 25 August. Sean and David were placed second and fourth respectively in the area final, from which five players go through to the national final; see area final results here.

Sean, who curently has an AC handicap of 14, won four of his five games, narrowly losing 24-26 to the overall winner, Diana Wilson (handicap 2.5), in his final game. We expect Sean’s handicap to come down rapidly if he continues to play to the same standard.

Report: David Graham

Ealing got their Croquet South East AC U League campaign off to a winning start on Saturday 10th August with a solid win against our old friends from Hampstead Heath.

It was theoretically a home game for Hampstead, but held at Ealing as Hampstead only have one lawn. This meant that the visitors provided lunch, as well as some excellent flapjacks baked by one of their players.

The lawns were challengingly fast in places, especially around some hoop approaches, and became even more so in the afternoon when the sun emerged with a vengeance. The match was played full bisque with a base of 6, which meant that in games between higher handicappers both players received bisques.

In the morning doubles Stephen Harbron and Sean Doherty easily saw off minus player Phil Cordingley and newcomer Jonah Danziger +19, although Phil did a great job of introducing Jonah to the intricacies of match play.

Simon Tuke scraped past Sandy Nairne +6T, and David Graham lost to Tom Hankinson by the classic margin of -1T.

After a very convivial lunch, battle was joined for the afternoon session. Simon lost -9T to Phil in a rather scrappy game, Stephen had a solid +13 win over Sandy, while David just managed a win against Jonah +2T.

The performance of the day came from Sean, who used just one bisque to take his first ball round. Tom decided not to use his bisques immediately, and Sean promptly went round and finished in his next turn, to win +26 with the opponent having ten bisques standing; a classic example of how (or how not) to tackle full-bisque play.

Congratulations to the Ealing team, and thanks for representing the club so capably.

Report by Simon Tuke

The club’s Beer & Croquet social event on Thursday evening was a great success, played in glorious sunshine. The event involved everyone playing in first to four point GC handicap matches, which was quite challenging for lower handicap players, as opponents could start with anything from a one to four hoop lead. There were lots of prizes, but the overall winner was Luis Garcia with four wins out of four. Christine Mason came second with three wins, having lost to Luis. The croquet was organised by Simon Turner, who also picked up an award for Volunteer of the Year. Lindy managed to lift the Most Embarrassing Moment prize; something to do with making a spectacular jump shot with the wrong ball.

Photographs: Tom Hartwell

The club hosted The Avenue Club Walking Group for a croquet experience session for the third year running on 18 July. The Avenue Club in Kew runs monthly day long walks on the third Thursday of the month and once a year the walk ends at Lammas Park to play croquet. The sessions are organised by Lindy and David, a regular member of the walking group. It has resulted in new members joining the club in the past and we hope that will continue, particularly as several of the group took away our Taster Session flyer.

Ealing took part in the Southern Challenge (Division 2) at Sussex County for a full weekend on the 13th and 14th July.  Division 2 is aimed at B/C Level players with one 0 plus team member allowed.

Our intrepid team were Simon Turner, Jane Powell, Margaret Page and John Hutchinson, skippered by Bridget as a reserve with Crunchie as team mascot.  We faced seven other teams; Compton, Rottingdean, Lodsworth, Sussex County, Rother Valley, Littlehampton and Canterbury and played each team in a best of 5 format (4 singles and 1 doubles). All our team played very well and raised their games against the few h/c 0, 1 and 2 that we encountered.

Overall we came a very creditable 5th which, as first time entrants, did Ealing proud!  The weather was perfect, blue sky and sun cream; the lunch and cake plentiful. We even managed to get home in time for a certain kick-off in Germany.

See full results here.

Report: Bridget Goodman

The Ealing Team (in ascending height): Jane, Margaret, Bridget & Crunchie, John and Simon

Ealing hosted the South East Short Croquet Tournament on Sunday 7th July for the second year running. Short Croquet comprises 14 point games, which involves running six hoops and pegging out (compared to 26 point games in Association Croquet) and is played on half-lawns.

Each team comprised four players and Ealing fielded two of the six teams. This allowed five Ealing players to participate who were new to Association Croquet, with the shorter version of the game particularly suited to anyone who would like to try out AC. The tactics are essentially the same, but the smaller courts combined with fast lawns does present its own challenges, as all of the balls in play are much nearer to each other. It also meant that the lawns appeared much more crowded than usual.

In the end, Ealing Eagles came second after a penalty shoot-out, so unfortunately croquet didn’t come home on this occasion.

Nevertheless, the day was a great success. A full report by its organiser, Tony Elliott, can be read here.

Photographs: Tom Hartwell

Ealing hosted the latest European GC Club League heat on the weekend of 25-26 May, following the club’s successful participation in the inaugural event in Riga last year. Ealing were pipped to second place by the favourites Madrid, with Sussex County third and Zurich fourth. The club is developing a taste for playing against European competition and is particularly pleased to have hosted the event.

Read the full report by Simon Turner here.

Two graduates of the famed Academy of Croquet (AC) made their debuts in the AC “B” league on Wednesday, May 29th. Fast lawns, tight hoops and attacking croquet put paid to the chances of our visitors from Purley Bury. John, Fred and David won all of their matches (6 in total), culminating in a superb display from Fred who pegged out in the final singles of the day to win 14-3.

An unfortunate error by the match organiser meant two of the games were voided, but nevertheless Ealing romped home 4-0.

Report: Simon Turner

Full Results Sheet here.