St Albans Croquet Club
7th Oct - Heather receives a CA Diploma
Congratulations to Heather who's received a CA Diploma. See https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=tournament/honours/caDiplomas/2023 for details/citation
1st Oct - Winter social activities are starting
The lawn isn't quite closed yet (but will be soon), but we're starting the winter social activities. The first coffee morning of the winter will be held at Verdi's on 7th October at 10:30. Also the Bowls Club are hosting a Quiz on Friday 20th October at 7.30, if we can get a team together we'll see if they'll let us join in again! Please let Vicki know if you're interested in either.
1st Sept - David takes the final place in the finals!
All the matches in the block stages of the competition are now complete. David grabbed the last final slot in the 14 point Mahoney competition. The final's line ups are as follows:
22nd Aug - Stephen wins the Kitson (18 point) and Brian's through to the Mahoney (14 point) final
Congratulations to Stephen and Brian. Stephen has won the Kitson (18 point AC) trophy with one match to spare, and Brian is through to the final of the Mahoney (14 point AC).
7th Aug - Speed Doubles on 20th Aug - CANCELLED
The second speed doubles event of the year will take place on 20th August. UPDATE - unfortunately there weren't enough entrants (too many people on holiday!) so this has been cancelled.
25th July - Finals Day and Monday club session
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We are discontinuing the Monday p.m. AC roll-up session from next week, 31st July, to leave the lawn free to be booked for playing full-lawn club matches.
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It has been decided that our "Finals Day" will take place on Saturday 9th September. It is earlier than normal so as to to be able to close the lawn whenever the groundstaff are ready to carry out the planned autumn treatment. It is hoped that at least some of the finals will be played on that day, but the schedule will depend on who the finalists are, and their availability.
26th June - Sarah's the first person through to the club finals
Congratulations to Sarah who's the first person through to the club finals in the GC competition! See the tables here. That's in contrast to the AC competitions where not many games have been played (and in particular the 18 point Kitson where no games have been played!) Come on people get organising those games!
11th June - Speed Doubles
This is to invite you to take part in a croquet tournament on Saturday, June 24th. For those unfamiliar with the format, we will play 'progressive doubles' in which a higher-handicap player partners a lower-handicap player in each half-lawn game. I expect there will be 8 players, playing 3 games each, changing partners between games. If there are 12 applicants, we will double-bank on one court.
In a game, each side has 25 minutes to play all their shots. When one side has used up their time, they get one shot per turn while the other side continues until their time runs out. It is a gentle incentive to decide promptly which shot to play! Don't worry about the details, it will all be explained on the day and there will be plenty of people around to help. There will be two winners, one each from the higher- and lower-handicap groups, decided by games won etc.
Please let Roger know asap and by June 17 if you plan to take part. I assure you, it is a fun day (ask anyone who has taken part before).
7th May - Keith at the Charity one-ball final
Keith represented St Albans at the Charity one-ball final at Surbiton. He was a very respectible second at lunch before meeting (and loosing to) the the event winner, Joel Taylor (Roehampton),and one of the semi-finalists, Charles Briggs (Caversham) after lunch! Overall a fun event in aid of a good cause (UNHCR). Keith said "an excellent day, very enjoyable and very rewarding. It has opened my eyes to club croquet and croquet competitions away from St Albans"
The report on the CA website (including Keith's picture!) is here.
22nd April - Stuart and Chris do well at EACF Club Champions Tournament
Chris Frost and Stuart Stafford both qualified for the East Anglian Croquet federation AC Champions Day by winning club competitions in the previous season, albeit for different clubs. This year’s competition was held at Watford CC on a warm but breezy April Saturday and both had opted for the 18 point handicap competition and thus were pitted against each other and 4 other players from Watford, Norwich and Colchester.
In the first round, Stuart and Chris had been paired against each other on a heavy dewed and uneven lawn 1 and Chris settled quicker, including building a 10 hoop break to open a 15-6 lead just after halfway, but with the lawn drying out and using his bisques, Stuart built a 12 hoop break including a rover peel to secure victory.
In the afternoon, having moved onto a flatter lawn 2, both experienced comfortable victories, Chris +11 versus Adam Huby of Watford and Stuart beating Jonathan Sisson of Norwich +14, leaving Stuart with 2 wins and Chris alongside 3 others on 1 win.
After tea and cake, the final round began with any of 5 of the 6 players being able to win the competition, and Chris found himself back on Lawn 1 playing Martin Tunmore from Colchester and in a see saw match Chris found himself behind by 4 hoops as Martin used his bisques to take the lead, but as time ran out, Chris managed to take the lead and eventually ran out the winner by 2 hoops on time. Stuart returned to lawn 2 to play David Robinson of Watford. David, with some local lawn knowledge, began strongly and hit in well, to build 5-1 lead, but Stuart began to run hoops and kept David separated to build a 12-8 lead with an hour’s play left, but David hit back strongly to lead, but missed his opportunity to peg out, leaving himself with just one ball. When time was called he led 17-14, but with Stuart’s balls well placed. David missed his long shot at peg, leaving Stuart to run the two remaining hoops and peg out and win the overall competition unbeaten and Chris was joint second.
For a full report see here
21st April - Golf Croquet Friendly vs Wingrave
St Albans CC has invited Wingrave CC to come to Clarence Park for a friendly match of Golf Croquet. This will be on Thursday 18th May at 2.00pm. Wingrave is a village in Buckinghamshire, about four miles north east of Aylesbury and three miles south west of Wing. Each club will have four players, and it should be a fun afternoon playing against new opponents.
16th April - Introductory Course Details
This year's introductory course will run on Thursday evenings on May 11, 18, 25 and June 1 from 6.30 – 8.00 p.m.
The course is aimed at beginners and will teach the basics, Golf Croquet and Association Croquet.
The cost is £40 and includes club membership for the season.
All equipment is provided, just wear trainers and come prepared for all weathers!
If you want to sign-up please contact Stephen (details on the contact page).
9th April - Entries for the club competions are open
See the mail from Keith for details - the summary is we're running the competitions shown on the internal competitions page. Drop Keith a mail if you'd like to enter. Entries close on the 8th May when the draw will be made.
8th April - Stephen wins charity one ball competition
Stephen won the charity one ball heat in slightly unusual circumstances. The competition consisted of two blocks of four people played on the half lawns with the winner and second place in each block going through to the semi-final and final played on the full lawn. In the first block Heather and Brian both got two wins with Brian winning on the who-beat-who rule. In the second block Chris won all three of his games and Stephen, Keith and Gill each won one game. A three way tie-break put Keith second, & Stephen third. As Heather couldn't play in the semi-finals the two third place players (Stephen and Vicki) played a tie-break to see who would get the vacant semi-final slot which Stephen won. In the semi-finals Keith beat Brian and Stephen beat Chris. Stephen went one to beat Keith in the final. With Chris beating Brian in the 3rd/4th play-off.
Keith is going to represent St Albans in the final at Surbiton.
All agreed it was a very successful way of kicking off the season, and we raised £80 for UN HCR.
1st April - ... and the club sessions have started
The lawn isn't as good as we'd like, and it could do with a grass cut but its still playable, so we held the first of the club sessions this morning.
28th March - The lawn is open!
A huge THANK YOU to the wonderful team of Heather, Stephen, Keith, Brian, Ed and Gill who braved the rain today to set up the lawn! It is now open for play, but the ground staff will be re-seeding and top dressing some areas of the lawn shortly, so please give them priority if they arrive to do some work, and try to be gentle with those areas, so as so enable the grass to grow! We think Friday morning will be Maintenance Time (i.e. mowing) and this will be added this to the on-line booking diary when it is confirmed.
Charity one-ball competition
We are planning to hold a heat of the Croquet Association’s Charity One-ball Competition on Easter Saturday 8th April starting at 10am (assuming the lawn is playable by then). Whilst this is a national competition (and there’s an opportunity to go to a national final if you win/want), it’s really a chance to get people together at the start of the season, raise some money for charity and have a fun day. Tea/coffee and cake will be involved, and even if you’re not playing spectators will always be welcome.
The game is played using handicaps so everyone has a chance of competing. If you’d like to enter, or just have questions, or just want to donate then please let Stephen (stephen@smills.co.uk) know.
One ball is an easy game to learn designed to be played by players of both Association Croquet and Golf Croquet, with each game taking about 30 minutes. There's more details on how to play one-ball if you click here.
This year’s charity is UNHCR, the UK arm of the United Nations Refugee Agency (www.unrefugees.org.uk). There is no entry fee for the competition, but a donation of £10 is suggested. Donations are welcome even if you’re not taking part.
Whatsapp Groups
We already have a Whatsapp group for people playing GC, we're also going to create a Whatsapp group for people playing AC (mainly to allow people to know who's going to the club sessions). Contact Stephen (for AC) or Keith (for GC) to be added to these groups. Contact details are on the contacts page.
AGM Report
Approximately 50% of the club attended the AGM. See the mail from Heather for the minutes but the key points were:
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Election of the committee (Keith replaced Stuart running club competitions)
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Confirming competition entries (Herts & Beds League, Longman)
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Addition of an extra GC club session. The club sessions are shown on the calendar page.
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Heather confirmed two refresher sessions on Tue 11th April for full lawn improvers, and Thur 13th April for half lawn improvers
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Confirmation that the introductory course would be run in May/June on 4 Thursday evenings
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A development report from Roger
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Subscriptions to remain as in 2022
AGM
The AGM will be held on the 28th February. See a mail from Heather for more details. Expect the website to be updated with club sessions etc. soon after the AGM!
New Year - updated website
The website has rolled over to 2023, so all the details of the 2022 season are now in the archive. There are also a few new pages:
Any feedback, corrections, comments or suggestions would be gratefully received by the webmaster (Stephen!)
