St Albans Croquet Club
This page gives the details of this years regional and national competitions that we are entering. For 2025 we are entering:
We're not eligible for the Secretary's Shield this year, and have decided not to enter the Longman Cup.
We may also play interclub friendly GC matches.
Longman Cup
This is a nationwide handicap inter-club tournament for teams of four with handicaps between 3.5 and 20. This is normally played with teams of four when one doubles and two singles are played in the morning and four singles in the afternoon.
St Albans won the Longman Cup in 2020.
We haven't entered a team in 2025 but hope to return to the competition in 2026
Herts-Beds League
This is a team tournament for the croquet clubs within the Herts-Beds area, in 2024 there are six teams playing. Matches are played on handicap, a combination of singles and doubles, between teams of three or four players depending on whether the match is being played at a club with one or more lawns.
The draw/table for 2025 is here. We were 2nd in 2024 and 2023 , and won in 2018 and 2019.
28th April 2025 v Enfield Drew 3-3
On a glorious sunny day the team of Heather, Stephen, Roger B and Roger W (playing in his first match) travelled to Enfield for our first match in the Beds & Herts league. In the morning doubles, Heather and Roger W pulled out an early lead with Heather going to rover, and maintained that lead. With time running down Enfield staged a comeback, but St Albans held a 2 point lead as time was called. In Stephen and Roger B's match, Enfield used their bisques to get their high handicapper around and made steady progress with their other ball. Stephen & Roger B (playing ASD) found their form in the second half of the match and put together some good breaks, but time somehow disappeared leaving them 9 behind.
In the afternoon's matches,
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Heather's opponent made steady progress and continued to leave her balls split up. However, in the last quarter of the match Heather put together two good breaks taking both of her balls to peg, and pegging out with a minute to spare.
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In Stephen's match, he took an early lead using 4 ball breaks to get to rover and 3 back. However, after taking his forward ball through rover, his opponent proceeded to go all the way round and peg his ball out. In the three ball ending that followed, Stephen eventually hit in a couple of times to successfully get his rear ball to peg and win +7
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In Roger B's match he was facing a forest of bisques which his opponent used wisely to pull out and maintain a lead that Roger wasn't able to eat into.
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In Roger W's match both had bisques and were evenly matched in getting their first balls round, but his opponent used his remaining bisques to get his second ball round and peg out.
Overall the match was a 3-3 draw.
Scores (St Albans first)
Heather Bennett (1) & Roger White (20) beat David Frost (4½) & Peter Brock (18) +2(T) (17-15)
Stephen Mills (2½) & Roger Bowman (9) lost to Thomas Halliday (8) & Colin Carver (22) -9(T) (14-23)
Heather Bennett (1) beat David Frost (4½) +10
Stephen Mills (2½) beat Thomas Halliday (8) +7
Roger Bowman (9) lost to Peter Brock (18) -15 (6-21)
Roger White (20) lost to Colin Carver (22) -16
8th June 2025 v Letchworth Won 4-2
The team of Stephen, Brian, Mike and Ross (playing in his first match) travelled to Letchworth for our second game of the season. The forecast threatened rain but it never materialised, and the Letchworth lawns were in very good condition and much truer than the St Albans lawn.
The morning doubles were rather one-sided. The Letchworth team all had handicaps less than 10 so the St Albans pairings of Stephen & Ross and Brian and Mike both got bisques which they used to good effect allowing Letchworth only a single hoop in total across both games! The games finished relatively quickly so the singles were started in the morning with a break for lunch in the middle of the 4 singles games.
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In Stephen's game, his opponent never really got started, and so Stephen was on rover and hoop six at lunch, and quickly wrapped the game up in the first break after lunch. This meant that St Albans couldn't loose the match, but needed one further point to win the game.
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In Mike's game his opponent put together two excellent breaks of 11 and 12 hoops, and although Mike used his bisques to close the gap, the game went to Letchworth
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Ross looked like he'd score the winning point in his first singles game as he got both balls to rover, peeled one of his balls through rover, but then unfortunately blobbed his other ball. His opponent hit in from the boundary, went all the way round and pegged out Ross' ball, and then took his second ball all the way round to win the match. However, a very creditable first game for Ross in the team.
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That meant Brian's match was crucial (although we didn't tell him that!). Despite Brian leading from the start his opponent repeatedly hit in across the lawn, and caught back up. However, a blobbed hoop by his opponent at Brian's hoop proved decisive and Brian (mainly via an impressive two ball break) went onto win.
The 4-2 win leaves us top of the league after round 2 - tied with Wrest Park who have exactly the same record
Scores (St Albans names first)
Stephen Mills (2½) & Ross Raftery (18) beat Keith Rhodes (3) & Robert Skeen (4½) +25
Brian Johns (12) & Mike Hann (14) beat Mark Homan (5) & Colin Davies (7) +26
Stephen Mills (2½) beat Keith Rhodes (3) +22
Brian Johns (12) beat Robert Skeen (4½) +11
Mike Hann (14) lost to Mark Homan (5) -6
Ross Raftery (18) lost to Colin Davies (7) -2
26th June 2025 v Northampton - Won 3-1
As Northampton had lost one of their players at the last minute, our team was reduced to 3 people, Heather, Mike and Brian who travelled to Northampton on a hot, sunny day. Things got hotter when a forgotten kettle and gas cooker went up in flames, along with the gas hose, and only a quick bucket of water stopped the gas bottle exploding.
Heather and Mike played the morning’s doubles with their opponents having 7½ bisques which they used to get going to win 24-17
In the morning singles Brian used most of his bisques in his opening break, taking black to rover. The players then traded odd hoops and small breaks until, with ten minutes left on the clock, his clearly struggling opponent called time due to a muscle strain picked up early on, with Brian leading 21-8.
With Northampton now down to two players, only Mike and Brian played the afternoon singles. In Mike's game both players had similar styles, but Mike took an early lead using a couple of his bisques and was always ahead. His opponent managed a nice 3 ball break to get to rover, but his other ball never got going. Mike pegged out with less than 5 minutes to spare
Brian’s match was a cagey affair, with neither player risking their bisques in early exchanges which resulted in a handful of hoops each. Then Brian’s opponent used her bisques to build a good 4-ball break and take a lead of several hoops. Brian eventually managed to put a couple of breaks together, taking red and yellow to 3-back; blocking his opponents attempts to get another break going, Brian ran out 16-11 winner when time was called.
The 3-1 win means we’re top of the league after 3 of the 5 rounds!
Scores (St Albans names first)
Heather Bennett (1) & Mike Hann (14) lost to Jane Evans (14) & Paul Chard (16) -7(T) (17-24)
Brian Johns (12) beat Nick Evans (1½) +13(T) (21-8)
Heather Bennett vs Nick Evans (match abandoned)
Brian Johns (12) beat Jane Evans (14) +5(T) (16-11)
Mike Hann (14) beat Paul Chard (16) +13
27th July v Wrest Park - Won 3-1
We won our first home match of the season, which leaves us top of the table with one match to play.
In the morning singles, Stephen was playing Peter Rothwell who was in excellent form, and whilst Stephen got a good first break (although he had to use his full bisque to correct a foul shot), Peter won in two breaks including a rush peel of rover!
In the morning doubles Roger B & Roger W built up an early lead, eventually reaching 18-0 by careful use of bisques. Once on the lawn, Wrest Park, playing alternate shots quickly reached rover with their first ball through a series of four-ball breaks. At this stage both of the St Albans balls were also on rover and the Wrest Park team succeeded in peeling and pegging out one of them. Wrest Park's second ball however remained stubbornly stuck on hoop 1 and although eventually getting started was unable to make too much progress in the remaining time such that the match finished 25-13 to St Albans.
In the afternoon singles, Roger B used all 3 of his bisques to get going against Tim Nurse, and continued the break to Rover. Tim soon made a long break to hoop 10. There was then a steady period when Roger made good progress, getting to peg with his second ball while Tim's first ball also reached that point. This left Tim with his second ball needing to make all the hoops to win. He made a superb effort, but fell short by 2 hoops.
In the afternoon doubles Heather and Roger W played John Bevington and Peter Rothwell. Playing alternate shots, the St Albans team used 5 of their 9 bisques to get their first ball round to Rover. The opposition failed to make hoop 1 and our team took 2nd ball round to penult with 2 bisques remaining. Peter then did an impeccable break of 11 hoops to get to Rover. After a few unsuccessful attempts to use the last 2 bisques to run penult and then do Rover peel, Heather and Roger were left on Rover and peg, giving John Bevington the opportunity of making his 12 hoops and peg out in the final turn before time was called. He reached 2 back before breaking down, and Heather missed the final turn shot to attempt to run rover and finish.
Scores
Stephen Mills (2½) lost to Peter Rothwell (1) -10
Roger Bowman (9) & Roger White (18) beat John Bevington (½) & Tim Nurse (6) +12(T) (25-13)
Roger Bowman (9) beat Tim Nurse (6) +2(T) (21-19)
Heather Bennett (1½) & Roger White (18) beat John Bevington (½) & Peter Rothwell (1) +3(T) (21-18)
TBC v Watford
Our final match of the season in the league, if we win it we will win the league!
