Pendle and Craven Croquet Club Annual Dinner, Friday 23rd February 2007

Fifty-eight members, friends and vistors sat down to an excellent meal in Colne Golf Club to celebrate the past year and look forward to the next.

A few moments of silence preceded the meal in memory of John Beech, founder and chief administrator of the club until his death.

We were honoured by the presence of our President, Mr Ted Fort, of Fort Vale Engineering who regaled us with the history of Earby, and some of his own history as an apprentice at Rolls Royce, Barnoldwick in the 1950’s. David Openshaw, the President of the World Croquet Federation and Chairman of the Croquet Association, also spoke, exhorting the club to encourage more people, especially young people, to come and play the game. He offered the chance of Pendle & Craven applying for some prestigious international matches in 2009. This would set the club at the forefront of British Croquet. He also related some of his past history, being born locally and having history with QEGS school in Blackburn which had its own croquet lawns and produced some of the best English players.

Chairman, Geoff Whitaker, thanked all members and visitors for their attendance and continuing support for the club. The club won the beautiful Longman Cup in 2006 and this was presented by David Openshaw to team Captain Robin Delves, followed by The North West Federation Trophy to team Captain David Pollitt, and club trophies: Treasurer, Peter Dowdall won three of the club trophies and Abdul Ahmad, Secretary, won the New Year One Ball trophy. Maureen Whitaker, Catering Manager, won the Whitaker Cup for Golf Croquet. John Filsak, Tournament Secretary and Andrew Webb won the Association Doubles plates.

The Tombola finished, raffles were drawn. Mrs Beech, to loud applause, winning the necklace made and donated by Ann Dowdall. The evening was rounded off beautifully by Alice Fleck, accompanied by her husband Derek on guitar, who sang one of her own humourous poems, an encouragement to play more croquet.

New Years Day – One Ball at Pendle by Roger Schofield and Barbara Dutton (1/1/07)

Only five players entered this year’s rearranged One Ball competition. The court ran true and smooth and while there was no standing water it was very slow, there having been a great deal of rain in the night.

Abdul played very well taking the lead in every game and maintaining it to the end. All players found it difficult to hit in and impossible to keep a break going for more than a couple of hoops. Earby had better weather than many places, being very kind, the best yet, with only about five minutes of rain and the same of hail.

The winner was Abdul Ahmad with 3 wins, beating Robin Delves, Roger Schofield and John Filsack.

Pendle Win the 2006 Longman Cup (2/10/06 – by Barbara Dutton)

Pendle & Craven were victorious in Surbiton and are now the holders of the beautiful silver Longman Cup. This trophy was founded in 1928. The weather was showery and the lawns were frequently flooded, but drained well and played very level. On Saturday in the semi final v Blewbury, Oxon, Pendle & Craven won 4 -3. This put them in the final on Sunday v Parsons Green of London where once again the score was 4 -3 to Pendle. The victorious team for this competition was Robin Delves, Abdul Ahamd, Andrew Webb and Alice Fleck.

Pendle & Craven beat Parsons Green 4-3 to win the Longman Cup – by Nick Parish

Pendle won the Longman Cup, beating Parsons Green 4-3 in the final. On a rain-soaked day at Surbiton Pendle & Craven had a long battle before finally overcoming Parsons Green by the narrowest margin to win the Longman Cup by 4 matches to 3, for the first time since 1991.

There was an unfortunate incident in the morning games, when a clock was set wrongly resulting in one game being declared finished 55 minutes earlier than the 3.5 hour time limit. To make matters worse the game double-banked on the same lawn did not have its own clock (for reasons that aren’t clear – although there is a rumour that somebody sat on the clock and reset it!) and on the basis that it had started at the same time, also finished at that point. The truth was eventually discovered but at that point in both games, both participants were ruled to have quit the court in agreement the game being over.