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Silver Celebration for Festival – 29/30 June 2019

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2019 Festival Champions – Pendle & Craven

Whilst the rest of Europe were celebrating record summer temperatures, our Federation had its own record to celebrate – the 25th year of the North West Festival of Croquet – record number of competitors, new competition with Level Play Golf introduced, Southport lawns best ever, we even hired portable toilets for the first time!

Manager Ivan Wheatley produced a strict schedule of matches to fit everything in and for the first time, games were ended as soon as the ball stopped moving when the timer ‘pinged’, much to the chagrin of the croquet heroes who like to come from behind to snatch a win with their last turn.

The Southport micro climate gave us a mixture of blue skies, dazzling sunshine, bracing sea breezes, grey skies and the odd shower – all adding to the colourful spectacle as up to 100 people filled the lawns with a kaleidoscope of club team colours. Margaret Flemington and her team produced another catering triumph enabling everyone to indulge in a fabulous lunch, afternoon tea and copious light refreshments. Players mingled and renewed friendships and rivalries – it seemed as though everyone knew everyone producing a wonderful atmosphere, so typical of our Federation.

After two days of competitive croquet Pendle set another record by winning the Advanced and the Handicap trophies for the first time, Chester retained the Short Croquet shield, Llanfairfechan won the Golf Croquet event and Southport became the first winners of the new Level Play Golf Croquet trophy. When all the points were calculated, Pendle were declared Festival Champions for 2019.

2019 Festival Placings

2019 FESTIVAL PLACINGSADVANCED ACHANDICAP ACSHORT ACLEVEL PLAY GCHANDICAP GC
1stPendle & CravenPendle & CravenChesterSouthportLlanfairfechan
2ndBuryFyldeSouthportCrake ValleyCrake Valley
3rdBowdonBowdonWestmorlandPendle & CravenCulcheth

Federation Chairman Paul Rigge closed the Festival with a presentation of all trophies, acknowledged the enormous work of Southport for their organisation and of course everyone who participated in a great weekend.

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2019 National Inter Club Tournaments

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The Croquet Association organise a range of national competitions for clubs.  Here is the list of tournaments featuring north west clubs in 2019:

THE LONGMAN CUP 2019 (AC)
Handicap play, players must have a Handicap between 3.5 and 20.  Teams must have a gross handicap of at least 24.
Featured Bowdon, Bury, Chester, Pendle and Southport – see Longman Cup results here
9 May – Pendle lost to Tyneside 3-4
25 May – Southport lost to Bury 2-5
10 Jun – Bowdon lost to Chester 0-7
8 July – Bury lost to Tyneside 2-5
Chester to play Letchworth in Semi-final ……

THE SECRETARY’S SHIELD 2019 (AC)
Handicap play for players with a maximum handicap of 20. Normally one doubles and six single matches are played in a single day by a team of four, but variation is possible – refer to the full regulations for details.
Featured Chester – see Secretary’s Shield results here 
19 May – Chester beat Tyneside 4-3
24 Aug – Chester beat Ashby 7-0
Chester to play St Albans in Final …….

THE MARY ROSE INTER-CLUB TROPHY 2019 (AC)
Advanced play, players must have Handicaps of 0 or greater and teams must have a gross handicap of at least 4.
Featured Bowdon, Chester, and Pendle – see Mary Rose results here
02 July – Bowdon beat Pinchbeck 4-3
09 July – Chester beat Pendle 4-3
29 July – Chester lost to Nottingham 2-5
20 Aug – Bowdon beat Newport 5-1
05 Oct – Bowdon beat High Wycombe 4-3 in final

THE SHORT CROQUET INTER CLUB TROPHY 2019 (AC)
Handicap play on Short Lawn – in each team, one player with a short croquet handicap of 3+, others 5+. Maximum handicap of 10. Teams must have an aggregate short croquet handicap of at least 25.
Featured Bury, Bowdon, Chester, Penrith, Southport and Westmorland – see Short Croquet Inter Club results here
10 May – Bowdon beat Bath (w/o)
13 May – Kington Langley beat Chester (w/o)
19 May – Nottingham beat Southport (w/o)
4 Jun – Penrith beat York 8-3
6 Jun – Bowdon beat Huddersfield (w/o)
15 Jun – Bury beat Nottingham (w/o)
19 Jun – Penrith beat Westmorland 9-2
02 Aug – Bowdon beat Penrith 7-4
05 Aug – Bury beat Kington Langley 6-5
17 Sep – Bowdon beat Bury 9-2 in Final

THE INTER-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2019 (AC)
Advanced Level, no handicap restrictions.
Featured Bowdon – see Inter-Club results here 
11 May – Bristol beat Bowdon 6-1

THE GOLF CROQUET MURPHY SHIELD 2019 (GC)
Featured Pendle – see GC Murphy Shield results here   
25 April – Pendle beat Ripon Spa 6-1
19 May – Croquet Durham beat Pendle 5-2

THE GOLF CROQUET INTER-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2019 (GC)
No NWFCC clubs entered this year – see GC Inter-Club results here 





Croquet on Radio Lancashire

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Liz Wilson and Paul Rigge recently starred on Radio Lancashire to talk about ………… Croquet !!!

They appeared on a Thursday evening chat show (11th April) about minority and grassroots (definitely not mainstream) sports and were interviewed by Scott Wallis over a one hour programme.

You can listen and learn by following this link (you may have to register with the BBC) – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p073jt5w

You even get to hear Santana, Stereophonics, Gabrielle and Ronan Keating – Life is rollercoaster!

Paul Rigge and Liz Wilson at Radio Lancashire Studios (photo: Scott Wallis)

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Webmaster – Chris Alvey (webmaster@croquetnw.co.uk)