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Bury Brewer Wins Croquet Tankard and Place in GB Squad

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Matt Holmes Retains the Southport Advanced Jubilee Tankard

Matt Holmes (Bury) being presented with the Southport Advanced Jubilee Tankard by Southport President Prof. Alan Pidcock.
Matt Holmes (Bury) being presented with the Southport Advanced Jubilee Tankard by Southport President Prof. Alan Pidcock.

Entrants from Middlesborough, Manchester, Chester, Hull and Cheltenham plus a few local players entered the first Southport Open Croquet competition of 2015 in Victoria Park last weekend. The lawns looked resplendent for this stage of the season and played very well despite the efforts of the wind and rain to disturb players concentration. Sun cream was required on both days – to protect against the sun on Saturday and to waterproof the skin against the rain on Sunday.

Local players Carol Lewis, Alan Pidcock and Brian Kerr fared well but could not match the sublime skills of the brewer from Bury – Matt Holmes. Matt won this trophy last year and has continued his development, now being a member of the Great Britain development squad.

In an exciting final, Matt defeated Phil Scarr from Middslesborough. Matt thanked the club for organising a superb tournament with excellent management and catering.  As always Southports pricing offers wonderful value – £7.50 per day inclusive of two course meal, afternoon tea and coffee/tea/biscuits all day.

Following this success at Southport, Matt Holmes has now reached a satisfactory grade as an International Player Development Squad Graduate to now be admitted to the GB training squad.  In order to retain this place over the next few years Matt must keep improving until holding a World class grade.

One Ball Croquet Raises £630 for Bowel Cancer UK

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Bowdon and Southport Raise £630 in a few hours

Bowdon players at their 2015 Charity One Ball Event
Bowdon players at their 2015 Charity One Ball Event

Two north west clubs took part in the national CA One Ball Charity Challenge this year.  The designated charity for 2015 was Bowel Cancer UK, since their house colour is purple, competitors were asked to wear something purple.  Entrants usually donate £5 and with other initiatives such as a raffle, a substantial sum of money can be raised in a few hours of enjoyable croquet.

Bowdon and Southport held events on Easter Monday and coincidentally both attracted 34 players and raised similar sums of money (£250 and £254).  Consequently, each club is entitled to send five players to the national finals in Surbiton.

At Bowdon, Graham Good won their charity one-ball event by winning all his four games 14-7, 14-11, 14-7 and 14-5. Second placed was John Haworth.  John and Graham were the only two players to win all their matches.

Derek Lunt receiving the Southport One Ball Charity Trophy from organiser Tony Thomas
Derek Lunt receiving the Southport One Ball Charity Trophy from organiser Tony Thomas

Over at Southport, the far end of the lawns kept disappearing intermittently as a sea mist rolled in from the Irish Sea.  Nevertheless, we believe all players returned to the clubhouse with their sanity intact for a presentation to Ken Allen for the fastest game; Chris Sweeney for ‘Hoop of the Day’; Don Williamson for ‘Shot of the Day’ and the overall winner, Derek Lunt, for most games won.

A total sum of £504 was raised between the two clubs.  With Gift Aid, this raises the donation to Bowel Cancer UK to £630, a wonderful achievement, well done to both clubs.

John Saxby R.I.P.

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We are sad to report that John Saxby, Secretary of Bowdon Croquet Club, passed away last Saturday (21st April) after a short illness with pancreatic cancer. John was well known throughout our Federation and always made succinct and relevant contributions to our Federation meetings. Many players will have enjoyed playing Croquet with him, especially in the Midweek League. He was very popular and will be greatly missed by his colleagues at Bowdon and many friends throughout the region. There will be a requiem mass on Wednesday 1st April at 10.00am at St Vincents Church, Bentinck Road, Altrincham. There is a request for no flowers but donations to Marie Curie Nurses would be appreciated. On behalf of everyone in the Federation, we send our condolences to John’s family at this sad and difficult time.

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