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Croquet in the North West

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You are here: Home / Archives for 2013

Honours for North West Croquet at National AGM

11 November 2013 by Tony Thomas

 Three awards for the North West at the Croquet Association AGM

At the Croquet Association AGM in October, three CA Awards were presented to Fylde Croquet Club, Ken Cooper and Francois Garcia.

2013 Fylde Apps HeleyApps Heley Award – Fylde Croquet Club

The Apps Heley Award for improvements to clubs with three or four lawns was awarded jointly to Fylde CC and West Worthing CC.

Fylde was formed in 1986 and in the last two years has:
– Developed a third lawn from two disused grass tennis courts, using members’ labour;
– Taken on the maintenance of its lawns, again using volunteer labour and funded the purchase of machinery;
– Built a new clubhouse and played a full part in the North West Federation;
– Hosted its first CA Handicap trophy and the international match between the CA and the CA of Ireland;

 

Ken Cooper Coaching Silver Course

 

Lifetime Coaching Award – Ken Cooper of Bowdon CC

Ken has only been the NW Federations Coaching Officer for the last three years and in that time he has totally revolutonised the ‘thinking and active involvement’ of all our Clubs and individual players into the benefits of good progressive, croquet coaching.  Ken was charged with the job of changing player’s attitude towards competitive play and thereby help develop the quality of our League Games throughout the NWFCC Region. He set about this in earnest by gathering together several of the Federations other coaches and getting their support to assist him in running courses at the various levels required.

Read further details on the citation in a previous post on 25 March 2013 – read more

2013 Francois Garcia

 

 

Steel Bowl – Francois Garcia of Bowdon CC

Awarded to the most improved female Association Croquet Player in 2012.

Francois started the 2012 season on a handicap of 4 after having had a successful season in 2011 culminating in winning the Bowdon B-level event.  In 2012 she decided to concentrate on advanced play.  While not winninmg any competitions she reduced her handicap to 2.5 and her Dynamic Grading has increased from 1512 to 1685.  She reached the final of the Bowdon B-level event again but had to withdraw because of injury.  For the same reason she had to withdraw from the Bowdon B-level weekend tournament.  This cut her playing season by 20% which makes her improvement in 2012 even more of an achievement.

 

2013, Bowdon, Fylde, News

New Croquet League Established at AGM

6 November 2013 by Tony Thomas

Executive Summary of NWFCC AGM held at Culcheth, 2nd November 2013

 

League Trophy Presentations at NWFCC 2013 AGM - l to r - Ken Eccles (Bury - Level Play Golf); Jack Pattenden (Lllanfairfechan - Short); John Dawson (Chester - Advanced); Liz Wilson (NWFCC Chair); Jim Allcock (Westmorland - Midweek); Maureen Ivens (Golf - Handicap); Brian Storey (Bowdon St Marys - Handicap).
League Trophy Presentations at NWFCC 2013 AGM – l to r – Ken Eccles (Bury – Level Play Golf); Jack Pattenden (Lllanfairfechan – Short); John Dawson (Chester – Advanced); Liz Wilson (NWFCC Chair); Jim Allcock (Westmorland – Midweek); Maureen Ivens (Golf – Handicap); Brian Storey (Bowdon St Marys – Handicap).

An excellent attendance of 47 people descended on Culcheth for the Federation AGM last Saturday.  Chair, Liz Wilson and Secretary Paul Rigge, welcomed delegates and reported on a busy and successful croquet season.  Treasurer Bob Connop presented a healthy set of accounts and raised the question of how should we spend surplus money.

Development Officer, Janet Davies, gave her final report, having done an excellent job for five years.  Potential new croquet clubs in the pipeline could be Macclesfield, Congleton, Trinity School Carlisle, and Preston.  League Manager, Tony Thomas reported on a successful but packed season involving 180 matches in which the new league rules had worked well.  Roger Schofield described how eight coaching courses had been delivered across the Federation.  Keith Roberts described the 2013 Festival as one of the best to date.

Dates were agreed for the various Millennium tournaments, Festival and other matches.

For 2014 league play, there will be a few changes – the wrong ball law trialled in 2013 will be discontinued (proved very unpopular), calculation of doubles handicap in association play will be based on players individual indexes rather than handicaps (fairer system and details will appear on match scoresheets).  There was lots of discussion on a convoluted set of motions but it was eventually agreed the Advanced League would retain its present format but a new B Level Advanced League will be established – 3 player teams, 3 hour games, one doubles, four singles, bonus points available, doubles pairing at captains discretion, minimum individual player handicap to be ‘One’.  The League Rules for Golf Croquet need to be revised to clarify differences from the official CA rulebook (times of games, eight turn rule, etc.) – Bob Connop agreed to bring proposals to the Spring Meeting.

With time at a premium it was decided to abandon the traditional verbal reports from clubs since members can read these in the Minutes.  Whilst this was agreed it was also noted this was not satisfactory and it will be imperative this is covered appropriately at the Spring Meeting.

Christine Irwin was elected Coaching Officer and Ron Welch elected Development Officer, all other officers were re-elected.

Trophies were presented by NWFCC Chair, Liz Wilson to: Ken Eccles, (on behalf of Bury Level Play team); Jack Pattenden, (Llanfairfechan Short team); John Dawson, (Chester Advanced team); Jim Allcock, (Westmorland Midweek team); Maureen Ivens, (Golf Handicap team); Brian Storey, (Bowdon St Marys Handicap team).

The Croquet Association have established a Working Party to examine the relationships between the CA and the Federations, their report is on the CA website and everyone was urged to read it since it contains some potential far reaching suggestions.  Brian Storey gave a short presentation in which he described the system being adopted by the CA to consult all members as deeply flawed.  The suggested role of Federations in future is confusing being a mix of autonomous and subservient roles.  Most controversially is a proposed system whereby all players would pay an individual levy each time they play in a Federation formal match.  There is also a more sensible proposal for increasing CA membership by scrapping individual subscriptions but raising the individual club member levy, but as always the devil will be in the detail of charges.  The CA will be holding a Conference to explain the report and listen to opinions in Huddersfield on 15 February 2014 but places are expected to be very limited.  The Federation will hold a club conference to discuss the report at Culcheth on 1st February 2014.

The next scheduled Federation Club Meeting will be in Spring at Culcheth on 8th March 2014.

 

 

 

2013, Federation, News

Southport Runners Up in Longman Croquet Cup Final

7 October 2013 by Tony Thomas

Southport Challenged in Longman Cup Final

Southport receiving Longman Runners Up Tankard from Quiller Barrett (President of CA). From l to r: Brian Lewis, Carol Lewis, Quiller Barrett, Alan Farrell, Tony Thomas
Southport receiving Longman Runners Up Tankard from Quiller Barrett (President of CA).
From l to r: Brian Lewis, Carol Lewis, Quiller Barrett, Alan Farrell, Tony Thomas

The Southport team of Carol Lewis, Tony Thomas, Brian Lewis and Alan Farrell, turned out in determined mood for the Longman Cup in Surbiton.  In glorious weather, Southport fielded their squad on some of the best lawns in the country in the Semi-Finals against the pride of Midlands croquet – Nottingham.  This proved to be a tough match with every game hard fought.  In a closely played doubles game, Carol and Brian Lewis just lost out to a very good Nottingham pair, whilst on the other lawn, Alan Farrell played with amazing skill for the first Southport win of the match.  Tony Thomas felt the full power of the opposition, falling behind early, to thankfully claw his way back into the game to give Southport another win by plus one on time.  Lunchtime score Nottingham 1 Southport 2.  In the afternoon singles games, Brian Lewis failed to contain his Nottingham opponent as the sides drew level 2-2.  But Tony Thomas had a good win to restore Southport’s lead at 3-2.  The remaining singles games were nail biting affairs with players giving their all and no one could sustain any advantage.  But with time running out, Alan Farrell achieved the critical break out to produce the vital win.  Meanwhile Carol Lewis with almost the last turn of her game came from behind to secure another glorious victory.  Final score a flattering 5-2 win for Southport against excellent opponents, putting Southport into the Longman Cup final.

With high hopes Southport took to the lawns again on Sunday to play Woking in the final.  Woking surprised Southport with their strength and skilled play, being a team of experience and rising stars.  Despite Southport playing good croquet, the talent of the Southerners showed.  With Tony facing an opponent with over eleven bisques, Carol and Brian facing a strong doubles pair, only Alan Farrell could salvage a win in the morning session and Woking secured a 2-1 lunchtime lead.  Southport discussed tactics over lunch and felt the match could still be turned around. But this was not to be, as Woking turned up the pressure in the afternoon with formidable croquet, which Southport could not counter and failed to secure a further win.  Final score: Woking 6 Southport 1 – a deserved win for a superb Woking team. A big disappointment to Southport but there was still the pride of reaching a national final, and receiving a trophy for being runners up.

Picture shows the Southport team receiving the runners up Longman trophy.  From left to right – Brian Lewis, Carol Lewis, Quiller Barrett (President of the Croquet Association), Alan Farrell and Tony Thomas.

 

 

2013, News, Southport

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