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Croquet Raises Profile at National Show

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STOP PRESS: Spotted by John Dawson (Chester) – Croquet did make it onto TV at CountryfileLive for 15 seconds for BBC Oxford. Not the 15 minutes Andy Warhol promised but probably the first time for several years that croquet has been on UK TV

See for yourself – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsLHebayWTY

CROQUET MAKES ITS DEBUT AT “COUNTRYFILELIVE”

“CountryfileLive” is an annual show (spun off from BBC TV’s Countryfile) held over 4 days at Blenheim Palace, near Oxford in August and attended by over 120,000 people. This year the CA persuaded the organisers to allow a croquet lawn to be set up in the centre of the Show on which visitors could play under the tutelage of experienced CA players. Firstly Tony Newport and Pat Edgington from the Eynsham club had to make a lawn out of the parkland, then 50 players from neighbouring clubs in the South and South West Federations volunteered to man the lawn over nine hours on each of the four days

The result was hundreds of visitors received 15 minute slots to play croquet and thoroughly enjoyed it. Tens of thousands of visitors watched as they walked past the lawn and many stopped to chat to the CA volunteers in white to learn what croquet was about and pick up some leaflets. Many were local but some came from as far afield as Ireland, Spain, Australia and Canada. The players were of all ages and we even persuaded BBC Countryfile presenter, Anita Rani, “to give croquet a go”!  Afterwards she tweeted “Today I play croquet! I’m a bloomin natural”.

Over 80 people were sufficiently interested to leave their email and post code details for Dave Gunn, our Development Officer, to steer them towards clubs near their homes and a further 20 had serious chats with members of clubs local to the Show. How many will end up playing croquet we don’t know but it was clear the CA and modern croquet raised its public profile and made an impact on visitors to the Show.

Many thanks must go to the 50 volunteers who manned the lawn with great enthusiasm, to Tony and Pat for setting up the lawn, to the Eynsham club for providing the equipment, to Chris Roberts, Klim Seabright and Frances Colman, for recruiting the volunteers and to Liz Larsson and Dan Atiyah of the CA office for managing the complexities of the admin.

Pendle Reach Semi-Final of Golf Croquet Murphy Shield

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Pendle Going to Semi-Finals of Murphy Shield.

A dull, warm day with occasional drizzle welcomed the quarter final match against Belay Hall in the national Golf Croquet Murphy Shield. The lawns were in good condition and thanks go to Peter Dewhurst and Will Drake for all their help in preparing for the event.

Belsay Hall team arrived after a good journey from the north east. Christine Wood (3) captained the team and she was supported by Belsay Hall Chairman David Millner (3), Derek Johnson (3) and Brenda Johnson(8). Pendle again were represented by the winning team from the Ripon Spa match of Libby Dixon(2), Keith Terry (3), Paul Dowdall (3) and Will Drake (6).

At lunch Pendle had a commanding lead of 3 games to nil with many of the games going to 7/6. The day ended with a resounding win of 6 games to 1. The match was played in great spirit and Pendle made new friends. The Belsay Hall team left after a full afternoon tea for their journey home.

David Boyd Heads for National Croquet Final

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Regional Round – National ‘B’ Level Golf Croquet Competition
Hosted by Bury Croquet Club – 8th July 2017

l to r: Winner David Boyd (Chester), Manager David Barratt (Bury), Runner Up Roger I’Anson (Ripon).

 16 players enjoyed a beautiful day  of weather at Whitehead Park to battle it out for the Bury CC Round of this National B Level Golf tournament. 
Play was in two blocks, all play all, with many keenly fought games. Out of 60 games 15 went to the Golden Hoop and 11 more went to hoop 12.

The  eventual block winners and runners up couldn’t be verified until after the last rounds in the 2 blocks. In Block A Trevor Farrell (Chester) was the winner with 5 wins out of 7. That left us with five players on 4 wins. Using the ‘who beat who’ Philip Nuttall (Bury) came out as second.

In Block B we had 3 players on 5 wins before the final round. The winner was David W. Boyd (Chester) with 6 wins. Again using ‘who beat who’ last year’s winner Roger I’Anson (Ripon) came second.

 In the semi finals Roger beat Trevor 7-6 and David beat Phil 7-5.

In the play off for 3rd and 4th places, Trevor beat Phil 7-5.  Whilst in the final the battle between David and Roger went all the way to the Golden Hoop with David taking the honours 7-6. The game could have gone either way.

Everyone enjoyed the long day in the brilliant sunshine, well managed by Bury members  Jean Hargeaves and David Barrett.

Congratulations to all and good luck in the final David.

Winner – David W Boyd (Chester)

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