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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.

Federation Golf Croquet Trophy Goes to North Wales

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FEDERATION HANDICAP GOLF TOURNAMENT – WHITEHEAD PARK 15th JULY 2017

Ten players from six clubs took part in the 2017 Federation Handicap Golf tournament at Bury.

Manager David Barratt presents trophy to Roger Edwards

The day started fine but shortly became rather damp with the almost constant drizzle, and occasional heavy shower. The format was block play with the winners of one block playing the second place from the other block. The remaining players also had other games to play. Seventeen of the original block play of twenty games went at least to hoop eleven with three of those going to the Golden Hoop.

In Block A – Roger Edwards from Craig Y Don gained 1st place with Janet Smith from Fylde in second place.  In Block B – John Gilmartin from Bury came first with Terry Dunbar from Southport in second place.

Semi-finals: Roger beat Terry on the Golden Hoop and John beat Jan at hoop 11. 

Final: Won by Roger 7-4 whilst the play off for 3rd and 4th places was won by Jan 7-5.  Well done and Congratulations Roger.

Roger Edwards receives trophy from Manager David Barratt

All enjoyed the day despite the weather. Thanks to all the Bury members who helped on the day.

North West Regain Pennine Croquet Crown

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North West Win Annual Pennine Cup 2nd July 2017

2017 Pennine Cup Players (photo: Phil Errington)

A team of 6 from The North East met up with the Team from The North West at Pendle’s Lawns on Sunday 2nd July.  The North East Team was lead by Charles Waterfield (2) and included Derek Watts (½) , Phil Errington (1), Roger Staples (3), Nigel Roberts (11) and John Fitzpatrick (16).  The North West Team was Captained by Liz Wilson (1 ½ ) and included Mark Lloyd (0), Peter Wilson ( ½ ), David Lloyd (8), Paul Dowdall (10) and Betty Bates (12). 

The morning doubles finished 2 – 1 to the North East with Liz and Betty just snatching victory on time to gain a valuable point.  The afternoon games were played as 3 Advanced and 3 Handicap.  Paul Dowdall won his game against Nigel Roberts in record time winning +24.   The other two handicap games had honours shared with Betty beating John but David losing to Roger Staples.  The Advanced games were won by Peter +18 (vs Phil Errington) and Mark Lloyd +15 vs Derek Watts.  The Captains’ match was looking like a white wash for Liz but she pulled it back in the last ½ hour and only narrowly lost – 8 against Charles.  Both the weather and the company were good. 

Thanks to Pendle for hosting.  And many thanks to the North West players from the manager.  The final score 5 – 4 to the good guys!  The trophy is back in the North West – Hurrah! North West Regain Pennine Cup.

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