North West Federation of Croquet Clubs - for everything Croquet in the north west
MILLENIUM HANDICAP at PENDLE (8/4/06) Saturday 8 April 2006
16 players experienced rain, wind, low temperatures, even a bit (a small bit) of sunshine, and yet more rain. By lunchtime, the lawns were waterlogged and play abandoned for the day. After an inspection early on Sunday morning, the tournament was abandoned.
BURY WIN 2005 JAMBOREE CHAMPIONSHIP
Congratulations to Bury Croquet Club on winning the North West Federation Chamipionship at Southport on 2/3 July 05.
Twenty teams from clubs in the Northwest Federation enjoyed an excellent weekend of croquet competing in the club championships held at Southport on 2/3 July 2005. Play started at 9am each morning to allow the games to be completed by 5pm on Sunday. The southport weather was warm and sunny, the food good, with the atmosphere and sociability first class. Barry Keen expertly managed the event. There were competitions to organise in four disciplines, golf, short, association handicap and advanced.
Bury won the Advanced event, Southport won the Handicap, Fylde won the Short and Culcheth won the golf event. When all points were aggregated, Bury emerged as the Champion Club.
The club championship is an excellent way to meet players from across the region as well as introduce new players into the tournament scene. Many start with golf, progress to short and a couple of years later will be playing full lawn association handicap or advanced. Many of the players now competing in the various leagues in the Northwest Federation started their competitive croquet at the club championships and have gone on to become regular tournament players.
MILLENIUM HANDICAP WON UNDER DURESS
Blustery gales were blowing in from the Irish Sea when Chester Croquet Club hosted this year’s Millennium Handicap Tournament at Westminster Park on 7/8 May 2005. This was the fifth annual event since the tournament was founded in 2000 and the first to be hosted by Chester now that the club has four full-sized lawns.
Six clubs from the North West Regional Federation, including Bowden, Bury, Fylde, Pendle and Southport as well as Chester, fielded a total of fourteen contestants, each of whom played five three-hour full-lawn matches in a marathon session over the two days.
Tournament Manager and North West Federation Chairman, Barry Keen, described conditions as “playing under duress”. Overall winner of the tournament was Lee Hartley from Fylde Croquet Club who won all five games he played having taken up the game only last year. Runner up in second place was Mark Lloyd of Chester who won four games and who was overall winner in 2004. Other competitors from Chester were Alan Clare, David Guyton and Alan Stubbs.