Ten members of Bury Croquet Club recently returned from a memorable visit to Bury’s German twin town of Schorndorf, combining a week of croquet with friendship, cultural exchange and the opportunity to experience the developing German croquet scene.

The principal purpose of the visit was to Croquet Club Waldau, in the Stuttgart region. Established only three years ago, the club was delighted to welcome Bury Croquet Club as its first overseas visitors.

Waldau is affiliated with the German Croquet Association and forms part of the sports complex operated by Luftbad-Verein-Stuttgart e.V. The club currently has around 30 members and is still developing its facilities and playing programme.

The Bury visitors were able to experience the club’s lawns at first hand. As might be expected from a relatively new facility, the lawns are currently somewhat “challenging”, but this did little to diminish the enjoyment of the visit. Indeed, the combination of friendly competition, new surroundings and the enthusiasm of the Waldau members made for three particularly enjoyable days of croquet.

Matches were played throughout the visit, with English and German players forming mixed pairs and playing both with and against one another. The games provided more than simply competition: players were able to exchange techniques, discuss different approaches to the game and share their experiences of developing croquet within their respective clubs.

The visit also demonstrated the value of international club-to-club exchanges in introducing players to different styles of play and helping newer clubs develop their experience and confidence.

The sporting programme concluded on Saturday, when several members of the Schorndorf twinning delegation joined the group and took the opportunity to play croquet themselves. This was followed by a farewell dinner at the famous Stuttgart Television Tower restaurant. The tower, completed in 1956, was the world’s first television tower constructed from reinforced concrete and has become one of Stuttgart’s best-known landmarks. The tower overlooks the croquet lawns.

During the evening, commemorative pennants and gifts were exchanged between Croquet Club Waldau Chairman Thomas Müller and Bury Croquet Club representative Roy Spencer.

Thomas Müller thanked Bury Croquet Club for making the journey to Waldau, while Roy Spencer thanked the Waldau committee and members for their excellent hospitality and for making the visit such an enjoyable experience.

The visit built on an earlier connection established in 2025, when members of the Schorndorf twinning partnership visited Bury and were welcomed to Bury Croquet Club at Whitehead Park, where they were introduced to the game and played alongside their Bury hosts.

That initial encounter has now developed into a genuine sporting exchange, linking two clubs separated by hundreds of miles but united by their enthusiasm for croquet. It is also hoped that this will create further sporting connection between Shorndorf and CC Waldau.

Bury Croquet Club Vice-Chair Roy Spencer said:

“We are extremely grateful to everyone in Schorndorf and at Croquet Club Waldau for the wonderful welcome and hospitality we received. It was a fantastic opportunity to play croquet together, exchange ideas and, most importantly, strengthen the friendships between our clubs and communities.”

For Bury Croquet Club, the visit was a reminder that croquet can provide an excellent means of building international friendships, while for Croquet Club Waldau it marked an important milestone in the development of a young club welcoming its first overseas opponents.

Both clubs hope that this will be the beginning of further exchanges in the years ahead.

Report by Roy Spencer.

After 5 qualifying rounds held at Ashby, Middlesborough, Chester, Pendle and Nottingham 16 players descended onto Bowdon Croquet Club for the inaugural Northern Stars GC  “Finals Day” on Sunday 16th August.   

Top seed, Euan Burridge (Bowdon) won the “Championship Gold Star” relying on all his grit, skill and determination to progress to the final where he beat Callum Johnson (York) 7-5, 7-6. 

In the Quarter finals Bowdon’s Sandra Cornes played extremely well to beat Euan in game two but lost the match; whilst in the semi finals Euan beat Bishop Monkton’s Chris Higgins at the “golden” hoop in game 3.  Callum also had to negotiate hard fought matches against Ian Burridge (Nottingham) and then David Cornes (Bowdon) both ending two games to one.

In the Challengers Final  8 other qualifiers contested “all play all” 13 hoop games. Bowdon’s David Beddy won 6 games out of 7 played to take the title with most points gained on handicap card to take the “Silver” Star whilst Ashby’s John Picken was awarded the consolation “block” winner prize, also with 6 wins recorded.

Pictured are Ian Burridge (Championship Bowl winner), Euan Burridge (Championship Gold Star), David Beddy (Challenger Silver Star) and John Picken (Challenger Block)

On Saturday 1 August, the inaugural Barbara Young Memorial Trophy short lawn Tournament was held at Bury Croquet Club. A total of 14 players assembled on an initially overcast day and played on six fast, flat lawns. Most parts of the North West were represented, joined by Tim and Brenda Ash from Nottingham “her favourite place to visit”.

Handicaps ranged from 4P (Roger Brooks) to 8 (Brenda Ash) and the format devised by our International Referee Ken Jones was a Swiss variant with the aim to have everyone play at least 5 matches with a time limit of 1 ½ hours.

As it turned out, only five of the 35 games reached the time limit and with one pairing sitting out the first games, they were also quickly underway about an hour in.

Robert Bentwood (7) set off like a rocket winning his first three games +9, +9, +11 and was clearly going to be one to beat, this was cemented in his fourth game by beating Tim Ash (2.5) +6. This put Tim and Robert both on 3 out of 4 wins although having lost his first match to Bury’s Roger Schofield (1) -14, he was behind on net scores.

Elsewhere, Duncan Meachin (7) from Bury was progressing well beating Sandra Cornes (3.5) +13 and David Cornes (1) +1 but beaten by Tim Ash in game two -2.

At the end of the first four games, there were seven players sitting on 3 wins, including Roger Brooks (4P), Sandra Cornes, Roger Schofield, Tim Ash, Barry Broughton (5) with Robert Brentwood leading on net scores +23 closely followed by Duncan Meachin on +20.

The final round, played in brilliant sunshine saw Robert Bentwood (7) (Fylde) playing Duncan Meachin (7) (Bury), Robert Brooks (4P) (Westmorland) playing Tim Ash (2.5) (Nottingham), Barry Broughton (5) (Fylde) playing Roger Schofield (1) (Bury) and Sandra Cornes (3.5) (Bowden) playing Sally Slater (3.5) (Chester).

In the end, the most important match turned out to be between Robert and Duncan with Robert bringing his best game and winning +6, thereby securing the Cup with four wins from five and a net score of +31. Duncan was sadly knocked down to a creditable fifth position. Barry Broughton beat Roger Schofield +12, coming second overall and Tim Ash beat Roger Brooks +3 to secure third place.

Michael Young, a senior data analyst at Sport England and Barbara’s son joined us in the afternoon to watch the keenly contested matches and share memories of his parents, always taking him on holiday to somewhere close to a Croquet Club.

Having started the day at 09.45, we finished at 17.30 as planned, with prizes presented by Michael to the winner Robert Bentwood who received the silver Memorial Trophy, a bottle of English Sparkling wine and a £100 Amazon gift voucher. Prizes of bottles of wine went to Barry Broughton (second), Tim Ash (third) and Roger Brooks (fourth). All players from fifth to fourteenth received a small bottle of Cava.

Grateful thanks was expressed by the Club Vice-Chair Roy Spencer to club members who set up the lawns, manned the kitchen and handled the admin, especially the Tournament Secretary Sue Worth and Tournament Manager and Referee Ken Jones.