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North West Sending Two Players to National Croquet Final

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Phil Nuttall and Libby Dixon Take North West Hopes to Wrest Park

Manager Peter wilson (centre) with Phil Nuttall and Libby Dixon
Phil Nutall

Phil Nuttall (Bury) won the regional heat of the national Association Croquet Handicap tournament 5/5.  Libby Dixon (Pendle) was runner up 4/5.  Both now will go to Wrest Park for the final in two weeks.

The tournament was a real test of all round skill.  Scorching Sunshine for the first three games with players working hard on hydration and shade.  This was followed by two games in constant drizzle on Sunday with players seeking shelter and towels.

Both finalists had kind words to say about the tournament organisation, lawns and catering.

Phil triggered down to handicap 16 automatically, Libby will continue to the final at 18.

Libby Dixon

 

Before Wimbledon there was …..

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THERE WAS A NEWS FLASH !

Before Wimbledon there was ….  Listen to James Hawkins talking to Chris Evans about Croquet on Radio 1 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p058x6kh

THEN AN OLD CODGER GOT UPSET !

Letter to the Editor

Dear Sir

I was so disappointed to learn that the Editor of the NW Fed website was stuck in a pre millennium time warp. Even the most uneducated of his readers will know that Chris Evans has matured over the years and moved from Radio 1 to take over the early morning Radio 2 slot once occupied by ( some would say) the late/ great Terry Wogan!

As my daughters say to me so regularly ” Keep up , you old …..”. I trust the error will be quickly rectified ( even if the balls are not returned their previous position)

Yours

Old Codger of Chester

THE EDITOR REPLIES ! 

Ah those pre-millennium days – when I had a high croquet handicap and could win most of my Croquet games, Wogan and the TOG’s gave us a few laughs on Radio 2 whilst a young whippersnapper called Evans excited younger listeners on Radio 1.  This fellow Evans does not look a day older so still looks like a Radio 1 personality, far too young for Radio 2!  When did that transfer happen?  Apologies to all Radio 1 / 2 fans.

JOHN DAWSON PUTS IT IN PERSPECTIVE ! 

James Hawkins, a leading AC player and author of Complete Croquet, is to be congratulated on getting Croquet on to the Chris Evans Radio 2 show. He initially phoned in to ” put Chris right” on the history of croquet at Wimbledon a few weeks ago and was promptly ” rewarded ” with a live interview with Chris within days. A brave man!! And whilst James in the interview may not have revealed anything new to croquet aficionados he did get croquet into the public arena. Not many of us create the opportunity to talk to 9 million people in the UK about croquet and to get on to the Chris Evans IPlayer site for more listeners ( along with a photo of AC World Champion, Stephen Mulliner lining up a hoop1 peel).

Well done , James .

John Dawson

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.

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