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Chester Croquet Club Goes International

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Westminster Park becomes International Croquet Venue

Ready to play - the Chester and Zurich players
Ready to play – the Chester and Zurich players

The good citizens of Chester were all agog this weekend. Was it the Queen’s 90th? No. Was it Shakespeare’s 400th ? No. Was it the Everton/ Man U. Semi Final? No. It was the debut of Chester Croquet Club on the international stage with a match against Zurich.

Croquet - swiss style by Arthur Graf
Croquet – swiss style by Arthur Graf

Early on St George’s Day the Swiss team of five turned up at Westminster Park more promptly than Roger Federer’s Rolex and during a day of informal play with the host club members, they set about familiarising themselves with the intricacies of Chester’s infamous sloping lawns.  Bright and sunny described not just the weather but also the style of golf croquet played. After a brief foray into Chester city the teams and their spouses settled down to a buffet supper with the occasional glass of wine.

On Sunday the teams were out on the lawns early; the weather was dull and overcast but this did not deter a steady stream of spectators – club members and interested Cestrians. The Swiss team was truly international coming from as far afield as Sydney, Kansas and Liverpool. The Chester team, solidly British, was forced into a late change due to an overnight injury to one of the team. The morning format was “level play, all play all”. The matches were closely fought but Chester managed to sneak the majority so that they went into lunch 15-4 ahead.

Zurich Flag
Zurich Flag

The afternoon play followed a similar vein with close matches ending in narrow Chester wins. A final round of doubles eventually gave overall victory to Chester 21.5 to 6.5. However as the Swiss scooped the last match it was clear that they had at last got the measure of the pace and slope of the lawns.

John Dawson, Chester club secretary, presented the inaugural trophy to David Crawford, the Chester captain. As dusk gathered Arthur Graf, the Zurich captain said “It has been an exacting but enjoyable challenge for us. The lawns have been in great shape and a pleasure to play on. We have enjoyed the generous hospitality of the Chester club and tomorrow is a day for enjoying the sights of Chester. To misquote General MacArthur slightly – ‘We shall return’.”

Overall a very enjoyable weekend for both the Chester and Zurich teams.

The Chester team: David Crawford (Captain); Pat Clare; Sally Slater; Chris Slater; Trevor Farrell.
The Zurich Team: Arthur Graf (Captain); Neil Thomas; Erika Wurth; Kerstin Lorenz; Kevin Collins.
Photos by Sally Slater.

John Dawson presents David Crawford with the Trophy
John Dawson presents David Crawford with the Trophy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop Up Croquet Tournament at Fylde

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South Shore Advanced Tankard Weekend, 16/17th April

Matt Holmes with the Spencer Ell trophy
Matt Holmes with the Spencer Ell trophy

Due to lawn conditions, Southport had to cancel the April Jubilee Tankard tournament planned for last weekend, however, Fylde jumped into the breech and invited all the entries to play on their dry courts.

Because of or in spite of an incorrect weather forcast, only Lancashire players turned out for this impromptu “Not Southport Tournament” or “Three-a-Day Advanced” with the same manager being retained for the new “venue”.

As it happens, shorts were in order on both days with loads of blue sky and early season sunshine – even Lee Hartley was seen without a scarf and coat, it was that warm!

Format was all play all over the two days and both Bury club members finished top of the heap with Matt Holmes having the Bragging rights over Paul Rigge  on who beat who.

Many thanks to FCC for Hosting at such very short notice and as an illustration of how much fun was had – all combatants stayed until the very last stroke.

Liz Wilson from Fylde also writes:

The Pop-Up Tournament

Following the cancellation of the Southport and Birkdale Advanced Tournament 7 entrants (Hartley, Hawkins, Holmes, Nicholson, Rigge, Wilson and Wilson) decided to play an impromptu tournament at Fylde over the weekend. As one of the players said “It is difficult to negotiate a whole weekend off to play and is therefore a shame to have nowhere to compete”. Fylde is lucky in being one of the few clubs in the North West who seem to have conquered their drainage problems and thanks to the hard work of Philip Bass and the other members of the club the lawns have been playable for most of the winter. Manager James Hawkins entertained and managed in equal measures and warm help-yourself whenever casseroles were provided to counteract the Arctic Winds. Both days had a fair dose of sun and more than one of the players complained of sunburn (or was it wind burn). It was run as an all play all with only the non-played match being Wilson vs Wilson. There were many amusing incidents, grievous peg-outs and crazy misses along the way and the whole tournament was played in Great Spirit with Nick playing his usual entertaining cat and mouse game with Liz Wilson (well I like to give you a chance!).   The “final” was between Paul Rigge and Matt Holmes with Matt running out the winner. In my opinion these pop-up tournaments are something for the Fed to consider – perhaps one day turn up and play events with a winner at the end of the season.

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