Twenty four members of Nailsea & District Croquet Club turned out on an early Spring day to compete in the local heat of the annual Charity ‘One Ball’ Championship. ‘One Ball’ is a simpler variant of Association Croquet in which players only use one ball each rather than the usual two. This year’s chosen charity is Bowel Cancer UK and to go with their purple colour theme every player wore at least one purple item of clothing. Richard Broad was the clear winner with victories in all his four games. Linda Shaw and Jim Field were joint runners up with five wins from six, but as Linda is not able to attend the national final on Sunday 10 May at Surbiton, Jim takes the second qualifying place. Should a third qualifier be needed then joint-fourth place finishers Peter Dyke and Brian McCausland will play off for this next week, both ended the day on four wins out of six. With several non-players also making donations, a total of £140 was raised for this great cause.

The Marshall Midda Shield attracted twelve Golf Croquet competitors on a blustery day to fight for places in the All England GC Handicap tournament as the club uses this fixture to select its representatives each year. The competition was played in two blocks of six, and after five games two player, Pam Hendry and Brian McCausland, had each won four, and three win ties in both blocks were sorted by countback with Robin Hendry and Chris Jackson making the other semi-finalists for the Shield. Robin just pipped Chris for the third spot in the All England event.