Nailsea Croquet Club held a fun day for visitors on Sunday. In the morning the players were in groups of four for taster sessions. They learned some mallet skills and the basic rules of Association Croquet. A splendid lunch, prepared by Coral Harrison was then taken with complimentary glasses of Pimm’s, provided by Waitrose (Nailsea).

In the afternoon, the players took part in a competition with two pairs from each of the six teams of four pitting their wits and newly found skills against each other. The visitors concentrated hard and had frequent discussions about tactics but there was much laughter and shrieks of joy as hoops were run. After three rounds of play, two teams had equal success rates so a tie-break was arranged. One of the teams, the Newtimers, included three players who had attended the Club’s Open Day the previous week. These were John and Fran Appleby and Tony Willoughby. The fourth member was Clive from Avon Vale Badminton Club whose team had claimed the trophy last year. The other team was from Wrington Vale and comprised Meg Hall, Martin Kerly and Alan and Rita Stark. For the tie-break the players took it in turns to shoot at the centre peg from a distance of 9 yards. Only John Appleby was successful so the Newtimers were presented with the Croquet Challenge Trophy and the Wrington Vale team were declared runners up.

The day was a huge success and the Croquet Club is very grateful to Waitrose. The glasses of Pimm’s were beautifully assembled and garnished by club members Terry Young and Doreen Wallace and they enhanced the occasion considerably. It was all that is sometimes imagined of an English day – Croquet, Pimm’s and, of course, a bit of rain!

Croquet and Pimm’s Day Sunday 3 May 2015 – kindly sponsored by Waitrose

What better way to spend an English Bank Holiday Sunday than playing croquet and sipping Pimm’s?

The members of Nailsea & District Coquet Club are throwing open their gates and inviting visitors to spend the day on the lawns. The morning will be spent learning some basic croquet skills and also the rules of a simple game. Teams of 4 will be coached by an experienced player from the club. All equipment will be provided.

After a break for lunch, the teams will take part in the Croquet Challenge, testing their newly found skills. There is a trophy to be won for the best team.

Entry is strictly by tickets, sold in advance,  as numbers will be limited to ensure a good experience for all who take part. Tickets cost £10 per person and include a free glass of Pimm’s. You may enter as a team of 4 or individually, in which case you will be put in a team of 4 on arrival. Refreshments will be available and there will be a licensed bar. Picnic lunches may be brought along.

Registration will take place at 10.30. The afternoon competition will finish at around 5pm

For more information or to purchase tickets,  e-mail or phone Kathy Wallace:

kathy@jnwallace.f9.co.uk           01275 847902

Why spoil the habit of a season – let’s start this report by setting the scene weather-wise: a huge contrast to the rained-off One Ball competitions, Saturday was sunny but cold – although a few outer layers were removed during the day in the heat of the competition.

16 players turned out and enjoyed (some may have used another word at times) the games. An interesting conundrum at the end of the first round: if a player with a handicap of 3 peels has only completed two peels when the timer goes, are they allowed to complete the third peel during their final turn, and if the game finishes (but is not pegged out) without all the peels being completed, is there any penalty?

The greatest, and not so greatest minds were sorely exercised, and the game was pegged down until the arrival of a referee at lunch time – the answers were: yes, the peel can be undertaken in the final turn, and no, there is no penalty for not completing all the peels. The peels must be completed before the player pegs out. So if the player does not peg out, they do not have to achieve all their peels – remember this, it may turn up in a croquet quiz one day.

Having established this, Kriss Chambers failed to secure the hit-in necessary to move the game on to a peg-out, but secured a +1 on time win over Jim Gregory.

Not all games were completed in the other two blocks but the result of the later game played between Peter Dyke and Linda Shaw, confirmed Peter as the outright winner of his block. So the semi finalists are:

Kriss Chambers  who won his block outright, will play against Andrew Wimshurst who beat Kathy Wallace on points in their block.

Jim Field, beating Neil Devine on points, will play against Peter Dyke who was the outright winner in his block.

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.