Author: Jon Diamond

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News

SECF January Newsletter

  • Advantage GC
    As you may recall it was agreed at the Federation AGM last November that we would move to Advantage GC for the Handicap League this year.  It was also agreed that the Federation would provide some training for this new system before the season got underway.

    The Croquet Academy and South East Croquet Federation are proud to present Understanding GC Advantage Play by Roy Tillcock, a Zoom webinar on 31st January at 5:30pm
    – The CA have adopted GC Advantage Play for the 2023 season
    – GC All England Handicap will be played in this format
    – The SECF voted to use this variant of GC handicap play for its league competitions and a number of Clubs in the Federation are proposing playing Advantage tournaments

    So who better than Roy Tillcock to lead us through the correct approach to both organising and playing GC Advantage. It was Roy who masterminded the system and has spearheaded trials over the last two seasons

    It is strongly recommended that Club representatives, Team Captains, Managers and Players take some time to familiarise themselves with the requirements of Advantage Play

    If you would like to attend the session – which will be recorded – send and email to Richard Carline at hoopnmallet@gmail.com to reserve a place. Book your place now as they may be limited.

  • The Croquet Association is running a series of Webinars for Clubs on various topics during the next few months.
    The first session will be on January 25th on ‘Crowd Funding for Clubs’.

    Further details can be found by following this link: https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=press/news&NewsID=8019&pup=y

  • All tournament dates for SECF events have now been announced, apart from the Short Croquet which is some time in October.
    It’s probable that the AC Teams will switch from 6th/7th May to 7th/8th May because of the Coronation.
Categories
News

AGM minutes

The minutes for the 2022 AGM held in November, together with the various reports by the Officers can be seen on the AGM page.

Categories
Diary

Diary updates

Dates for most SECF tournaments (at Southwick) for 2023 have been added to our Diary, as have local tournaments at Sussex County, including some over the winter, and Tunbridge Wells.

Categories
Coaching

Croquet Academy launches its 2023 Coaching Programme

The Croquet Academy launches its 2023 Coaching programme with many of its courses being conducted on its World Quality lawns at Southwick. Players wishing to book on to any courses can do so via the Croquet Academy Website course entry page.

Highlights of the 2023 programme are:

  • To encourage more players to take up or improve their game, prices for 2023 are the same or less than 2022.
  • A new Modular Short Croquet course run over 4 sessions in the autumn and spring of 23/24 following the success of the 2022 series.
  • A comprehensive series of AC courses covering players of all abilities including Cliff Jones’ Triple Peel course.
  • A comprehensive set of GC courses covering players of all abilities with a choice of three venues: Southwick, Guildford & Tunbridge Wells
  • A special one day course and seminar “Golf Croquet Mistakes (and how to avoid them), presented by Stephen Custance-Baker. This informative day is based on his book of the same title. Signed copies of his books will be available for sale at the end of the course.
  • Following our first trial of an on demand modular course, we are delighted that Rich Waterman, the CA’s Director of Coaching, is offering an enhanced series of on-demand modules as well as 3 live Zoom sessions during the year. Entitled “Mindset Mastery”. Rich is an expert in his field and this course will be available world wide giving you the opportunity to improve your mindset and share experiences with a worldwide croquet community.
  • Croquet needs more coaches and referees. In 2023 we are offering a subsidised Coaches Qualification Course as well as a GC Referees Qualification Course.

Fuller details of courses can be found on the Academy website and by contacting the Academy Secretary whose details you will find on the website.

Categories
SECF Leagues

SECF 2022 League Results announced

The final results for the 2022 season have now been published:

SECF 2022 Leagues Results

Congratulations to the winners (the A league did not run in 2022)

  • U league: Reigate Priory
  • B league: Ember
  • S league: Cheam
  • GC level league: Sussex County
  • GC restricted league: Ealing
  • GC handicap leagues – West: Chichester & Fishbourne, East: Reigate Priory

Chichester & Fishbourne are our nominee to the 2023 CA Federation Shield, having a better win ratio than Reigate Priory.

Categories
News

New Secretary needed

Our Secretary, Louise Taylor, has resigned and so we need a replacement. Please speak to our Chairman, Andrew Stewart, if you’re interested in volunteering and want to know more.

(It’s not a terribly onerous role, but you do need to know how to use email, Zoom and take/create minutes.)

Categories
Coaching

Croquet Academy Autumn and Winter Coaching Programme announced

An Introduction to Association Croquet

This modular course is ideal for Golf Croquet (GC) Players wishing to learn the basic skills of Association Croquet (AC). Not only will the course teach you the basics of AC but many of the techniques used will help your GC play. (All 4 semi-finalists in the 2022 World Golf Croquet Championship were top World AC players)

Location: Southwick
Dates: 26th & 31st October, 19th & 24th November 2022
Timings: 10am – 2pm per module
Cost: £15 per module
Tea and Coffee included. Bring your own lunch.

Golf Croquet Workshops

The aim of these one day workshops is to help you improve your game whether it be tactics or stroke technique. Each workshop will be run with one coach covering maximum of 4 people. The workshop will be tailored to your individual needs and will be ideal for players in the 6 – 10 handicap range.

Locations: Southwick & Tunbridge Wells
Dates: Southwick 12th October 2022
Tunbridge Wells 28th October 2022
Timings: 10am – 4pm
Cost: £50. CA Premium Members £40
Tea and coffee included. Bring your own lunch.

Coaches Qualification and Training Course

The Academy have been asked to run a course for aspiring Club Croquet Coaches. The course will be run over 2 days as part of the qualification process. Attendees will then be expected to run 5 practical coaching sessions back at club level as part of their qualification process.

Location: Southwick
Dates: 14th/15th March 2023
Timings: 9.30am-4.30pm each day
Cost: £75; CA Premium member £60*
Tea and coffee. included Bring your own lunch.
*A £40 subsidy is available for all attendees on their first Coaches Course making the Course £35 for Standard CA Members & £20 for Premium CA Members.

Categories
SECF Tournament

Ryde win Southern Challenge Division 1 with a clean sweep

In a thoroughly convincing performance over the weekend of 1-2 July The Ryde team of Roy Tillcock (Capt), Andrew Larpent, Stuart Peters, Pam Sim and Jonathan Smith won all four test matches against the other teams (from three clubs) that were competing.

The weather over the weekend was good and the Southwick lawns playing well, so it was really unfortunate that more clubs could not be persuaded to take part. As it was, the two days were a fairly relaxed affair with 10 rounds played over the weekend, with each test match consisting of two doubles and six single level play 13pt games.

The full test match results are:

Ryde: beat East Dorset 7-1, Royal Tunbridge Wells 7-1, Sussex A 7-1 and Sussex B 6-2

Sussex B: beat East Dorset 6-2, Sussex A 5-3 and tied with Royal Tunbridge Wells

Sussex A: beat East Dorset 5-3 and tied with Royal Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells: tied with East Dorset, Sussex A and Sussex B

East Dorset: tied with Royal Tunbridge Wells

Thanks to John Low for managing the competition and to Fran Box, Rosemary Faulkner, Linda Gavigan and Chrissie Isaacs for the catering.

The winning team from Ryde
Categories
SECF Tournament

Surbiton wins Southern Challenge Division 2 North

The Surbiton 2 team won this event beating Ramsgate at the Doubles golden hoop.

The event was managed as a block of the six entered teams, with a play-off after the completion of the block. The scores after the play-offs remained in the same order as after the block stage, leaving Surbiton 2 as the winners.

BLOCK STAGE Matches Games
Team Wins Losses Draws Wins Losses
Surbiton 2 9 3 0 24 12
Ramsgate 8 4 0 21 15
Surbiton 1 7 5 0 20 16
Cheam 6 6 0 19 17
Reigate 4 7 0 14 19
Purley Bury 1 10 0 7 26
Todd Ballantyne surges into a 6-1 lead as a rueful looking Jane Powell looks on

The outstanding player of the tournament was Todd Ballantine of Ramsgate who played more like a -2 than a 1 – definitely one to watch out for in the future.

Martin Burger presents the trophy to the winning Surbiton 2 team
The smiling victors (left to right: Jane Powell, Bernard & Sue Pendry, Jo Luck)
Runners-up Ramsgate (left to right: Lynn Beedie, Todd Ballantyne, Pam Stead, Mary Neale)

The complete results are on Croquetscores.

Martin Burger (Manager)
Bracknell

Very many thanks to Martin for managing this competitions so expertly.

Categories
SECF Tournament

Ryde win Southern Challenge Division 2 South

The flagship tournament of the South East Federation returned this year. The first time without any restrictions since 2019.

The event is divided into three divisions and the first to be played was Division 2 South which took place at Sussex County Croquet Club on the 11th/12th June. The other two divisions, Division 1 and Division 2 North, will be played over the next few weeks.

The weather was perfect and the lawns immaculate as always. Nine teams had entered, but one had to withdraw at the last minute due to several team members contracting Covid. This meant a complete change in the format for the two days but it did mean that there did not have to be a bye in each round. Each team had to play two matches each against the opposing teams with each match consisting of one doubles game and two singles games.

What followed was a very intense couple of days with a lot of croquet being played. In fact over the two days 168 games of croquet were played. The lead ebbed and flowed over the first day but on day two one team forged ahead.


The eventual winners were Ryde with 12 match wins followed by Canterbury on 9 wins and Rottingdean on 7 wins beating Sussex B with the same match wins by 21 games to 20.

Thanks must go to Roger Sutton assisted by Andrew Stewart for all the work in preparing for and running the tournament. Also to the catering team at Sussex County for providing excellent lunches and tea and cakes over the two days.

Southern Challenge Div 2

Matches

Games

Hoops

Wins

Losses

Draws

Wins

Losses

For

Against

Net Hoops
Ryde

12

2

0

30

12

270

194

76
Canterbury

9

5

0

26

16

231

218

13
Rottingdean

7

7

0

21

21

234

235

-1
Sussex B

7

7

0

20

22

224

223

1
Sussex A

6

8

0

24

18

261

213

48
Compton

6

8

0

18

24

232

247

-15
Rother Valley

5

9

0

17

25

221

256

-35
Medway

4

10

0

12

30

172

259

-87