2017 Tournament Reports

Golf Croquet Ladies Day – 16th August



This is a brand new competition organised by the SECF and attracted an entry of twelve teams, which was our absolute maximum. Some clubs felt it was wrong on principle that we should be open only to the ladies, but that was not a universal view and I feel we had a very enjoyable day.

As always happens with the AC Ladies, our gents took full charge of the catering and the kitchen became a no-go area for the ladies. Jon Isaacs and his merry men did an excellent job.

As we had no previous history to start from, we chose a balanced mixture of singles and doubles play for the format, as this has proved very popular with many other events, and set our target for six rounds during the day. The choice of level or handicap play was left to the teams involved and although they decided on handicap, it was only by a narrow margin.

Unfortunately two teams had to withdraw quite late on, but the remaining ten provided a good format using ten out of the eleven Southwick lawns.

All games and lawns were pre-scheduled, so that players alternated between singles and doubles. Each round consisted of two singles and one doubles game between two clubs, thus ensuring that there was always a positive result. The final positions were ranked on number of match wins and separated by number of game wins.

The eventual winners were Sydenham, followed by Reigate Priory, with Cheam in third place. The weather throughout the whole day was fine and sunny and has hopefully helped establish this event as a regular in the SECF calendar.

Many thanks to Mike Oulton from Rottingdean who provided a supervising referee service for the whole day.

A very interesting statistic from this event was the handicap range of all teams which varied between 7 and 10.8 average for each team with the lowest single handicap of 4. The very fact that the format can attract such large selection from the high handicap ranges fully justifies the use of a ladies only day.

Well done ladies!!!

Bill Arliss
Manager

Golf Croquet Teams Day – 6th August



I am beginning to think that the GC playing community must be doing things right as we always appear to be well rewarded with just the right weather for our GC teams day. With a full complement of twenty two teams, eleven true lawns and wall to wall sunshine, we had an excellent days play. This competition has become so popular that eight clubs entered two teams.

A warm welcome must go to first timers, Lodsworth. Talking to their Chairman before the start of play, he told me he had difficulty in finding a team as his members were worried they would not be good enough. Looking at their finish in both competitions. right in the middle of the pack, I don’t think they have anything to worry about. See you there next year Hugh.

As usual we started off with four rounds of doubles and for some reason this year, hoop running appeared rather slow and we only managed to reach the magic 7 in 16 out of a total of 44 doubles games. As we allow ties we finished with 8 recorded
ties. All depended on the last round. Our first attempt to announce a winner gave us three teams with 3.5 wins which had to be separated by best net points and gave us  Guildford & Godalming 1 as winners. However before we could present the trophy, we had a plea from Littlehampton with a claim that they had four wins out of four. Checks on the actual score sheet showed that their last game had in fact been recorded as a loss to them. G&G confirmed that they were the losers which made Littlehampton the clear victors and relegated G&G to 5th place. Well done Littlehampton.

The afternoon singles produced much faster play with unfinished games being the exception. Last year’s winners Dulwich 1 lost one singles game in the first round but after that only one tied game held them back and they finished as clear winners with 10.5 wins out of 12, two better than last year. Their nearest rival, Cheam, managed 9 wins.

The handicaps of all registered players varied from 1 to 12, but with only two players below 3. The average team handicaps varied from 4 up to 10 with an overall average of 6.8

Many thanks to Anna Gryce from Dulwich for all the pics. I believe many of them really capture the spirit in which this event is played.

FINAL DOUBLES POSITIONS   FINAL SINGLES POSITIONS
TEAM WINS
(4 games)
POINTS POSN   TEAM WINS
(12 games)
POINTS POSN
Littlehampton
1
4 11 1   Dulwich 1 10.5 31 1
Rottingdean 2 3.5 8 2   Cheam 1 9 13 2
Reigate Priory 1 3.5 7 3   Littlehampton 1 8 21 3
Reigate Priory 2 3 5 4   Sussex 2 8 20 4
Guildford & Godalming
1
2.5 6 5   Sussex 1 8 14 5
Cheam 1 2.5 5 6   Chichester 8 5 6
Littlehampton 2 2.5 4 7   Dulwich 2 7.5 1 7
Chichester 2.5 3 8   Tunbridge Wells 1 7 10 8
Sussex 1 2.5 0 9   Guildford & Godalming 2 7 9 9
Lodsworth 2 -1 10=   Reigate Priory 1 6.5 1 10
Preston 2 -1 10=   Rottingdean 2 6.5 0 11
Rottingdean 1 2 -2 12   Lodsworth 6.5 -6 12
Dulwich 2 2 -5 13   Cheam 2 5.5 -1 13
Cheam 2 1.5 4 14   Rottingdean 1 5.5 -14 14
Dulwich 1 1.5 2 15   Canterbury 5 -9 15
Sussex 2 1.5 0 16   West Worthing 4 -7 16
Tunbridge Wells 2 1.5 -3 17   Tunbridge Wells 2 4 -12 17
Canterbury 1.5 -4 18   Reigate Priory 2 4 -15 18
Guildford & Godalming
2
1 -6 19   Littlehampton 2 3 -10 19
Rother Valley 1 -7 20   Guildford & Godalming 1 3 -12 20
Tunbridge Wells 1 0 -8 21   Preston 3 -17 21
West Worthing 0 -18 22   Rother Valley 2.5 -22 22

Bill Arliss
Manager


AC Ladies Day – Southwick 5th July

The first Wednesday in July has been the date for the Ladies for many years. This year four clubs entered five teams which, with a combined team from two clubs, made a total of six teams battling out for their name to be engraved on the Shield.

The weather was perfect and the lawns were in very good condition, which made for a good tournament. The format for Ladies Day was the same as in previous years i.e. playing two singles and a double with play starting at 10.00am. The teams played an eighteen point game before lunch and another after lunch. The day ended with a fourteen point game finishing at 6.00pm

After all the thirty six games had been played the Queen Bees from Purley Bury Club had each won 7 games and Sussex Sparklers and Purley Berries had both won 5 games. The Sparklers had pegged out 4 times and the Berries 3 times and so the Sparklers came second and the Berries third.

Well done Purley CC for coming first and third.

The Southwick Gentlemen served a delicious lunch. A big thank you to everyone at Southwick who make this annual event so welcome to their club. Several players have criticised the day as being too long and so for 2018 we are considering changing the format so watch this space for an up-date after Christmas.


Southern Challenge

Division 1 – Southwick 1st/2nd July

Our high tech scoreboard
Our high tech scoreboard!
Winchester
Winchester being presented with the Simon Carter Cup
Winning Team
The Winning Team

 

The Manager having a restOur
manager resting after his exertions

This attracted an entry of ten teams and we were rewarded with excellent weather for all the weekend. The lawn refurbishment program was completed last year so all games were played on a refurbished lawn.

Admittedly there was quite a large variation in skill levels between some of the teams, but this in no way inhibited the enjoyment of the event by all concerned. For many of the club players it gave the opportunity to have a go at some of the “big boys” and we had several internationals playing. Typical of GC there were several cases of giant killing. Play started with an all-play-all format giving us nine rounds, with each round being matches between five pairs of clubs, each comprising two singles and one doubles games. Although Captains were allowed to select which ever player they wanted for singles and doubles games, they were restricted by the requirement for each player to balance their doubles and singles involvements to within one game, which prevented a very strong pair from dominating all singles games.

As expected the three strongest teams from Winchester, Dulwich and Ramsgate rose to the top with Winchester managing to maintain a 100% record of 9 wins in the all-play-all, closely followed by Dulwich with 8 wins and Ramsgate with 7. Following completion of the all-play-all, the teams were ranked in results order and split into a top four, a second four and a bottom pair. The two groups of four then played each other for a second time reversing the doubles and singles roles they had used in their first meeting. The ranking was first based on match wins and separated by game wins where there was a tie. Luckily for the Manager, this produced a clear cut ranking without having to resort to who beat whom or even net points. Whilst the top three places were clear cut, Sussex and Ryde left it to the last round to claim fourth place. A 2-1 win for Ryde gave both teams five match wins but allowed Sussex to take fourth place with 16 game wins to Ryde’s 15. The second group of four were Ryde, West Worthing, Cheam and Reigate Priory with 5, 4, 3 and 2 match wins respectively.

The final play off rounds started badly for Winchester with their first loss, this time to Sussex, 2-1, Dulwich improved their position with a 2-1 victory over Ramsgate. In the second round, it appeared as if the wheels had totally fallen off for Winchester as they lost for a second time with Ramsgate claiming a 2-1 victory. The final game on lawns 1 and 2 was the decider with Dulwich going into the match with a one match advantage. Winchester pulled out all the stops and managed to claim a 2-1 win to level on matches won, but all their earlier successes came to their rescue and gave them a one point advantage on total game wins to give them the title.

In the second group Ryde retained fifth place but lost one of their matches to Cheam, the “new boys” in the first division. Well done Cheam, a very creditable first appearance.

From a Federation point of view, the format of the event is ideal for achieving a major objective, that of promoting the enjoyment of competitive croquet for all levels of ability. whilst at the same time allowing the senior players to have a very serious competition.for the title. On a level play basis this would not be possible with Association Croquet.

The final results are shown below – the final placings are decided first by group and then by match wins.

Club

First Nine Rounds

After Play Off

Position

Matches

Games

Matches

Games

Winchester

9

21

10

25

1

Dulwich

8

19

10

24

2

Ramsgate

7

21

9

26

3

Sussex

5

16

6

20

4

Ryde

5

15

7

20

5

Cheam

3

10

6

18

6

West Worthing

4

10

5

13

7

Reigate Priory

2

9

2

11

8

Tunbridge Wells

1

9

2

13

9

Canterbury

1

5

2

7

10

Bill Arliss
Manager

Division 2 North – Surbiton 1st/2nd July

Manager's briefing
Manager’s briefing


With only six teams this year at Surbiton, a simple all play all twice was the best possible format. Roehampton on their first attempt came out as clear winners winning 9 matches out of 10 and 26 games. Surbiton, after floundering at or near the bottom for the first three years of the tournament, put out a more balanced team and came second with 7 match wins and 17 games, albeit they did not want to win outright and lose the advantage of playing at home.

Of all the players, young Duncan Catterall of Sydenham, having played croquet for only 2 months, stood out as a player of some promise.  He is completing his Masters degree at Westminster University and hopes to bring some younger players into the sport.

An interesting statistic was the average handicap for each team. The central four teams in the final listing averaged just over 7 whilst the winners, Roehampton had an average of 5.3. The bottom team Sydenham had an average of 9.5. Many congratulations to Sydenham  for mixing it with the “big boys “. We hope you still enjoyed the experience and your players learnt much from the games.

Once again the Surbiton Croquet Club did an excellent job in all respects.

Splitting the ten rounds into six on the first day and four on the second appeared acceptable with teams preferring the earlier departure on the Sunday.

Team

Match Wins

Game Wins

Position

Roehampton

9

26

1

Surbiton

7

17

2

Purley Bury

6

18

3

Ryde 2

4

13

4

Cheam 2

4

9

5

Sydenham

1

7

6

The ManagerMichael
Hague
Manager

 

Photos by Duncan Catterall

Division 2 South – Southwick 8th/9th July


Winning Team The Winning Team – photos by Avril Oulton

It would have been great if one of our traditionalist who feels GC leads to social play could have been at Southwick over the weekend to see the second division south version of the Southern Challenge. It might have changed his views. We had seven teams with players whose handicaps ranged from 0 to 10 and it did not matter whether the teams were fighting for the actual trophy or their place in the bottom three, the battles were all hotly contested and I believe equally enjoyed. The fact that we had brilliant weather, played on very level lawns and were extremely well fed and watered all added to a very enjoyable weekend.

We started play with an all play which lasted until the first round on Sunday morning. Three teams, Rottingdean 1, Littlehampton  and Sussex moved clear of the rest but none with a 100% record. After all games were completed, Littlehampton finished on top with five match wins out of six and thirteen game wins,  followed by Rottingdean with six and twelve and Sussex with four and eleven. Congratulations to Medway who with the second highest handicap average managed to make the fourth place with figures of two and eight. It is pleasing to note all teams finished with at least one win.

The top four teams then played each other for a second time, reversing their singles and doubles roles in the second meeting. Again there was no runaway victory with Sussex beating the reigning champions, Rottingdean in the first subsiduary round but Rottingdean came back in the second with a 3-0 win as did Littlehampton. This left a final round shoot out between Littlehampton and Rottingdean with the former starting with a one match win advantage – Rottingdean showed their true colours in the final game and retained their title with a 3-0 win. Had it only been 2-1, then we would have been into manager’s nightmare land with equal figures all round. Two possible teams for promotion next year!! The bottom three also had an all play all arrangement, but by changing the format to matches of one doubles and four singles we were able to dispense with the need for any byes. Rottingdean 2 recorded two 4-1 wins to come top of the mini block.

In summary I would suggest this event was yet another prime example of what Federation play is all about. Yes, we all like winning very much and try our very best, but the real enjoyment comes from the actual playing. The fact that teams of such diverse ability can meet in a level play situation and all still have such a satisfying day goes a long way to explaining why GC is rapidly becoming the firm favourite  with the majority of Federation players.

Team

Match Wins

Game Wins

Position

Rottingdean 1

7

19

1

Littlehampton

7

17

2

Sussex 2

6

16

3

Medway

2

10

4

Rottingdean 2

4

16

5

Rother Valley

2

8

6

Worthing

1

5

7

Bill Arliss
Manager


One Ball

Sadly, cancelled due to lack of support this year.


AC Doubles Weekend

This was held at Southwick over the weekend 21/22 May 2017. I regret to say that yet again the numbers dropped and we only had nine teams from eight of our clubs with Southwick providing two teams. It is such a shame to see the support for our main AC event declining, especially as it is the main AC tournament that the Federation runs, the other event being the AC Ladies Day. This is an event we specifically designed for bringing along new AC players but unfortunately there seem to be relatively few of these at club level.

Nevertheless the nine teams provided eighteen pairs and made for a very good competition. The weather remained excellent, especially on the Sunday and the consistency of the refurbished Southwick lawns is now being felt to a much greater extent as the new lawns settle down. Although it initially appeared after four rounds that two teams were running away with matters, Purley Bury suggested just before the start of the final round that although the records showed that they had won seven games, it was in fact only five wins for them. As the draw for the final round had been made, it was decided to complete this round
and sort matters out later, so in fact no team had to play in the hot seat in that final game as no one knew the exact position.

Having finished all games we then found that two Purley Bury results had to be corrected and as Manager I was very surprised to see that the changes had in fact put my own team, Southwick A, into pole position with seven wins just ahead of Caterham, also on seven wins but with a lower net points than Sussex. Having now checked all the figures I can confirm that the final results were as below.

Many thanks to Purley Bury for bringing the problem to the surface. It was not of their making. A note has already been added to the reporting sheet so hopefully we will stop this happening in the future.

Bill Arliss

Manager

Team Wins Points Position
Sussex County A 7 66 1
Caterham 7 30 2
Medway 6 15 3
Reigate Priory 5 34 4
Ramsgate 5 15 5
Guildford & Godalming 5 -2 6
Purley Bury 5 -25 7
Rother Valley 3 -42 8
Sussex County B 2 -72 9

Southwick Chairman presents the trophy (photo by Clive Grimley)Southwick Chairman presents
the trophy (photo by Clive Grimley)