Golf Croquet Carnival 2025

Background

Looking back in our records, one can trace the origin of this competition back to 1993 when the Federation started a competition called “The GC Teams Day”. It was two team competitions in one day and involved a few rounds of doubles in the morning followed by a few rounds of singles in the afternoon played under handicap rules, held on the five lawns at Compton. I think the initial entry involved five or six teams.

Of course, our visit to Compton did not last long and shortly after 2000 the event was moved to Southwick to accommodate the additional teams that our members were asking for. In 2016 we even met the Southwick absolute limit of 22 teams using all eleven lawns and we continued for the next three years with a minimum entry of twenty. This level of support left the committee wondering what was so special about the event. The format was nothing special, but it soon became obvious that the main attraction was the sheer size of the event.

With the basic team of four plus the substitutes we allowed, there were over 100 active players at one venue on one day. I doubt whether this figure could be matched anywhere else in the croquet world. It was fairly obvious that as well as running a croquet tournament we were also running a major social event for the federation and this had a major effect on the numbers we could attract. We have kept this very much in mind for the future.

Unfortunately, in 2020 along came the pandemic and shut us down completely for two years. When we restarted our invitation events, entries in in open competitions were considerably down. Naturally we gave some thought about what had become of our ‘flagship’ event and we settled on converting it to a Carnival Day with all its normal trimmings. The normal dress code was abolished with the simple rule that dress should reflect a theme based on the new carnival name for the team.

As an incentive we offered a bottle of wine for the best costume. Because of the very tight time schedule set for the event, we had encouraged teams to set up a clearly marked base under the trees so that opponents could easily find one another well before a game started and sort out the handicap details. This had worked extremely well, but we had noticed that that the base markings, without any prompt from the management, had got more and more elaborate. So now, under the carnival umbrella, we have a competition for the best dressed base.

The Carnival version of the event has now run for three years and whilst our numbers are still only just over half the pre covid figures, we have had marvellous cooperation on the carnival theme from all entrants and some of them have let their imagination run absolutely RIOT.

The 2025 Carnival

Just eleven teams this year with two from both Southwick and Chichester/Fishborn. And again they did not disappoint.  Lodsworth is only a one lawn club, but they entered a team of five including three ladies and two men. The ladies were immaculately dressed in 1920’s flapper style dresses and can only be described as very glamorous.

As you will see from our photos, our camera man could not keep away. Alley Cats took note of our instruction that whites could be used if the team wanted, but they were asked to add a little colour to brighten up the scene and how well they achieved this aim. Just add a vivid green sash embossed with their Alley Cats title, add a pair of false ears and add a little face make up. They looked absolutely stunning and hit the Carnival nail right on the head.

I cannot leave Lodsworth without mention of one of their lady team members and I hope she will forgive me for publishing her name, it’s Jean Fargusun. She was recruited from the golf course some three to four years ago as she was finding 18 holes a little too much. She now plays GC off 10 but is determined to get her handicap down. Quite a common happening, but not if your next birthday is 99. Very well done Jean!

Our judges had problems in who to give the bottles of wine so gave one to both Lodsworth and West Chiltington for dress and three bottles to Lodsworth, Cheam and Sydenham for their decorated bases.

This is a handicap competition and although Advantage now appears to be the norm for handicap GC play, extra turns had to be used in this case, as the short time limits we have to use in our packed programme can cause severe problems with the Advantage rules.

We started the day with some rather dull skies and slightly chilly temperature and this continued for most of the day, thankfully without rain. Play got off bang on schedule at 9.30 on the blast for the foghorn. At the halfway stage Cheam Chuffers were the only team with two wins, but Fish and Chips won both matches in rounds 3 and 4 to bring themselves level on 3 wins the Cheam Chuffers.

Southwick Primaries also crept into the 3 win bracket with two wins in rounds 3 and 4 and we used net points to settle the issue with Fish and Chips taking the title. The 40 minute time limit on doubles was necessary to complete all games required, but it did not produce a finished game in about half the matches and thus the use of net points was essential to work out a winner.

In the afternoon singles, matters were slightly clearer with Fish and Chips establishing an early lead and holding on to it with 6 wins from eight matches. Just behind them were again Cheam Chuffers and Hove Beach Boys with five wins, Cheam Chuffers getting second place on net points. Time limits for the singles were 50 minutes and surprisingly very few games were not finished even though they were all double banked.

The results of all matches follows:

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, so with all the colour involved a good pictorial record is essential. A slide show is available on YouTube

The Alley Cats	The Perfect Pussycat.	The Lady Am Drams
The Magnificent Five	Southwick Primaries	Marshall Richard on Duty
98 Not Out	The Chuffer’s Train did run	At Home with Southwick
Hove Beach Boys vs Fish & CHips	Alleycats vs Lawn Rangers	Alley Cat vs Beach Boys
Mr Fish & Chips	Southwick vs Am Drams	Warning, Manager on the move

Thanks very much to our two ‘Marshalls’, aka Supervising Refs, Bob Clark and Richard Carline for keeping play running smoothly and also to Bob for being Chief Horn Blower.

Bill Arliss