Golf Croquet Carnival Day

This was a restyled Golf Croquet Teams Day which had been one of the longest running events on the SECF program. The doubles section in fact started in 1988, whilst the singles took a further five years to emerge in 1993. The records do not show when the two combined, but I believe it was one competition run at Compton by the time I joined the committee in 1995. I think in those days it was limited to about six clubs. As interest in the competition grew, more lawns were needed, and it moved to its permanent home at Southwick just after 2000.

With the break in competitions caused by the pandemic and the subsequent restart, it gave time for thought on just how much competitive GC had developed, especially in the federations. In our view during the last twenty-five years, the progress had been quite remarkable and should be celebrated in some way which led to the restyling of the GC Teams Day.

From the pure croquet side of the event, no major changes were made to the format other than the number of rounds were reduced from ten to eight. Even with our strict time controls, it meant the finish time previously had to be around 7.15pm which with a 9.30am start gave a very long day. This year’s entrants voted by a majority of 2:1 to shorten the event.

So, we next had to answer the question of how we could ‘jazz’ the event up to make it remarkable and memorable as appropriate to a celebration. With the numbers of players involved it had always been rather party like with picnics under the trees and decorated club bases under the trees, so we decided to take the party scene further by adopting carnival names and throwing the usual dress codes out of the w

indow. The main requirement for dress was that it should be colourful’ but also identify a team.

The plain black blouses of the LA Stars from Littlehampton clearly identified that team. It’s a pity they had to be hidden for most of the day under water-proofs.

We always ask our teams to establish a base under the trees so that they can easily be found to sort out extra strokes well before they arrive on the lawn and offered a second bottle of wine for the best dressed base.

The picture shows the Rother Valley Revellers behind their prize-winning base. Regrettably the intermittent drizzle diminished the main purpose for the bases during quite a lot of the day as player sought shelter.

Play was divided into two sessions in the morning and afternoon with four rounds of doubles in the morning and four rounds of singles in the afternoon. Although the total number of rounds had been decreased from previous years, we still had to run a very tight schedule to meet our finishing times and this meant managerial control of starts and finishes. We only allowed five minutes between the finish of one game and the start of the next so ties were allowed after the traditional eight shots.

In the early days of the competition, we used the canteen bell but players on far lawns claimed they could not hear it, so we introduced the foghorn. Now the whole of Southwick can hear us. It has become a feature of this event. This year David Marcus was our Horn-Blower.

We continued with the normal federation practice of have two non-playing supervising referees who in this cases could be called Marshalls. Martin Peacock and Richard Carline did the honours and were very visible in their large red Stetsons.

There were no runaway winners in the morning doubles with The Rother Valley Revellers sharing to top spot with the Hove Beach Club on 3.5 out of a possible 4 wins, but the Revellers took the trophy with a slight better net hoops.  

The Southwick catering ladies provided a first–class salad lunch, but had to postpone the BBQ alternative because of the weather. They added their own contribution to the carnival mood.

The afternoon program got off precisely on schedule with four rounds of singles. Several teams were in a possible winning position before the start of the last round but Compton’s  Champagne Charlies finished clear winners with 3.5 wins.

I would like to thank all teams for their contribution to “The Carnival”. Despite the rather grotty weather I think most teams enjoyed the day and I have received many photos from several of the teams plus a number from Sarah Patton and Ray Hall. I have selected further shots for display below which I feel gives a better appreciation of our day’s activities.

Hove Beach Boys	Champagne Charlies	The Catering Team
Manager and Ref confer	Where did he get that hat?	A full group view while the sun still smiles

Bill Arliss
Manager                                               

 

FINAL DOUBLES POSITIONS
TEAM		CLUB		PLAYED		WINS		Net Hoops		POSN
The Revellers		Rother Valley		4		3.5		6		1
Hove Beach Club				4		3.5		3		2
Centurions		Reigate Priory		4		3		4		3
More Fish & Chips		Chichester & Fishbourne		4		3		2		4
Oddbods		SECF Select		4		2.5		5		5
Cheam Rainbow				4		2.5		4		6
The Rockets		Rottingdean		4		2.5		2		7
Morris Dancers		Lodsworth		4		2.5		-1		8
Champagne Charlie’s		Compton		4		2		7		9
Secondary’s		Littlehampton		4		2		2		10
Seagulls		Sussex County		4		2		0		11
Dulwich				4		1.5		1		12
Greenkeepers		Sussex County		4		1.5		0		13
West Worthing				4		1.5		-1		14
Clan of Godhelm		Guildford & Godalming		4		1.5		-1		14
Fish & Chips		Chichester & Fishbourne		4		1.5		-3		16
The Snapdragons		Surbiton		4		1.5		-6		17
The Woodmen		Royal Tunbridge Wells		4		1		-5		18
Ladies Allsorts		Compton		4		1		-6		19
Purley Bury				4		1		-6		19
LA All Stars		Littlehampton		4		1		-7		21
FINAL SINGLES POSITIONS
TEAM	CLUB		PLAYED		WINS		Net Hoops		POSN
Champagne Charlie’s	Compton		8		7.5		20		1
Morris Dancers	Lodsworth		8		6		16		=2
Greenkeepers	Sussex County		8		6		16		=2
More Fish & Chips	Chichester & Fishbourne		8		6		9		4
Clan of Godhelm	Guildford & Godalming		8		5		9		=5
Centurions	Reigate Priory		8		5		9		=5
Secondary’s	Littlehampton		8		5		8		7
The Snapdragons	Surbiton		8		5		6		8
Hove Beach Club			8		4.5		-3		9
Seagulls	Sussex County		8		4		4		10
Cheam Rainbow			8		4		1		11
Fish & Chips	Chichester & Fishbourne		8		4		0		12
Purley Bury			8		4		-2		13
LA All Stars	Littlehampton		8		3		-3		14
The Revellers	Rother Valley		8		3		-7		15
The Rockets	Rottingdean		8		3		-13		=16
Dulwich			8		3		-13		=16
West Worthing			8		2		-10		=18
Ladies Allsorts	Compton		8		2		-10		=18
Oddbods	SECF select		8		2		-12		20
The Woodmen	Royal Tunbridge Wells		8		0		-25		21