I met up for my long-awaited chat with Janet Beford in mid-April of 2024. At that time, the lawns were awaiting the first cut of the year, work having been delayed by exceptionally wet weather.
Until this lengthy chat, Janet scared me mildly. I once had a ticking off from her during a club competition in my first ever interaction with her in 2022, more of which later.
Janet was born in Washington DC . At the time, her father worked in Naval Intelligence in Washington. During the war, her father served in the Royal Navy and sent to work in Naval Intelligence because of his suitability and his proficiency in speaking a number of languages.
Janet’s grandmother was Prussian and arrived in Britain as a child. Consequently, Janet’s father spoke fluent German, which was an obvious asset. After the war, on returning to England he was recruited to MI6. Janet only discovered this some years after her father retired from the Secret Services.
Janet and her Mother returned to Surrey from Washington. Her father followed about 18 months later and then joined MI6. Janet was sent to board at Tormead in Guildford, which she described as being ‘reasonably’ close to her home. Janet’s exeat days and weekends enabled her to spend time at home with her dogs and pony. She and her close friends were all ‘horse mad.’ Janet then went to finishing school in Gstaad, Switzerland. “It was very fashionable at that time for girls.” Janet added “I dread to think how much money it cost. My father always said it was the biggest waste of money ever.” But it was not completely wasted. Janet said “I came home able to smoke and make mayonnaise!”
On finishing her formal education, Janet moved to London, working in corporate advertising for a large agency in High Holborn. At the agency she worked in administration as well as organising market research. The agency’s biggest clients were cigarette companies.
Janet really loved London, sharing flats with friends and thoroughly enjoying the ‘Swinging 60’s.’
Janet met her first partner in late 60’s and they moved to the Norfolk-Suffolk border where she could continue her love of horses and participated in competitive horse driving trials promoted by Prince Phillip in the early 1970’s.
Janet’s interest in the sport was triggered after watching a competition at Windsor. She then joined a group of other enthusiasts locally, near her home in Norfolk and competed nationally, in three and four day events from 1974.
With the help of Prince Philip, the sport was emerging to prominence. Janet said “It was great fun for many, many years, then like all sports it started to change. It became commercial – you had to get sponsors. There was an accident where someone was killed and then there was a requirement to have insurance.” Janet was involved in the sport for about twenty years, which she thoroughly enjoyed. She recalled enjoying the social aspect of competitions. “We’d have four nights in wonderful settings, places like Sandringham and Windsor and Tatton Park. We’d be all over the whole estate as part of the competition.”
Janet’s horse at the time was named Brockwell Bossy. Janet bought him as a yearling. That partnership lasted thirty years. “He won everything for me. He was brilliant,” Janet told me. “Some wins are memorable. He won Sandringham for me. That was nice because we were in front of a home crowd.”
Janet beamed when she spoke of Brockwell Bossy. “There were other horses with him, but he was especially special I think partly because I’d had him from such a baby. Nobody thought I’d get him in a carriage because he was a difficult youngster– he really was a bugger! When he got the hang of it, he was brilliant.”
Janet and her partner owned other horses – Arabians – which she showed nationally. One of them became the British National Champion gelding, two years running.
At this time they also owned Salukis – in her opinion one of the most beautiful of hounds – which they ran on the beaches of Norfolk.
Janet had a property in Hay-on-Wye from 1980 and after coming over to this side of the country permanently, settled in Alfrick with her partner, Josie.
Janet was one of the early members of the newly formed Broadwas Croquet Club. She heard about the new Broadwas club after lunching with a friend in Cheltenham. They then went to look at Cheltenham’s Croquet Club. At the time Janet said she hadn’t a clue which form of croquet she played – “I just played to the rules that came in the box.”
Janet’s introduction to croquet was through garden croquet, which she played as a child at her family home. Later, she played at school in the evenings. “Croquet has always been in my life” she said.
Janet phoned Hugh Popplewell – one of the Broadwas Croquet Club’s founder members. Janet said “He asked which game I played – I said AC – never having heard of Golf Croquet. I went up to the club and met Hugh and it started there!” Janet was also a member of Cheltenham Croquet Club for about eight years and has her name on the ceiling as an AC competition winner!
“A lot of the original Broadwas members have gone now, which is sad. We used to have a roll of honour which Keith Brooks created because we used to have a lot of internal competitions. Keith set it all up and it used to be displayed in the clubhouse, but that’s all gone now,” Janet said. It would be good to have a roll of honour containing the lovely old names that were once associated with the club – like Hugh and John Barber.” Janet would like to see a roll of honour reintroduced and displayed in the clubhouse.
Janet went on “New people coming into the club is really good. It keeps the sport going and it keeps the sport changing.”
When Janet first joined Broadwas, the club had about 30 members and golf croquet was the most prominent game played.
When Hugh Popplewell asked Janet if she played association croquet and Janet replied “I don’t know. I play croquet!” When they went through the rules, it was established that Janet played AC. Janet plays GC but says she really prefers AC.
“The association side is much diminished now, but I think it’s by far the most interesting game. Unfortunately, all clubs seem to be suffering from a lack of AC players.”
In the past, Janet played in South West Federation competition matches in both GC and AC. Nowadays she will offer to be a backup in external team competitions, though she no longer feels the need to play in team tournaments because of the surfeit of willing GC players in the club. Janet admits to having arthritis in her thumbs which she dismisses as “extremely annoying,” sometimes having to resort to consuming paracetamol before playing.
As an aside, Janet told me that she is keen on playing boules and would like to see a pétanque court (boules pitch) at the club. “I think the two sports go rather well together.”
Janet is happy to see the growth of the club and the work of new members. “People have new ideas and they are enthusiastic and we have some good younger players.”
Janet’s favourite club tournament is the Ryland Tropy, named after John Ryland – a founder member of the club. She has won the tournament twice, but complained of being beaten a number of times in the final by either Stuart Smith or John Guy. “I will always compete in the Ryland. For as long as I can stand.”
Being a relatively new member of the club, I wasn’t aware that Janet was once the Broadwas club captain – filling the role for a year until John Guy came forward to take over the job permanently. Janet said that in the past, the club captain looked after all of the teams, whereas now, each team has its own captain. Janet was once also the captain of the Broadwas Level Play Golf team for three years.
Janet has also been involved over the years in running club tournaments, like the Veteran’s competition.
Janet describes John Guy as the ‘soul’ of the club. At the time she said “It would have been very difficult for the club to have continued without him.”
I reminded Janet of our first interaction. I played against her in the Ryland tournament. Within a few minutes of starting our game, Janet sportingly chastised me for not using my marbles. She recalled “Yes, yes. You weren’t using them. You CANNOT finish the game with marbles in your pocket.” That was me told!
Janet doesn’t consider herself to be highly competitive but likes to play as well as she can. She has many interests, like Bridge, but she is particularly passionate about the garden. She and Josie are keen travellers especially to France and Italy. They are avid about art and complete a lot of art courses online. When I interviewed her, Janet had just taken up needlepoint. “I don’t like sitting in front of the television not doing anything,” she told me. Janet and Josie have two Italian Greyhounds, which are a great joy. “I have been very fortunate through my life and owe a lot to the pleasure the horse and the hound have given me. Not to forget my rescue Goffin Cockatoo named Samuel Sancerre after the white wine – I have had him for 40 years. He flies free in the garden and is likely to outlive me!”
Although she is open to new ideas in croquet, one that doesn’t appeal is advantage handicap play. “Giving somebody a hoop which they may never have won…I find that decidedly nuts!”
Paul Felton