The club held its 2025 awards lunch at The Bell Inn, Lower Broadheath on Tuesday.
Wonderfully organised by the club’s Social Secretary Paula Armstrong, the event attracted 48 members who enjoyed a two-course lunch in the Bell’s largest dining room. The hampers which were up for raffle, were crammed with high quality goods generously donated by club members. Stuart Smith said that the raffle had raised an estimated £400 for the club.
Addressing attendees, Club Chair Fran Wall said ‘This lunch is a celebration of our great successes this year. First are our successes in external competitions. We had four major wins and two second positions as well as our “pièce de résistance” – playing in the European Golf Croquet final – truly outstanding achievements and unprecedented at Broadwas. What fantastic results.”
Fran said he felt that a factor that must have contributed to the success of the club was down to the influence of the club’s coaches and team captains. He said The coaching seminar last winter was a first and raised the bar, with the coaches continuing with targeted guidance, instruction and practice, practice, practice.’ Fran drew the attention of member to the coaching seminar being held at Broadwas Village Hall on February 24th in the new year.
Fran also spoke about the prospect of a £20,000 grant from Malvern Hills District Council. Although not yet confirmed, the money would help in obtaining a new mower as well as two new secure containers to house equipment and workshop. Fran thanked John Steele and Stuart Smith for their work in securing the grant.
Fran thanked everyone who works behind the scenes at the club including the white-lining and mowing teams as well as the members who clean the pavilion and Jackie Guy who stocks the clubhouse with refreshments. He also thanked those who run internal competitions and the coaches, team captains and committee members. Fran gave special thanks to Paula for organising the lunch and raffle and to The Bell for accommodating the event at short notice.
Fran encouraged members to volunteer to help around the club. He said ‘There are many things to do, either as part of a team or individually. Help is always appreciated with making cakes for roll-ups, joining a mowing team once a month, helping the cleaning team or joining a mowing team or the committee. The club has an equal number of males and females, but the females are woefully underrepresented on the committee. So ladies, if you want to rebalance this, please consider volunteering. We need you. If you feel you could help with any of these tasks or join the committee speak to me, John Guy, Paula or anyone on the committee.’
Before announcing award winners, Club Captain John Guy said ‘Thirty of you represented the club playing in League matches this year, and a further 14 were involved in internal competitions so all together 44 of you were competing for trophies. I would like to add my congratulations to every who played in these events this year.’
The award winners are pictured below, but John gave special mention to Jeff Faulkner, who came third in the B-Level GC tournament at Broadwas and to David Harington and Peter Hill, who both qualified for and played in the All England GC semi-finals at Bath.
This year, the club has introduced three new trophies.
The trophy for the first ever club AC Player Of The Year was awarded to Ian Dampney.
The trophy for the GC Player Of The Year was awarded to Malcolm Armstrong.
A special award made this year for the first time is the club’s “Extra Mile Award.” Potential recipients were nominated and voted on by club members. Malcolm Armstrong, who proposed the introduction of the award told attendees ‘The award celebrates, recognises and values the culture of our croquet community.’
Announcing the award winners, Fran said that citations from members outlined that the winners Barry Kirby and Jim Dryden (a pair Fran nicknamed The Night Sprinklers) worked day and night to provide us with well-watered lawns throughout the long hot summers. Others stated that Jim and Barry “come and go without so much as a grumble” while another said that ‘Without them, the lawns would have been in a dreadful state.’ It was noted that the lawns had been admired by the members of visiting clubs.
Well done to Paula for arranging the awards lunch and congratulations to all the winners who worked hard all through the 2025 season.
And personal thanks for the special ‘press’ award given to the Other Bloke, for going to Brighton to cover the European Club final. It’s the first time he’s ever been described as a ‘groupie.’ (Obviously that came from John Guy!).
Armstrong.
Wood.
Paul Felton