The club held its annual one-ball Ryland Trophy competition at Stoney Ley on Tuesday.
Always a popular internal event, the tournament attracted sixteen players this year – all keen to pursue hoops with just the one croquet ball each at their disposal, in games lasting just twenty minutes. If you really want to learn what playing with ‘reasonable despatch’ means, this is the competition to enter in 2027.
The competition, which still uses marbles to iron out handicap differences, was organised again by Jean Faulkner, with organisational assistance given by club captain John Guy, competitors each played ten multiple rigidly timed singles games over all five lawns. Assisting with organisation and timekeeping was club coach Jeff Faulkner who was also on hand to referee.
Because of the rate at which play proceeds and the fact that there were two games proceeding on most lawns, players sometimes had to choose very quickly which hoop they would contest next so that delays were avoided. There is no ‘hoop in order’ in the John Ryland tournament!
The John Ryland Memorial Trophy was donated in memory of John Ryland, an original founder member of Broadwas Croquet Club. This year’s tournament was postponed in July because of the extreme heat.
After some spirited croquet played by all of the enthusiastic entrants, Fran Wall emerged as the overall winner, with John Guy as runner-up. (The final leaderboard can be found below).
Players were refreshed with wine and cake at the end of the afternoon. Many thanks to those like Alison Disley, who contributed cakes to mark the end of the day. Apologies to anyone not mentioned.
Many thanks again to Jean Faulkner for organising a most enjoyable day and to John Guy and Jeff Faulkner for their assistance. The playing order sheets produced by John looked like something Albert Einstein would have had to create in order to come up with the Theory of Relativity!
It’s well worth thinking about entering the competition next season. It’s a fun day, you get to know a wide range of other members and it doesn’t matter if you lose! Nothing is entered on your handicap card! Give it some thought.
Paul Felton