Author: editor

The club held another highly enjoyable annual competition when the over-80’s took to the Stoney Ley lawns for the Annual Veteran’s Trophy. Two blocks of our most experienced players fought all day in glorious sunshine to finally whittle down the field for a climactic final between holder of the trophy, Eileen Holt and Gerry Stevens. The tournament was organised by Janet Bedford and Josie Watson and was eventually won by Eileen, for the second year running. Gill Brooks pipped John Steel for third place, behind runner-up Gerry.

Broadwas Croquet Club’s Jon Carrington, who only took up the sport two years ago, has qualified for the finals of a national Golf Croquet tournament.

Jon, of Lower Broadheath, first held a croquet mallet in August 2021, but has just secured a place in the GC B-Level (3+) Series final, by recently winning regional finals at Ashby and Nailsea. Jon’s four wins in regional tournaments made him the highest rated player so far in the competition. In his two years as a member of Broadwas Croquet Club, Jon has reduced his handicap to one. He will take part in the tournament final on September 2^nd and 3^rd at Compton, Eastbourne.

Jon Carrington in action during the Barber Trophy final, with partner Chloe Ballard.

Chloe Ballard hoops during the Barber Trophy final, pictured with finalists Stuart Smith and Catherine Lane and winning partner, Jon Carrington.

Club Captain John Guy announces the winners, pictured with Janet Barber.

Jon Carrington and Chloe Ballard receive the trophy from Janet Barber.

On 17th August 2023, 24 members gathered to contest the annual doubles competition at Broadwas, competing for the John Barber Trophy. The trophy is named in honour of John Barber who was a founder member of the croquet club and did huge amounts of work over the following 20 years, helping to lift the club from a small village gathering to a club that won national trophies.
The entrants had been drawn into pairs a month before the event, but now were divided into 2 blocks of 6 by random draw. Each team would play the other 5 teams in their block with the winners of each block competing in the final.
The ‘Black block’ was keenly contested and going into the final round of matches 3 teams were still in contention with 3 wins out of 4 – Eileen Holt and Jackie Guy; Ian Lambert and David Harington; Stuart Smith and Catherine Lane. Ian/David and Stuart/Catherine both managed to win their games giving both pairs 4 wins out of 5 but Stuart and Catherine were declared block winners as they had defeated Ian and David in a previous round.
The ‘Red block’ was also very keenly contested. Again 3 teams (Jon Carrington/Chloe Ballard; Peter Hill/Chris Croft and Jim and Mary Dryden) were in contention to win the block. This time Jon/Chloe and Peter/Chris managed to win their games but Jon/Chloe took top spot with 4 wins out of 5 whereas Peter/Chris had 3 wins and 1 draw.
So the final was Jon and Chloe v Stuart and Catherine. This was a titanic struggle with a lot of excellent shots but eventually Jon managed to run hoop 12 to triumph 7 – 5. This was the second year in succession that Chloe had won, each time with a different partner.
Janet Barber presented the trophy to the winning pair.
Huge congratulations to Jon and Chloe but also well done to Stuart and Catherine in silver medal position – I have to add special congratulations to Catherine who got through 6 games in the day at the age of 88!! An example for us all to try to follow.
A good day was had by all present and the weather stayed fine. Chloe earned an extra reward as her handicap was cut from 10 to 8 and Catherine also went from 10 to 9.
John Guy 18/8/23

John Guy hoops another blue during his win against Eardisley’s David White.

Gill Brooks takes another hoop during her 16-12 win over Eardisley’s John Lee.

Stuart Smith in action during his game against Tony Johnston

Ian Dampney hoops a red during his win against Eardisley’s Jen Johnston

On 9^th August the Broadwas team of Stuart Smith (handicap 4.5), Ian Dampney (7), Gill Brooks (20) and captain John Guy (5), welcomed Eardisley to the Broadwas lawns in the latest match in the West Midlands Association Croquet League. Broadwas were undefeated in this league and were very keen to keep up this run of good results.

Eardisley’s team comprised of Tony Johnston (7), Jen Johnston (14), David White (14) and John Lee (18), so Broadwas often had to face a lot of bisques.

In the morning session Stuart faced John Lee and, despite having to give away 13.5 bisques went ahead early on and ran out a comfortable winner by 26 – 9. The other 2 games were much tighter, with Broadwas holding narrow leads throughout until eventually, when time was called, Ian had beaten Tony 18 – 14 and the doubles pairing of John Guy and Gill triumphed by 17 – 11. So, at lunch Broadwas were ahead 3 – 0 and only needed one more win to record a victory.

The afternoon session involved 4 games of singles – Stuart took on Tony, John Guy played David, Ian played Jen and Gill played John Lee. Some of the Broadwas players faced a lot of bisques particularly Ian who has 8 bisques against him and John Guy who faced 9 bisques. Even Stuart had to give away 2.5.

Half way through the afternoon these bisques looked to be working well for Eardisley and Stuart, Ian and John Guy were trailing by large margins. Only Gill was giving Broadwas hope by inching ahead of John Lee. Stuart could never really get going and lost to Tony 6 – 26 well before the 3 hour time limit was reached. However, as the bisques started to run out, both John Guy and Ian started to claw back in their games. With 15 minutes left on the clock John went ahead for the first time and kept his cool to record a 21 – 16 victory. Ian left it even later and only went ahead on his penultimate turn to record a very narrow 21 – 20 victory. Meanwhile Gill had been keeping her nose in front and she also triumphed 16 – 12. So overall a very good victory by 6 games to 1 keeping the Broadwas winning run going.

The final Broadwas match in this league is due to take place at Kenilworth on 29^th August. Both Broadwas and Kenilworth are unbeaten so the winners will take the league title.

John Guy 10/8/23

The Broadwas heats of the national B and C level Golf Croquet tournaments were held on 2nd and 3rd August 2023. The heats attracted entries from many parts of the country including East Anglia, the South coast and the London area, as well as more local entries from the Broadwas club itself and also other areas of the Midlands. In fact the tournament could be called International as, on each day, there was an entrant from Switzerland.
Despite the weather predictions of continuous rain, the players on both days were only interrupted briefly by occasional showers for which they were very grateful.
The B level tournament attracted 20 entries who were split into 5 blocks of 4 where all played all in each block. After the blocks were complete the top 8 players went into the ‘Main event’, the next 8 into the ‘Plate’ and the remaining 4 into the ‘Tin’.
Local knowledge seemed to help as in the final of the Main event Fran Wall (from Broadwas) overcame Jon Carrington (also Broadwas) by 7 -5 in a close contest. The Plate was won by Colin Spencer from Downham and the ‘Tin’ by Raymond Morel our Swiss entrant.
The following day the C level had attracted 16 entries, so these were split into 4 blocks of 4. After the blocks the top 8 went into the ‘Main event’ and the remaining players into the ‘Plate’.
Again local knowledge helped, with Jeff Faulkner (Broadwas) winning the Main event 7 – 5 against Peter Martell (Cheltenham). The Plate was won by Lisa Furnival from Eynsham.
Congratulation to Fran Wall and Jeff Faulkner who qualify for the national finals of the B and C level tournaments respectively.
Broadwas Croquet Club hope all entrants enjoyed their day and look forward to hosting the events again next year.
John Guy 4-8-23

Broadwas newcomer Billy Cooke in action during his game against Sue Constance-Baker, from Taunton Dean, in the C-Level tournament.

6. Broadwas’ Jean Faulkner in action with a jump shot in the third round of the C-Level tournament.

1. Cheltenham’s Peter Martell looks on as Jeff Faulkner scores a hoop with his jump shot, during his 7-5 win in the C-Level final.

Participants in the C-Level tournament at Broadwas, pictured with winner Jeff Faulkner (centre) and tournament organiser Jon Carrington (centre, back row).

Fran Wall, winner of B level, being presented with his trophy by Jeff Faulkner who organised the event.

The Club’s annual pig roast was held on Friday 28th July and was blessed with glorious sunshine. We all enjoyed a splendid roast, followed by delicious deserts. We also celebrated the 100th birthday of our oldest member, Will Drake. Stuart Smith, our past club chairman, presented Will with his own bench which will take pride of place outside the club pavilion. After the presentation we took advantage of the ideal playing conditions and club captain John Guy introduced members to John Guy’s one ball thing.

The pig roast under way at Stoney Ley

Former club chairman (and Will’s son-in-law) Stuart Smith addresses the crowd at the pig roast.

Will tries out his bench, with great grandchildren Bay Barnett  and Margot

 

Broadwas recently hosted Swindon Croquet Club in a South West Federation’s Golf Croquet Handicap League match. Broadwas won the match by 12 – 8 on an unusually sunny July day, closely following the club’s win over Himley in the West Midlands Level Play Golf Croquet League.

On Wednesday 26th July 2023, the Broadwas team of Stuart Smith, Roger Wood, Jon Carrington and John Guy welcomed Himley to the Broadwas lawns for their final game of the season in the West Midlands Level Play Golf Croquet League. Although neither team was in a position to win the league, a competitive match was still anticipated as whoever won the match would finish second in the league.

Jon Carrington was making his debut in this league, and it was good to see Roger Wood playing again after knee surgery. Roger had come into the team as replacement for Billy Nicholson who had to drop out at the eleventh hour due to Covid.

The format in this league is that all players play singles games against all four opponents, and this is followed by a round of doubles resulting in 18 games in total.

Broadwas roared out of the blocks, and after the first 2 rounds of singles had burst into a 7 – 1 lead. Himley had trouble getting used to the Broadwas lawns, and could only win another 2 games, leaving Broadwas 15 – 3 winners at the end of play.

All the games were played at an excellent pace, meaning all the matches were completed by about 2:15, which was great news for all involved as the rain started almost immediately afterwards.

Well done to all the team all of whom contributed to this win – Stuart Smith won all his matches but particular mention of Jon Carrington who also won all his matches on his debut, which meant his handicap reduced to 2. Well done Jon!!!

John Guy

Despite a mid-match downpour, the club’s annual High Bisque 2023 tournament resulted in a great final between Janet Barber, Broadwas Croquet Club’s longest serving member and Billy Cooke, one of the club’s newest members. Despite Billy having played in only three rollups previously, he won all of his group stage games to eventually beat 10-handicap Janet in the final.

Billy Cooke receiving the High Bisque cup from joint organiser Janet Bedford, pictured with runner-up Janet Barber.

Billy Cooke scoring the 3^rd hoop during the High Handicap final against Janet Barber.

Billy Cooke receives the High Bisque cup from joint organiser Janet Bedford, pictured with (from left) Josie Watson (joint organiser), Gwen Cooke, Janet Barber (runner-up) and Vivien Ellis.

Overcast and moist weather did little to dampen the enthusiasm of competitors in the club’s annual Ryland Trophy competition held on Tuesday 4th July. Winner of the high-speed one-ball singles competition is Stuart Smith, seen receiving the trophy from club Chairman Fran Wall. Runner up was Janet Bedford (front row, second right) and third placed was Billy Nicholson (back row, fifth from right).